The Bewilderment at the Trench

The Muslim army consisted of a total of three thousand people. With their backs to the mountains and facing the trench, they started awaiting the enemy. It hadn’t been long until the Meccan army of ten-thousand showed itself from across. As they were moving forward with much self-confidence and avidity, the great trench they saw before them took them by surprise and bewilderment. Never before had they seen such a defense strategy. Thinking that the trench was only in front of them, they started moving to the left and right. When they saw that all possible entrances to Medina were surrounded with the trench they realized that this was a futile effort. What great disappointment it was that they were not even able to enter the city whose people they had been planning to slay one by one and destroy altogether!

When they realized they would not be able to enter Medina, they settled in the area across the trench and started to wait. This stressful wait went on for days. The non-believers made many attempts to get across the trench. They threw arrows, spears, and stones, but whatever they did, they were not able to reach across to Medina. At last, they decided to cross through the weakest part of the trench. One group of polytheists started crossing over to the believers’ side from a narrow pathway that they discovered. They thought they would be able to endanger the Muslims greatly. However, things didn’t turn out as they expected. Seeing that the nonbelievers were crossing the trench, the Muslims rushed to that point to stop the others from coming in. When one of the soldiers among them lost his life, the other polytheists turned back without wasting any time. After this incident, they decided to attack all together, without leaving any one behind. And so they did, but even though they worked so hard, they were not able to reach their goal. In the end, they had no choice but to retreat.