22. This refers to the Battle of the Trench in which Allah’s help came in support of the people of faith, and although they were smaller in number, the armies of the enemy could not defeat them, but returned without even giving a fight.

This battle, which is also called the Battle of the Confederates, took place in Shawwal, 05 Hijra (627 Christian era). The Jewish tribe, Bani Nadir, having been exiled from Madina, prompted the disbelievers to fight the Muslims. Accordingly Huyay bin Akhtab, Chief of the Bani Nadir Tribe, led a delegation to Makkah, and prepared the Quraish to unite and launch an attack on Madina. The tribe of Ghatfan was also prompted to take up arms. When the Prophet came to know of this, he ordered a two kilometer long trench to be dug, on the advice of Salman (R),around the northern and western sides of Madina, from where the disbelievers could reach Madina. -(Ghazwatul Ahzab-Muhammad Ahmed Bashmeel, page 162). In the work of digging the trench the companions of the Prophet worked very hard, and the prophet himself took part in the digging. The Muslims took position this side of the trench, keeping the Sala’ hills at their back. Muslims were 3000 in number, among them were some hypocrites also. The Quraish reached the other side of the trench with Bani Kananah, and from Najd came Ghatfan, Hawazan and other tribes. These armies numbering 10000 reached outskirts of Madina to fight against Muslims. These armies were fully armed and well equipped. One Jewish tribe, Bani Quraizah, who had a pact with the Muslims and was stationed in the eastern side of Madina, broke its pact and declared its support for the disbelievers. This siege of the disbelievers lasted for one month, but Allah arranged the help of the angels by sending them down and created such an awe that the disbelievers could not take any action against the Muslims. And He arranged such severe and cold wind to blow that the tents of the attacking armies were blown away and the soldiers could not take their position. All the camp fires were extinguished and such a darkness fell that the disbelievers decided to call it a day and ultimately all the armies returned unsuccessful. After the retreat of the enemy, Muslims went back to their homes. Allah’s help appeared in favour of Muslims in such a way that there was no need to fight, and all the schemes and plans of the deniers failed. This is the favour of Allah about which a reference is made in the Ayah, and this was such a great favour that after this the disbelievers never dared to launch an attack on Madina. The Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, had, on the retreat of the infidels, said:

“Now the Quraish will never be able to attack you, now you will launch at attack on them. And this prophecy came to be true, word by word. The idolaters thereafter never dared turn towards Madina for attack. However, Muslims became so powerful that they turned to Makkah and conquered it.

It has become clear that if the people of faith set out to raise the word of God at the risk of their own lives, then Allah comes to their assistance in an extra-ordinary way.

23. From above means from the eastern side of Madina and from below means from the western side of Madina. The higher part of Madina is on the eastern side and the lower part on the western side. From the east, armies of Ghatfan and Hawazan had come and Quraish and Bani Kananah etc. had come from the west.

24. This style of speech expresses that state of mind which is under great fright. This has been said addressing the Muslims, but it is meant for those who were weak in their faith. The condition of sincere Muslims was quite different, as is mentioned in the verses Nos. 22 and 23.

25. That is: The severe conditions which the Muslims had to face at the time of the Battle of the Trench was the result of Allah’s scheme, which wanted to test who among the people of the faith were sincere and who were in doubts and were hypocrites.

26. Disease here means doubt. Those who doubted about the truthfulness of the Quran and the Prophet were these hypocrites.

27. That is: The promise of Allah’s help and success and victory.

28. Yathrib is the old name of Madinatun Nabawi.

29. That is: You are not in a position to fight against the army which is coming to attack you. Therefore, it is better that you return to your homes so that the fighting may not take place.

30. In Madina children and women were removed to the safe fortifications. Therefore, this excuse of the hypocrites was not true that their houses were lying open and defenseless, therefore, they should be allowed to return home.

Actually they had no courage to face the enemy, and they wanted to flee away leaving the war front and their excuse was that their homes were not safe.

31. That is: If the enemy were to enter Madina and demand of them some mischievous thing like killing the companions of the Prophet or turning away from Islam, they would not have hesitated in accepting this demand, because they were not sincere in their faith.

