The Battle of the Trench
Quraysh, Ghaṭafān, and their allies joined to uproot the Muslims and besieged Medina for about a month. The trench was dug on the counsel of Salmān al-Fārisī — the first such work the Arabs had used.
In brief
- Date
- Shawwāl, 5 AH — early 627 CE.
- Place
- North of Medina — its only exposed side; the rest was lava field and palm groves.
- The confederates
- About 10,000 fighters: Quraysh, Ghaṭafān, and their allies.
- The Muslims
- 3,000 — and they did not leave the city.
- The trench
- Some five thousand cubits long, dug in six days, the Prophet ﷺ digging and carrying earth with them.
- The end
- God sent a wind and unseen forces that tore up their tents, and they withdrew: “So We sent upon them a wind and forces you did not see.”
His story
When news of the confederacy reached the Prophet ﷺ he consulted his Companions, and Salmān al-Fārisī advised digging a trench to stop the cavalry — a thing the Arabs did not know. They dug, and the Prophet ﷺ carried earth with them until the dust covered him, reciting with them: “O God, there is no life but the life of the Hereafter; forgive the Anṣār and the Muhājirūn.”
The trial deepened when Banū Qurayẓa broke their covenant from within the city, so the Muslims stood between an enemy before them and treachery behind, their women and children in the towers. God described it: “When eyes shifted and hearts reached the throats.”
Then God sent a bitter wind on a dark night that overturned their pots and pulled down their tents, and Abū Sufyān withdrew in the night. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Now we go to them and they do not come to us” — and Quraysh never marched on Medina again.