and al-Hārith ibn ʿAwf al-Murri with his own people, and Masʿūd ibn Zuhaylah together with those of his clan from the tribe of Ashjaʿ who followed him.

When the Prophet ﷺ heard of their approach he ordered a trench to be dug around Madinah and took part in the labor with his own blessed hands. Certain hypocrites lagged behind, but the Muslims persevered until the trench was firmly completed.

Several reports have reached me about the digging. Among them: it is related that Jābir used to tell how they struck a very hard rock-face; they complained of it to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so he asked for a vessel of water, spat into it, supplicated as Allah willed, then sprinkled the water over the rock, whereupon it crumbled into loose sand.

Saʿīd ibn Minā narrated to me from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh who said: “We were working with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at the trench, and I owned a little ewe. I said, ‘By Allah, if only we prepared it for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ So I told my wife to grind some barley we had and bake bread from it, and I slaughtered the ewe and roasted it. When evening came and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was about to leave—we worked on the trench by day and, when night fell, returned to our families—I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have prepared such-and-such and would like you to come with me.’ I intended that he come alone. He answered, ‘Yes.’ Then he ordered a herald, who proclaimed, ‘Go with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to the house of Jābir.’

“I exclaimed, ‘We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return!’ The Prophet ﷺ arrived, and the people came with him. He sat down, we brought the food out to him, he pronounced the blessing and said the basmalah, then ate. The people kept coming in waves: whenever one group had finished and risen, another arrived, until everyone engaged in digging the trench had eaten from it.”

Saʿīd ibn Minā also told me that the daughter of Bashīr ibn Saʿd said: “My mother, ʿAmrah bint Rawāḥah, called me, put a handful of dates into the fold of my garment, and said…”