there after the Prophet’s passing, and dwelled in Syria; he died in 54 AH in the city of Ḥimṣ.

“zawā lī al-arḍ” (He folded the earth for me): Allah compressed it and gathered it together like a palm laid flat before a mirror, allowing the Prophet ﷺ to look upon it and behold the territories his community would one day rule, from the farthest eastern horizons to the farthest western horizons.

“mā zuwiya lī minhā” (whatever was folded for me of it): the verb zuwiya can be read in the active voice or the passive.

“al-kanzayn” (the two treasures): the treasure of Chosroes, king of Persia, and the treasure of Caesar, king of Rome.

“al-aḥmar” (the red): a reference to Caesar’s treasure, for gold predominated among the Romans.

“al-abyaḍ” (the white): a reference to Chosroes’s treasure, for jewels and silver predominated among the Persians. The words “the red” and “the white” are in the accusative as appositives.

“bisannah” (with a famine): the word sanah denotes drought.

“biʿāmmah” (a sweeping [famine]): an adjective describing sanah; the report is transmitted both with and without the preposition bi-, meaning a general drought that brings universal destruction.

“min siwā anfusihim” (from outside themselves): that is, from other unbelievers.

“bayḍatahum” (their stronghold): said to mean their homeland and the lands they control; others say it refers to their main body and core.

“ḥattā yakūna baʿḍuhum yuhlaku baʿḍan” (until some of them begin to destroy others): i.e., until such mutual destruction appears among them, at which point Allah will set their enemies from among the disbelievers over them.

“al-aʾimmah al-muḍillīn” (misguided leaders): rulers, scholars, or ascetics whom people take as exemplars.

“wa-idhā waqaʿa ʿalayhim al-sayf” (when the sword is unleashed upon them): meaning when civil strife and fighting break out among them.

“lam yurfaʿ ilā yawm al-qiyāmah” (it will not be lifted until the Day of Resurrection): that turmoil and fighting will persist among them until the end of time.