(Say: O Allah! Owner of Sovereignty!) [3:26]. Ibn 'Abbas and Anas ibn Malik said: “When the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, conquered Mecca and promised his nation the kingdoms of Persia and Byzantium, the hypocrites and Jews said: 'How far fetched! How far fetched! How on earth can Muhammad conquer the kingdoms of Persia and Byzantium? They are too mighty and strong for that. Are Mecca and Medina not enough for Muhammad that he covets the kingdoms of Persia and Byzantium?' And so Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse”. Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Marwazi informed in his epistle> Abu'l-Fadl Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Haddadi> Muhammad ibn Yahya> Ishaq ibn Ibrahim> Rawh ibn 'Ubadah> Sa'id> Qatadah who said: “It was mentioned to us that the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, requested Allah to grant his nation the kingdoms of Persia and Byzantium, and so Allah, exalted is He, revealed (Say: O Allah! Owner of Sovereignty!)”. The master Abu Ishaq al-Tha'alibi informed us> 'Abd Allah ibn Hamid al-Wazzan> Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Matiri> Hammad ibn al-Hasan> Muhammad ibn Khalid ibn 'Athmah> Kathir ibn 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn 'Awf> his father> his father who said: “On the day of the Confederates, the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, drew lines indicating where the Ditch was to be dug and he assigned ten men for every forty cubits. 'Amd ibn 'Awf said: 'Myself, Salman [al-Farisi], Hudhayfah [ibn al-Yaman] al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin al-Muzani and six men of the Helpers were assigned to dig forty cubits. We dug until we reached beneath Dhu Nab whereupon we came upon a rock of flint which broke our steel and proved extremely hard to break. And so we told Salman to go up and inform the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, about this rock and to consult him about either to go round it or command us something else about it, for we did not like going beyond the line he drew. So Salman went up to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, who had on him a Turkish collar. He said: 'O Messenger of Allah! We came across a white rock of flint inside the ditch which has broken our steel and proved very hard to break, for we did everything we could to break it but in vain.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