32. This is a hint at the fact that they were trying to remove disgrace which was the result of the weakness shown by them in the Battle of Uhud by saying that on the next occasion to be provided by Allah they would fight bravely and would never show their backs. But when in the Battle of the Trench the chance to show their good faith and bravery came, they were trying to search excuses for running away from the front.

33. To try to flee from the battle front for fear of death or being killed is useless, because in such a case whatever chance of life you would get would be only for a very short time, and ultimately you will have to return to Allah only, and the result of this line of action will be deprivation and disgrace.

Prophet Eesa, Peace be upon him, while persuading people to take risk of life in the path of Allah had stated a very realistic point:

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? -(Mat.16:21,26)

34. Means the hypocrites, who were creating obstructions in preparing the defense line of Muslims, and were trying to dissuade others to support Muslims and were enticing them to join the hypocrites. It was their open treason.

35. That is: They do not want to take any risks for your protection. They have no sympathy for you (sincere Muslims) nor can they offer any sacrifices for you.

36. This is a picture of the hypocrites’ fright and cowardice. In the battle if any dangerous situation arose, their panic was so great as if the fainting of death had overtaken them. If they were sincere in their faith, they would have fought in the way of Allah with bravery and would have faced the idolaters like brave men.

37. That is: After the battle when the occasion of distributing the spoils of war came, they used to appear as greedy claimants of the spoils and used to claim greater share in the spoils in very sharp and scathing language, and used to severely complain against the Muslims.

38. They claim to be Muslims, but in fact they have no faith. Had they been sincere Muslims, their attitude in the battle would not have been that of disloyalty with Allah and his messenger. And when their hearts are empty of faith, then all their virtues would have gone waste. They will not be rewarded for those acts of virtue.

From this an important reality has come to light, that those persons who show themselves to be Muslims but are not sincere in their faith, then their acts of piety like salat and jihad are not acceptable to Allah, for Allah accepts only those acts of virtue which are performed after accepting His faith and only for His pleasure.

In the present society of Muslims there is no dearth of those Muslims who are treading the path of the hypocrites, particularly in the educated section of Muslims-their line of action is openly against the demands of faith, but since the condition of the hearts is known to Allah only, therefore, on the basis of their claim they will be considered Muslims in this world, but it does not mean that in the sight of Allah also they would be considered Muslims. If there is no faith in their hearts, then Allah will declare their claim of being Muslims as false, and their acts of virtue will be thrown into their face, even though they might have been offering salat, performed Hajj and Jihad. Bodies are useless, if there is no spirit in them. Similarly acts of virtue are useless if there is no spirit of faith behind those acts.

39. That is: Nobody should think how Allah would make their acts of virtue go waste. There will be no obstruction for Him for doing this. Neither anybody’s recommendation will be any obstruction for Him, and not doing so will be against justice and fairplay.

Verily in the messenger of Allah you have a good example for him who looks to Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah much.(AL-Quran)

40. That is: These hypocrites are so much terrified by the army of the disbelievers that although the attackers had withdrawn from the battle -field in disappointment, these people think that they are present somewhere nearby and would soon launch another attack.

41.That is: Now they desire that if the disbelievers attack again, then they,the hypocrites, should not be found in Madina, but somewhere in the nearby villages among the Bedouin people, so that they might not be required to take part in fighting, and from there they should try to find out the condition of the Muslims whether they have been defeated by the disbelievers or not.

42. Since they have no interest in fighting a jihad nor are they prepared to offer any sacrifice, participating in the battle is mere exhibition and the result of the pressure of the circumstances.

It may be noted that in the city of Madina in those days the rule of the tribal system was in vogue, and Aus and Khizraj were two big tribes. When the people of these two tribes embraced Islam, then for those people who did not want to accept this faith, a problem arose, that in the event of their not embracing Islam, they will have no place in their tribe and social problems will confront them. Therefore, such people made a compromise with the situation and accepted this faith for the sake of appearances only. After this they could not fulfill the responsibilities which fell on them on account of their being counted as Muslims and their hypocrisy was being gradually exposed.