He then went on to say, “O Allah, Revealer of the Book, Dispatcher of the clouds, Vanquisher of the confederates—vanquish them and grant us victory over them.” This is a supplication the combatant should recite when he comes face-to-face with the enemy.

In it the Prophet ﷺ invokes Allah by means of both scriptural and cosmic signs.

1. “Revealer of the Book”: here he appeals to the sending down of the Book—principally the Noble Qur’an, though the wording is generic and thus embraces every scripture Allah has sent to Muhammad and to the earlier messengers.

2. “Dispatcher of the clouds”: this is a cosmic sign. The clouds that drift between heaven and earth move only by Allah’s command. Were all the nations on earth, with all their machinery and equipment, to unite in an attempt to set them in motion or alter their course, they would never succeed. The only One who moves them is He who, when He wills a thing, merely says to it, “Be!” and it is.

3. “Vanquisher of the confederates”: Allah alone routs the confederate forces. A case in point is the Battle of the Confederates (al-Ahzab), when more than ten thousand fighters massed around Madinah to fight the Messenger ﷺ. Yet Allah declared, “Allah turned back those who disbelieved in their rage, having gained no good” (Al-Ahzab 25). He sent against them a wind and unseen hosts that shook them, tipped over their cooking pots, tore down their tents, and left them unable to hold their ground—a fierce, icy, easterly wind that finally drove them away.

Allah further says, “Allah turned back those who disbelieved in their rage, having gained no good, and Allah spared the believers from fighting” (Al-Ahzab 25). Thus Allah is the Vanquisher of the confederates; it is not