9 Preface إِذ تَستَغيثونَ رَبَّكُم فَاستَجابَ لَكُم أَنّي مُمِدُّكُم بِأَلفٍ مِنَ المَلائِكَةِ مُردِفينَYusuf AliRemember ye implored the assistance of your Lord, and He answered you: “I will assist you with a thousand of the angels, ranks on ranks.”1Cf. 3:123, 125, 126. The number of angels, a thousand at Badr and three thousand and five thousand at Uḥud, is probably not to be taken literally, but to express a strength at least equal to the strength of the enemy.