18 – Al-Qāsim ibn Hāshim related to me; Abū al-Yamān narrated to us; Ṣafwān ⦗39⦘ ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of a group of elders, reported that Ḥabīb ibn Maslama considered it commendable, whenever he encountered an enemy or moved to storm a fortress, to say: la ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā billāh (“There is no might and no power except with Allah”). On one occasion he advanced against a fortress; the Romans were put to flight and barricaded themselves in another of their strongholds, one that had previously defied him. When the Muslims recited the formula, the fortress split apart.