She said, “The way out of it is for you to address the people and say: ‘Allah has made marriage to sisters lawful.’ Then, once this has spread among the people and they have forgotten it, address them again and forbid it.” So he rose to address them and said, “Allah has made marriage to sisters lawful for you.” But all the people said, “Allah forbid that we should believe in this or acknowledge it. No prophet has brought this to us, nor has any Book been sent down to us concerning it.” He laid the whip upon them, but they refused to acknowledge it; then he drew the sword against them, yet they still refused to acknowledge it. So he dug a trench for them (1), kindled fires in it, and brought them before it. Whoever refused to obey him, he cast into the Fire; and whoever complied, he let go free (2).

Al-Dahhak said: “The Companions of the Trench were from the Children of Israel. They seized men and women, dug a trench for them, kindled fires in it, and made the believers stand before it. They said, ‘Will you disbelieve, or shall we cast you into the Fire?’ They claim that they were Daniel and his companions.” This is the narration of al-Awfi from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both (3).

Abu al-Tufayl narrated from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him: “The prophet of the Companions of the Trench was Ethiopian. A prophet was sent from Abyssinia to his people.” Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, then recited: “And We have already sent messengers before you. Among them are those whose stories We have related to you” (Ghafir 40:78). He called them, and some people followed him. He fought them, and his followers were killed; those of them who survived were captured and bound. They dug a trench and filled it with fire. Whoever followed the prophet was thrown into it, while whoever followed them was left alone. Then they brought a woman with a nursing infant, and she became distressed. The infant said, “O mother, step forward and do not be hypocritical.”

Ikrimah said: “They were Nabataeans, burned with fire” (5). Muqatil said: “There were three trenches: one at Najran in Yemen, one in Syria, and the other in Persia; their victims were burned with fire (6). As for the one in Syria, it was Atamus the Roman; as for the one in Persia, it was Nebuchadnezzar; and as for the one in the land of the Arabs, it was Yusuf Dhu Nuwas. Allah did not reveal any Quran concerning the ones in Syria and Persia, but He revealed Quran concerning the one that was in Najran (7).

“This was because a Muslim man, one of those who read the Gospel, hired himself out for work and began to read the Gospel. The daughter of the man who had hired him saw a light shining from his reading of the Gospel, so she mentioned this to her father. He watched him until he saw it, then asked him, but he did not tell him (8). Yet he continued pressing him until he informed him about the religion and Islam. The man then followed him, along with eighty-seven people, men and women. This was after Jesus, peace be upon him, had been raised to heaven. When Yusuf Dhu Nuwas heard of this, he dug a trench for them in the ground and kindled a fire in it. He then presented them with the choice of disbelief, and whoever refused