Alī ibn Mūsā and al-Ma’mūn. This account admits of only two possibilities: either it is a fabrication, or it stems from the ignorance of the person who issued that legal opinion.

For if someone says, “I owe him many dirhams,” “By Allah, I shall certainly give so-and-so many dirhams,” or “I shall certainly give many dirhams in charity,” none of the Muslim scholars construes this as meaning eighty-three.

The argument cited is invalid for several reasons:

The first is that the claim that the battlefields comprised twenty-seven military campaigns and fifty-six expeditions is incorrect. According to the unanimous agreement of the scholars of prophetic biography, the Prophet—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him—did not personally take part in twenty-seven military campaigns, but in fewer than that (1).

The second is that this verse was revealed on the day of Hunayn, and Allah had spoken (2) of what had occurred before then. Therefore, the events preceding it must themselves have constituted many battlefields. After the day of Hunayn came the military campaign of al-Tā’if and the military campaign of Tabūk, and many of the expeditions occurred after [the day of] (3)