9

When you sought help from your Rabb, asking Him to help you by granting you victory over them, and He answered you [saying]: 'I shall reinforce you, I shall assist you, with a thousand angels, rank upon rank', one rank following after the next: Allahu ta’ālā promised them this [number] at first, but it then became three thousand, and then five thousand, as stated in [sūrat] āl 'Imrān [Q. 3:124-125] (a variant reading [of alf, 'thousand'] has the plural āluf, 'thousands',¹ similar [in pattern] to aflus, 'coins').