Chosroes had torn his letter to pieces and ordered his arrest; and the words contain a clear prophecy that the power of both the Chosroes and the Caesar shall depart in their wars with the Muslims, so that there shall be neither a Persian empire under the Chosroes, nor a Roman empire under the Caesar. Evidently the concluding words “and he called war a deception” explain how the Chosroes and the Caesar will perish.

War is a deception, in the sense that sometimes a great power makes war upon a weaker power thinking that it will soon crush it, but such war proves a deception and leads to the destruction of the great aggressive power itself. This was what happened in the case of the wars of Persia and Rome against the Muslims. They both had entered upon an aggressive war against the Arabs, thinking that they would crush the rising power of Arabia in no time. They began by helping the tribes on the frontier of Arabia to overthrow the Muslim power, and were thus drawn into a war with the Muslims which ultimately crushed their own power. This is the explanation given in Bukhārī’s famous commentary, the ‘Ainī: “Whoever is deceived in it once (i.e. overthrown or defeated), he is exhausted and perished and is unable to return to his former condition” (Ai. VII, p. 66). Ibn Athīr gives three explanations, according as the word is read khad‘ah or khud‘ah or khuda‘ah, and in all three cases the meaning is almost the same as given in ‘Ainī. Taking the first reading which it calls the most correct and the best, the significance is thus explained: “In the first case the meaning is that the affair of the war is deceived with an overthrow; when the fighter is overthrown once, then he finds no respite” (N.). In the case of the third reading “the meaning is that the war deceives people; it gives them hope but does not fulfil them” (N.). It is only imperfect knowledge of the Arabic language which has led some people to think that this ḥadīth means that it is lawful to practice deception in war. The Islamic wars were in fact purified of all that is unworthy when the Muslims were plainly told that a war fought for any gain (which includes acquisition of wealth or territory) was not in the way of Allāh (Bu. 56:15). The Holy Qur’ān puts it still more clearly: “Let those fight in the way of Allāh who sell this world’s life for the Hereafter” (4:74).