The Power of Knowledge

The Power of Knowledge

1986 12 December 9-10 The Power of Knowledge (648) The battle of the Trench (5AH), which is also known as the battle of the Armies, took place when Medina was attacked by various tribes, including the Quraysh and Ghatfan, and some Jewish tribes. One can gauge the ferocity of the onslaught from these words of the Quran:

“They attacked you from above and from below, so that your eyes were blurred, and your hearts lept to your throats, and your faith in God was shaken. There the faithful were put to the proof, there they were severely afflicted” (33: 10-11).

This fully-equipped army included 4,500 camels and 300 horses. They besieged Medina, cutting the city off from the outside world. So short were supplies that people began to starve. It was at this time that a companion of the Prophet complained of hunger to the Prophet: pulling up his shirt, he exposed a stone, tied to his belly. In reply, the Prophet pulled up his shirt: there were two stones tied to it. Another said that Muhammad used to promise them the treasures of Rome and Persia, but that today they could not even relieve themselves for fear of the enemies that surrounded them.

In both war and peace the Prophet kept the activities of the enemies under close surveillance, so that the news of the impending attack by the Meccans reached him in advance. He held consultations with his companions as to how the enemy should be combated.

Since Medina was enclosed on three sides by mountains, forests and walls, there was only the problem of defending it on the northwest front, which was completely open. Salman Farsi, a new convert, suggested the digging of a trench on this side of the city. The prophet agreed with him and, after six days of continuous labour in which the Prophet himself participated, the trench was completed. It proved so successful in holding the enemy back that it gave its name to the battle, the battle of the Trench. This trench was six kilometres long, two and a half metres deep, and about three metres wide.

The historian Ibn Kathir writes on the authority of Tabari and Suhaili that the first person to employ this technique was the Persian King, Manu Chehr ibn Faridun, who was a contemporary of the Prophet Moses.

The word Kandak is a Persian expression, whose origin can be traced to the verb Kanda, meaning to dig. The substantive form is Kandak – a trench. This word was later arabicized as Khandaq.

Up till the impending attack of the Meccans on Medina, it had not occurred to the Arab combatants that a trench could be dug as part of their battle strategy. That is why when the Meccans saw it they exclaimed. “By God, this is a strategy such as Arabs have never known!” The remarkable thing is that all of the combatants, both Medinans and Meccans were of the same Arab stock, but where the Prophet and his followers had been able to find out this technique, no one had appeared in the same manner as Salman Farsi to instruct their enemies in the new techniques being used in other parts of the world.

The Muslims learning the technique of the trench and then digging it, and the Meccan unbelievers remaining quite unaware of it are facts which are separately recorded in history. When studied separately, they teach us nothing. But when linked, they give us the great lesson that the missionary activity means adding the strengths of others to our own; for a society which does not do so is like stagnant or a soulless rock which does not grow. Preaching means stimulating and enriching society in the way that fresh running water takes the form of a stream which is always on the increase until it becomes a mighty torrent bringing the treasure of its waters to the aridity of the world.