Note 255 — Chapter XII
David Shea translation
Koran, chap. VIII. v. 17. We have mentioned (p. 100, note 2) Muhammed’s victory gained at Bedr over a superior force of the Koreish. The prophet, by the direction of the angel Gabriel, took a handful of gravel, and threw it towards the enemy, saying: “May their faces be confounded:” whereupon they immediately turned their backs and fled. Hence the above passage is also rendered: “Neither didst thou, O Muhammed! cast the gravel into their eyes, when thou didst seem to cast it, but God cast it.”