He said ‘God forbid ma‘ādha’Llāhi lit. ‘refuge is with God’ is in the accusative because it is a verbal noun the verb having been omitted and placed in a genitive annexation with its direct object in other words understand it as na‘ūdhu bi’Llāhi ‘we seek refuge with God’ that we should take anyone save him with whom we found our property — he did not say ‘save him who stole our property’ being careful not to lie; for then truly — if we were to take anyone other than him — we would be evildoers’.
