morning came they hastened to the Messenger of Allah —may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—each man hoping to receive it. He asked, “Where is ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib?” They said, “Messenger of Allah, he is suffering from his eyes.” He replied, “Send for him.” He was brought, and the Messenger of Allah spat into his eyes and prayed for him; they were restored as though no pain had ever touched them. The Prophet then placed the banner in his hand. ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “Messenger of Allah, shall I fight them until they become like us?” He answered, “Advance calmly until you set foot in their courtyard; then invite them to Islam and inform them of what Allah’s right upon them entails. For, by Allah, if Allah guides a single man through you, that is better for you than a whole herd of red camels.” Agreed upon.

[Explanation]
His statement, “Tomorrow I will give the banner to a man through whose hands Allah will grant victory; he loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him,” contains both a general glad tiding and a particular one. The general glad tiding lies in his words, “Allah will grant victory through his hands,” while the particular one is found in, “He loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him.”

Khaybar consisted of farms and fortresses owned by the Jews, roughly one hundred miles northwest of Medina. They lived there just as another group of them had settled inside the city itself. The Jews read in the Torah that a prophet would be sent whose place of emigration would be the city—known in the ancient scripture as Yathrib, though he forbade calling it Yathrib—and that he would emigrate there, fight, and prevail over his enemies. They knew this to be true,