THE BATTLE OF TRENCHES, or of Clans [1] as it is sometimes called, took place in the month of Shawwal, 5 AH. The battle was accompanied by great difficulties and was overcome with comparable courage. It forged and tested the fortitude and patience of the Muslims, which was to prove of immense benefit to them not only in winning over the Arabian Peninsula to their faith but also in taking their message to distant lands. It was a decisive conflict between Islam and non-Islam, between light and darkness, whereby the Muslims were put to the most severe trial, worse than anything they had faced before.
When they came upon you from above you and from below you, and when eyes grew wild and hearts reached to the throats, and you were imagining vain thoughts concerning Allah. There the believers were sorely tried, and shaken with mighty shock.”[2]
The Jews were the real instigators of hostilities leading to the Battle of Trenches. Certain persons belonging to Banū Nadir and Banū Wā’il, who made no secret of their desire to see the Muslims uprooted, called upon the Quraysh at Makkah and invited them to extirpate the Muslims altogether. At first, the Quraysh did not show much interest in the venture, for they had already twice measured swords with the Muslims, but the Jews painted a rosy picture of the affair and promised support of all the Jewish settlements in Arabia for getting rid of the Muslims once and for all. The Quraysh ultimately agreed to their suggestion. The Jewish deputation then went to the great desert tribe of Ghatafān and urged them to join in the expedition for the destruction of Yathrib. They called upon all the clans of Ghatafān, assiduously inviting them to join Quraysh in their combined drive against Islam. [3]
An alliance was thus formed between the Quraysh, the Jews, and Ghatafān to wage a total war against the Muslims. An important clause of the agreement made for the venture was that Ghatafān would muster six thousand soldiers for the military operations, while the Jews would give them a whole year’s harvest of Khaybar to compensate for the expenses they would incur. The Quraysh, on their part, agreed to contribute four thousand combatants. An army ten thousand strong was thus mobilized, and Abū Sufyān assumed command of the combined force. [4]
WISDOM: A LOST PROPERTY OF THE MUSLIMS
When the Prophet heard news of their design to wipe the Muslims out of existence, he conferred with his Companions on how to meet the threat. It was decided to fight a defensive war, resisting the enemy’s attack on the city rather than facing the coalition in a pitched battle outside Madīnah. The Apostle assembled a force of three thousand men-at-arms for the defense of the city.
It was the Persian Companion, Salmān al-Fārasī, who advised the Muslims to dig a trench on the side of Madīnah that lay open to cavalry attack. This device was well known to the Iranians. [5] Salmān is reported to have said: “O Apostle of God, when we feared a charge by the cavalry, we would dig trenches to keep the invaders at bay.” The Apostle agreed to his suggestion and decided to have a trench dug in the open ground lying to the north of Madīnah. The city was exposed only on that side and was well protected to the west, south, and east by dense plantations, rock-strewn volcanic plains, and granite hills, presenting a considerable obstacle to the progress of a mounted army. [6]
The Apostle marked the planned ditch and assigned forty cubits of digging to every batch of ten men. [7] The length of the trench was about five thousand cubits, its depth varied between seven and ten cubits, and the width was around nine cubits or a little more. [8]
ENTHUSIASM AND THE CO-OPERATIVE SPIRIT
The Apostle himself helped the parties dig the portions of trench allotted to them. Although the winter season that had set in was extremely harsh [9] and the impoverished Muslims had but little provisions to satisfy their pangs of hunger, the work proceeded smoothly owing to the enthusiasm and perseverance of the volunteers.
Abū Talhah relates that once, when he was exhausted by hunger, he complained to the Apostle and showed his belly to which he had tied a slab of stone to allay the hunger pangs. The Apostle of God then showed him his own belly, to which he had tied two slabs of rock. [10] But everybody was happy and cheerful despite these privations. The Apostles’ Companions sang songs of pride [11] and chanted praise to God to keep themselves busy in their task without a word of complaint on their lips.
Anas relates that once the Apostle came to the place where they were digging the trench. He saw the Ansār and the Mūhājirīn working hard to complete their work despite the biting cold of morning, for they had neither slaves nor servants to dig the trench for them. Seeing how they were laboring with their empty stomachs, the Prophet said: “O Allah, life is truly the life of the Hereafter; so pardon the Ansār and the Mūhājirīn.”
Overjoyed to hear the Apostle invoking forgiveness for them, the people present there said in reply:
It is we who have pledged to Muhammad,
To fight in Jihād till the spark of life is imbued. [12]
Anas further says that if one of them happened to procure a handful of barley, he would grind and mix it with a little fat to be shared by all, even if its smell and taste were disagreeable.
