—because Allah had already said to them in Surat al-Baqarah: “Or did you think that you would enter Paradise while there had not yet come to you the like of those who passed away before you? Misfortune and hardship befell them, and they were so shaken that even the Messenger and those who believed with him said, ‘When will the help of Allah arrive?’” (2:214). So when affliction reached them as they held their positions against the Confederates at the trench, the believers understood the verse in that light, and it only increased them in faith and submissiveness.

Hammād ibn Salamah reported: Ḥajjāj narrated to us, from al-Ḥakam, from Miqsam, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that a man from the idolaters was killed on the Day of the Confederates. The idolaters then sent word to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saying, “Send us his body and we will pay you twelve thousand.” He replied, “There is no good in his body, nor in its price.”

Al-Aṣmaʿī said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād narrated to us: On the Day of the Trench al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām struck ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mughīrah with his sword upon his helmet, cutting right through to the pommel. People exclaimed, “What an excellent sword you have!” He became upset, intending to make it clear that the merit belonged to his own hand, not to the sword itself.

Shuʿbah narrated, from al-Ḥakam, from Yaḥyā ibn al-Jazzār, from ʿAlī, that on the Day of the Confederates the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting on a ledge of the trench and said, “They have kept us from the middle prayer until the sun set. May Allah fill their graves and houses with fire—or, he said, their bellies.” Muslim recorded this.

Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr narrated, from Abū Salamah, from Jābir, that on the Day of the Trench, after the sun had set, ʿUmar began cursing the disbelievers of Quraysh and said, “O Messenger of Allah, by Allah I barely managed to pray until the sun was almost down.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “And by Allah, I have not prayed it yet.” So we went down with the Messenger of Allah—he added, “I think he said: to Bathḥān”—and he performed ablution for the prayer, and we performed ablution. Then he prayed ʿAsr after the sun had set.