Ibn Isḥāq (1) said: The Muslims laboured at the trench until they had finished it soundly, and as they worked they chanted rajaz verse about a Muslim whose name was Juʿayl. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had renamed him ʿAmr, so they recited:
He named him ʿAmr after Juʿayl—
and for the downtrodden he became a support one day.
Whenever they said “ʿAmrā,” the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would join them in saying, “ʿAmrā,” and whenever they said “ẓahrā,” he would echo, “ẓahrā.”
Al-Bukhārī (3) transmitted, through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad—Muʿāwiyah ibn ʿAmr—Abū Isḥāq—from Ḥumayd, who said he heard Anas, that:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ went out to the trench on a cold morning and found the Emigrants and the Helpers digging; they had no servants to do the work for them. Seeing the fatigue and hunger they were enduring, he said:
“O Allah, the only true life is the life of the Hereafter, so forgive the Anṣār and the Muhājirīn.”
They replied in rajaz:
We are the ones who pledged to Muḥammad—
to wage jihad as long as we draw breath.
In the two Ṣaḥīḥs (4) there is a narration of similar purport reported by Shuʿbah, from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah, from Anas; Muslim (5) also related it through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Thābit, and Ḥumayd, from Anas.
Al-Bukhārī (6) further reported, through Abū Maʿmar—ʿAbd al-Wārith—ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz—from Anas, that the Emigrants and the Helpers were digging the trench around Madinah, carrying the soil on their backs and chanting:
We are the ones who pledged to Muḥammad—
to wage jihad as long as we draw breath.
The Prophet ﷺ would answer them: “O Allah, there is no good except the good of the Hereafter, so bless the Anṣār and the Muhājirīn.”
Anas added: They were brought only two handfuls of barley, which were cooked with rancid fat (ihālah sanikhah) and set before the people while they were starving; it was rough in the throat and gave off a foul odour.
Al-Bukhārī (7) also narrated, through Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd—ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Ḥāzim—from Sahl ibn Saʿd, who said:
We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at the trench while they were digging, and we were carrying the soil on our shoulders, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“O Allah, there is no life except the life of the Hereafter; so forgive the Muhājirīn and the Anṣār.”