MIRACLE PREDICTING A BRIGHT FUTURE
A large rock was causing great difficulty in digging the trench, for it could not be broken by the pick. When the Apostle was informed, he dropped down into the trench and gave such a blow with the pick that one-third of the rock was hewn asunder. Thereupon, the Prophet said, “Glory be to God, the keys of Syria have been given to me.” With the second blow of the pick, the Prophet broke off another third of the rock and said, “Glory be to God, the keys of Persia have been given to me. By God, I see the white castle of Madā’in (Ctesiphon).” In the third attempt, the remaining portion of the rock was broken into pieces. The Apostle then said, “Glory be to God, I have been given the keys of Yemen. By God, I can now see the gate of Şan’ā.” [13]
At the time when this prediction was made, no prophecy could be more remote from the way things were. The Muslims were then emaciated by a meager diet and bleak weather, and the army advancing against the not too well-fortified city was threatening to deal a death blow to its defenders.
SOME MORE MIRACLES
The Companions of the Prophet witnessed a number of miracles while digging the trench. Whenever any party felt a difficulty owing to the existence of any rock which could not be broken or removed by them, the Apostle called for some water and put a little of his saliva into it; then he prayed as God willed him to pray, and ordered to have the water be sprinkled on the rock, which pulverized like a heap of sand. [14]
Very often, so they say, a little food sufficed for a large number of persons or even the entire army of three thousand workers. Jābir ibn Ṭbdillāh says: “When we were digging at the trench, a huge pile of rock appeared as an obstruction. The people went to the Apostle and told him that pieces of rock had obstructed their work. Saying, ‘I shall go down’, he stood up while he had a stone tied on his belly, for we had been three days without tasting any food. The Prophet then took the pick and struck it, and it became a mound of sand pouring down. I then took leave of the Prophet and went to my house. I asked my wife if she had anything, for I had seen the Prophet very hungry. “Yes”, said she, “I have a little barley, and we put the meat in a pot for cooking. When the meat was being cooked and the flour had been kneaded, I went to the Apostle and told him secretly that I had a little food for him, so that he might come over with one or two more persons. The Apostle asked me how much food I had, and I told him all I had, enough for the guests.
The Prophet replied, ‘It is good and sufficient.’ Then he asked me to go back and tell my wife not to take the pot off the stove or bake the dough until he arrived. The Apostle invited all the people, Ansār and Mūhājirīn, who came with him. I went back to my wife and told her that if she knew that the Apostle had invited all the people, Mühājirīn and Ansār, and everybody present there was coming with him. She asked, “Did the Prophet ask you about the food available?” I replied in the affirmative. Then the Apostle came and told the people to enter the house.
He took pieces of the loaves and, placing meat on them, gave them to the people one by one, and kept the oven and the pot covered with a cloth. In this way, he gave loaves and meat to all his Companions, until everyone had his fill. Then he asked me and my wife to take the food and give it to others, for we were also without food for a few days.” [15]
In another version of the incident related by Jābir, he went to the Apostle and told him in a whisper that he had slaughtered a ewe and had a little barley which had been ground, so that he might come with a few persons to partake in the food. But the Apostle said aloud, “You who are working at the trench, Jābir has prepared a banquet.”
THE FIERY ORDEAL
The Muslims had hardly finished work on the trench when Quraysh arrived and camped outside Madinah. They had ten thousand well-equipped warriors with them. Ghatafān had come with confederate tribes and made their camp with Quraysh. The Apostle assembled his three thousand men to face them, the trench intervening between the camps of the two armies. Banū Qurayzah, the Jewish tribe of Madinah, had made a treaty with the Apostle for the defense of the city. However, Huyayy ibn Akhtab, who was the chief of Banū Nadīr, deported earlier from the city, coaxed Banū Qurayzah into breaking the pledge made by them.
