Twelfth sign:

The following three examples, related to the eleventh sign, are very significant.

First example: As established through all interpreters' meticulous verification and all Traditionists' reports, the verse: When you threw, it was not you that threw, but God threw (8:17), refers to the following incident: During the Battle of Badr, God's Messenger took a handful of soil and pebbles and threw them at the unbelievers' army, saying: "May your faces be deformed." That handful of soil entered each unbeliever's eyes, and "May your faces be deformed" was heard by each one. They consequently became preoccupied with their eyes and had to retreat, although they had launched the attack.[1] The Traditionists, most notably Imam Muslim, report that the same incident happened during the Battle of Hunayn. As a result, and by God's Power and permission, each one was hit in the face by a handful of soil and had to flee the battlefield, being preoccupied with their eyes.[2]

As these extraordinary events are beyond human capacity and material causes, the Qur'an declares: When you threw, it was not you that threw, but God threw (8:17).

Second example: Reliable Traditionists, above all Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim, report that after the Battle of Khaybar a Jewess roasted a goat, poisoned it, and sent it to the Messenger. His Companions had just begun to eat it when God's Messenger suddenly said: "Withdraw your hands! It tells me that it is poisoned." Everyone stopped eating except Bishr ibn al‑Bara', who had taken a morsel of it and later died because of the poison. God's Messenger sent for the Jewess (Zaynab). When asked why she had done it, she said: "I thought that if you were a Prophet it would not harm you, and that if you were a king it would save the people from you."[3]]

Consider the following point, which adds to the miraculousness of this extraordinary event: According to one report, some Companions also heard the goat speaking. The Jews had attempted to harm God's Messenger and his close Companions at the same time. However, the Prophet's warning proved true and their plot was unveiled and foiled. When the Prophet, whose Companions never heard an untrue statement from him, said: "This goat tells me that...," everyone believed him with the same certainty as if they had heard the goat themselves.

[1] Majma' al-Zawa'id, 6:84; related by Abu Dawud, Ibn Hanbal, and Bayhaqi.

[2] Muslim, no. 1775.

[3] Abu Dawud, Muqaddima, 11; Bukhari, 2:121; Hakim, 3:219; Darimi, 1:35; Ibn Hanbal, 1:305; Bayhaqi, 6:256.