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AL-AHZAB (the Confederates) INVASION
Once again, peace and security enveloped the Arabian Peninsula and this turbulent area began to
experience a period of lull after a whole year warJews, however, whose treachery, intrigues and .
The disloyalty made them taste all types of humiliation and disgrace, were not admonished. After
they had been exiled to Khaibar, they remained waiting anxiously for the results of the skirmishes
going on between the Muslims and the idolaterstheir hopes, the events of the war were in favour of
the Muslims, . Contrary to therefore they started a new stage of conspiracy and prepared
themselves to deal a deadly blow against the Muslims, but were too cowardly to manoeuvre directly
against them, so they laid a dreadful plan in order to achieve their objectivesof the Jews with some
celebrities of Bani Nadir went to Makkah to . Twenty chiefs negotiate an unholy alliance with
Quraishgoad the people there to attack the Messenger of . They began to Allupon him) promising
them full support and backing. People of Quraish, who had been âh (Peace be languid and proved
too weak to challenge the Muslims at Badr, seized this opportunity to redeem their stained honour
and blemished reputationdelegation set out for Ghatfan, called them to do the . The same same,
and they responded positively. The Jewish delegation then started a fresh effort and toured some
parts of Arabia and managed to incite the confederates of disbelief against the Prophet (Peace be
upon him), his Message and the believers in AllKinanah and other allies from Tihama, in the south;
rallied, âh. Quraish, ranked and recruited four thousand men under the leadership of Abu Sufyan.
From the east there came tribes of Banu Saleem, Ghatfan, Bani Murrah, etc. They all headed for
Madinah and gathered in its vicinity at a time already agreed upongreat army of ten thousand
fighters. They in fact outnumbered all the Muslims in . It was a Madinah, women, lads and elders
includedtell the truth, if they had launched a surprise attack against . To Madinah, they could have
exterminated all the Muslimsthe leadership inside the city was on the . However, alert and the
intelligence personnel managed to reconnoitre the area of the enemies, and reported their
movement to the people in charge in Madinah. The Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him)
summoned a high advisory board and conducted a careful discussion of a plan to defend Madinah.
After a lengthy talk between military leaders and people possessed of sound advice, it was agreed,
on the proposal of an honourable Companion, Salman Al-Farisi, to dig trenches as defensive lines.
The Muslims, with the Prophet (encouraging, helping and reminding them of the reward in the
Hereafter, Peace be upon him) at their head, most actively and diligently started to build a trench
around Madinah. Severe hunger, bordering on starvation, could not dissuade or discourage them
from achieving their desperately sought objective. Salman said: O Messenger of Allâh! When siege
was to laid to us in Persia, we used to dig trenches to defend ourselves. It was really an
unprecedented wise plan. The Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) hurriedly gave orders to
implement the planeach group of ten to dig. Sahl bin Sa‘d said: We were in . Forty yards was
allocated to the company of the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him), the men used to dig and
we evacuate the earth on our backs.
Some preternatural Prophetic signs appeared in the process of trenching. Jabir bin ‘Abdullah, seeing
the Prophet (Peace be upon him) starving, slaughtered a sheep, cooked some barley and requested
the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and some Companions to accept his invitation, but the Prophet
(Peace be upon him) gathered all the thousand people engaged in digging the trench and they
started to eat until they were all completely full and yet the shoulder of mutton and dough that was
being baked remained as they were undiminished. A certain woman brought a handful of dates and
passed by the Prophet (Peace be upon him), who took the dates, threw them over his cloak and
invited his followers to eat. The dates began to increase in number until they dropped over the trim
of his robe. Another illustrious preternatural example went to the effect that an obstinate rock stood
out as an immune obstacle in the ditch. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) took the spade and
struck, and the rock immediately turned into a loose sand dune. In another version, Al-Bara‘ said:
On
Al-Khandaq
(the trench) Day there stood out a rock too immune for our spades to break up. We
therefore went to see the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) for advice. He took the spade,
and struck the rock uttering “in the Name of Allâh, Allâh is Great, the keys of Ash-Shâm
(Geographical Syria) are mine, I swear by Allâh, I can see its palaces at the moment;” on the
second strike he said: “Allâh is Great, Persia is mine, I swear by Allâh, I can now see the white
palace of Madain;” and for the third time he struck the rock, which turned into very small pieces, he
said: “Allâh is Great, I have been given the keys of Yemen, I swear by Allâh, I can see the gates of
San‘a while I am in my place.” The same version was narrated by Ishaq. The northern part of
Madinah was the most vu lnerable, all the other sides being surrounded by mountains and palm tree
orchards, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) as a skillful military expert, understood that the
Confederates would march in that direction, so the trench was ordered to be on that side. The
Muslims went on digging the trench for several days; they used to work on it during the day, and go
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