And the two of them—al-Bukhārī and Muslim—also relate on the authority of Zayd ibn Khālid who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in the dawn prayer at al-Hudaybiyyah after rain had fallen during the night. When he finished, he turned to the people and said, “Do you know what your Lord has said?” They replied, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “He said: ‘This morning some of My servants have arisen as believers in Me while others arose as deniers. Whoever said, ‘We have been given rain by the favor and mercy of Allah,’ is a believer in Me and a denier of the stars. But whoever said, ‘We were given rain by such-and-such a constellation,’ is a denier of Me and a believer in the stars.’” (1)

The two compilers also transmit a report from Ibn ʿAbbās with the same purport, in which someone remarked, “Such-and-such a constellation has told the truth,” whereupon Allah revealed the verse: “But no! I swear by the setting places of the stars…” up to His saying, “that you deny.”

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Biographical note on Zayd ibn Khālid: He was al-Juhani of Madinah, a well-known Companion.

ṣallā lanā: that is, he led us in prayer; the preposition lām here functions like the bāʾ “with.”

al-Hudaybiyyah: a village named after a well there, one stage-journey from Mecca, now called al-Shumaysī.

ithr (with a kasrah on the hamza): what immediately follows something.

samāʾ: rain, so called because it descends from the sky, which in Arabic refers to anything situated above.