The Muslims were placed in a desperate position; an air of insecurity and fear enveloped the city. The faint-hearted hypocrites now showed their pale feathers, sowing seeds of discontent among the rank and file. The Prophet immediately realized the dangerous plight of the Muslims in general, and that of the Ansār, in particular, who had always had to bear the major brunt of war with the infidels. The Apostle, therefore, proposed that it might be worthwhile to make peace with Banū Ghatafān by giving them one-third of Madinah’s date harvest. The Apostle did not want the Ansār to have any more trouble for his sake. But Sa’d ibn Mu’ādh and Sa’d ibn ‘Ubādah, the two chiefs of Aws and Khazraj, did not agree to the suggestion. They said, “O Messenger of God, when we and Ghatafān were polytheists and idolaters, neither serving God nor knowing Him, they got none of our dates except as guests or by purchase. Shall we give them our property after God has honored us with Islam and your guidance? No, by Allah, we shall not give them anything but the sword until God decides between us.” “As you please,” replied the Prophet, and he gave up the idea. [16]
THE ACTUAL FIGHT
The army of the Prophet pitched its tents behind the trench and kept watch day and night. Beyond the trench, the Allied forces laid a siege of the city, but the stalemate continued for a few days without any actual fighting between the two armies. The enemy cavalry rode ahead and, on coming nearer, suddenly saw a wide ditch. The unexpected filled them with consternation.
“A novel device, a deceptive ploy,” they exclaimed in amazement. They asked one another how the ditch could be traversed and decided to go around the trench to find where it was most narrow. Some beat their horses so that they jumped over the moat and carried their riders into the territory of Madinah. One of these was the well-known warrior, Amr ibn Abū Wudd, who was considered a match for a thousand horsemen. After crossing the ditch, he stopped and challenged anyone to fight him.
‘Ali immediately sprang forward and said to him, “Amr, you declared to God that if a man of Quraysh offered you two alternatives you would accept one of them.”
“Yes, I did”, replied Amr.
“Then,” said ‘Ali, “I invite you to Allah and His Apostle and to Islam.”
‘Amr replied, “It’s of no use to me.”
“Then I call on you to face me”, rejoined ‘Ali.
“Why?” said ‘Amr, “O son of my brother, by God, I do not want to kill you.”
“However,” retorted ‘Ali, “I do want to kill you.”
‘Amr was flushed with anger. He dismounted his horse and hamstrung it and slapped its face, then he made for ‘Ali.’ Amr fought, joined with ‘Ali, made thrusts and parried, but ultimately ‘Ali cut off ‘Amr’s head with a sweeping slash of his scimitar. Two of his comrades who had stormed the trench with him, Nawfil Ibn Mughayrah being one of them, darted back on their horses.
THE ARDENT ZEAL OF MUSLIM WOMEN
‘Ā’ishah was then in the citadel of Banū Hārithah with other Muslim women, that was before the command of hijab (veiling) came down. She says that Sa’d ibn Mu’adh passed that way. He was putting on a coat of mail so small that his hands were fully exposed. He was reciting some verses when his mother told him to hurry up lest he should be late. ‘A’ishah said to his mother, “Umm Sa’d, by God, I wish that his coat of mail were longer.” The fear expressed by ‘A’ishah ultimately proved to be well justified, for Sa’d was hit by an arrow on his arm and died of excessive bleeding during the subsequent battle with Banū Qurayzah. [17]
DIVINE SUCCOUR
The siege continued for a month or so. The Muslims were hungry and weary, while the besieging army was fully provided with arms and provisions. The hypocrites showed their true colors, and many of them asked the Prophet’s permission to return to Madinah on the pretext that they had come in a hurry, leaving their houses unlocked. They simply wanted to pull out from the battlefront.
The Apostle and his Companions passed their days in a nervous strain, harassed by the enemy in front and worried by the menace of the Jews in the rear. Then, suddenly, one day, Nu’aym ibn Mas’ūd, who belonged to Ghatafan, came to the Apostle and told him that he had secretly embraced Islam, but his own people did not know of it. He also offered to do whatever he was bidden. The Prophet replied, “You are the only man there, so remain with them and try to help us, for war is but an artifice and deception.”
After taking leave of the Prophet, Nu’aym ibn Mas’ūd went off to Banū Qurayzah, with whom he talked in a way that they began to wonder whether they had taken a correct decision in abandoning the Muslims, their next-door neighbors, for the sake of the distant tribes like Quraysh and Ghatafan. He advised them that it would be wise for them to demand some notable members of Quraysh and Ghatafan chiefs as hostages before joining their fight, so that they would get a fair deal from their new allies. Banū Qurayzah expressed their gratefulness to Nu’aym for his excellent advice.
Nu’aym then went to the leaders of Quraysh and, after assuring them of his sincerity, told them that Banū Qurayzah were unhappy about taking sides with them. They were thinking of demanding some of their nobles as hostages, by way of security, on the pretext that the promise made to them by the allies would not be broken. He also said that Banū Qurayzah had actually sent word to Muhammad that they would hand over to him a few chiefs of the two tribes to prove their sincerity to him, so that he might cut off their heads. Nu’aym told the same story to Ghatafan as well.
