The Battle of the Trench (al-Khandaq) غزوۂ خندق (غزوۂ احزاب)

In 5 AH (627 CE), leaders of the Banu an-Nadir, who had been expelled from Madinah for treachery, went to Makkah and to the tribes of Ghatafan and others, urging them to unite and destroy the Muslims once and for all. A great coalition was formed, the Ahzab (Confederates), numbering about ten thousand men, the largest army Arabia had seen. Madinah had only about three thousand fighters.

The seerah books report that Salman al-Farisi (RA) advised digging a trench across the open northern side of Madinah, a technique unknown to the Arabs. The Prophet ﷺ accepted, and the work began in bitter cold and severe hunger. The Prophet ﷺ himself dug and carried earth until dust covered his stomach, and he joined the companions as they chanted: "O Allah, there is no life except the life of the Hereafter, so forgive the Ansar and the Muhajirun." They replied: "We are those who have pledged to Muhammad to strive as long as we live."

Jabir ibn Abdullah (RA) narrated that they came upon a hard rock that no one could break. The Prophet ﷺ, with a stone tied to his stomach because of hunger, took the pickaxe and struck it, and it crumbled like sand. Seeing the Prophet's hunger, Jabir went home and prepared a small goat and a little barley. He invited the Prophet ﷺ quietly, but the Prophet ﷺ called out to all the diggers. He blessed the food, and the whole army ate their fill, and the food was still as much as before.

The Confederates arrived and were stunned by the trench. They laid siege to Madinah for many days. Then news came that the Banu Qurayzah, who lived inside Madinah and were bound by a treaty with the Muslims, had broken their pact and joined the enemy. The danger was extreme. Allah describes it: "When they came at you from above you and from below you, and when eyes shifted in fear and hearts reached the throats... There the believers were tested and shaken with a severe shaking" (33:10-11). The hypocrites said that Allah's promise was a delusion, but the true believers said: "This is what Allah and His Messenger promised us," and it only increased them in faith and submission (33:22).

The fighting was so pressing that on one day the Prophet ﷺ and his companions could not pray Asr until after sunset, and he said: "May Allah fill their houses and graves with fire, as they kept us from the middle prayer." He prayed: "O Allah, Revealer of the Book, swift in reckoning, defeat the Confederates; O Allah, defeat them and shake them."

Allah answered. He sent a fierce, freezing wind and unseen soldiers (33:9). Their tents were torn up, their fires put out and their pots overturned. Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (RA), sent by the Prophet ﷺ to spy on them on that bitter night, saw Abu Sufyan order the retreat. By morning the Confederates were gone. "And Allah repelled those who disbelieved, in their rage, not having obtained any good. And Allah sufficed the believers against fighting" (33:25).

The Prophet ﷺ said: "Now we will go out against them, and they will not come against us." It was the last time Quraysh attacked Madinah.