The seeds of distrust thus sowed by Nu’aym between Banū Qurayyah, on the one hand, and Quraysh and the Ghatafan, on the other, made each cautious as well as suspicious of the other party. Abū Sufyan decided upon a general attack. When he tried to move the Jews to participate in the attack, they demanded hostages from Quraysh and Ghatafan before pulling together with them. The stratagem of Nu’aym ibn Mas’ūd proved a complete success. Quraysh and Ghatafan were convinced that the news brought by Nu’aym was entirely correct, and they promptly turned down the demand of the Jews. Banū Qurayyah, on their part, became dead sure that their allies were not sincere with them. The discouragement suffered by the allied forces smashed their unity and exhausted their patience.
Then, on a cold and cloudy night, a violent hurricane from the desert uprooted the tents of the nomads and overturned their cooking pots. The severe weather, sent by God, disheartened the enemy. Calling his men, Abū Sufyan said to them, “O Quraysh, it is no longer a fit place to camp here. Our horses have died, Banū Qurayyah have not kept faith with us, and we have heard dreadful tidings of them. You can see the havoc the gale has caused. We have neither a cooking pot in its place, nor a fire to light, nor a standing tent, nor yet a shelter to rely on. Get you gone, for I have decided to go.” Abū Sufyan then got up abruptly, went to his camel, which was hobbled, mounted it, and beat it, and he did not even free it from its hobble until it had stood up.
When Ghatafan learned that Quraysh had departed, they also vanished in the darkness of the desert.
Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamān, who had been sent by the Apostle to spy the movement of the enemy, returned with news of the enemy’s departure when the Prophet was offering prayers. He told the Apostle what he had seen [18]. No trace of the enemy was left by daybreak when the Apostle and the Muslims left their camp, not to the trench, but to their houses in Madinah, where they laid aside their arms. [19] This was a miracle worked by the mercy of God, as the Qur’ān says:
O you who believe! Remember Allah’s favor unto you when there came against you hosts, and We sent against them a great wind and hosts you could not see. And Allah is ever Seer of what you do. [20]
And Allah repulsed the disbelievers in their wrath. They gained no good. Allah averted their attack from the believers. Allah is Strong Mighty. [21]
And then the billowy clouds that had covered the heavens disappeared without any rainstorm or thunderbolt-leaving the sky of Madinah clear as ever. The Apostle said to his Companions, “The Quraysh shall not attack you again after this year, but you will attack them.” [22]
Seven Muslims gave their lives in the Battle of Trenches, while four of the infidels were killed by the Muslims.
***
[1] Ibn Hishâm, vol. 11, p. 214.
[2] Qur’an 33:10-11.
[3] Ibn Hishām, vol. II, pp. 214-15.
[4] Ibid., pp. 219-20.
[5] Khandaq, as the trench is called, is the Arabised form of the Persian Khandak and Kandah.
[6] The trench lay in the north of the city; its eastern end began at Harrat al-Wāqim and extended up to the valley of Bafyān, where the basalt plain of the west begins (Abd al-Quddās Ansāri, Athár al-Madīnah).
[7] Ibn Kathir, vol. III, p. 192 (a cubit measures somewhere between 43-56 cm; 17-22 in).
[8] Ghazwah Ajzāb by Ahmad Ba-Shum’il.
[9] Ibn Hishām, vol. II, p. 216.
[10] Mishkât al-Magābīh, vol. II, p. 418. It was a custom among the Arabs when they felt unbearable pangs of hunger to tie a slab of rock to their bellies in order to calm the sensation so that they were able to do their work.
[11] Called Rajz.
[12] Bukhari, Kitab al-Maghāzi, “Ghazwat al-Khandaq.”
[13] Ibn Kathīr, vol. III, p. 194.
[14] Ibn Hishām, vol. II, pp. 217-18.
[15] Bukhāri, “Bāb al-Khandaq.”
[16] Ibn Kathir, vol. III, pp. 202-3.
[17] Ibn Kathir, vol. III, p. 207.
[18] Muslim, “Ghazwatul Ajzab.”
[19] Ibn Kathir, vol. III, pp. 214-21.
[20] Qur’ān 33:9.
[21] Qur’ān 33:25.
[22] Ibn Kathir, vol.III, p. 221.
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