The Banu Quraiza, as we have said, were in alliance with the Muslims. Even if they had not joined the battle on the Muslim side, it was expected that they would at least bar the way of the enemy on their side. The Prophet(sa), therefore, had left that part of the town entirely unguarded. The Banu Quraiza knew that the Muslims trusted their good faith. So when they decided to join the Arabs, it was agreed that they would not join them openly lest the Muslims should become alert and take steps to guard the part of the town on the side of the Banu Quraiza. It was a very dangerous plot.
When it was agreed that Muslims were to be attacked from two sides, the Arab army started assailing the ditch. A few days passed, however, and nothing happened. Then they hit upon the idea of posting their archers on an eminence and ordering them to attack parties of Muslims defending the ditch. These stood on the edge separated by short intervals. As soon as the Muslim defence showed any signs of breaking, the disbelievers would try to cross the ditch with the help of their first-rate horsemen. They believed that when such attacks were repeated, they would obtain possession of a point on the Muslim side of the ditch at which they would be able to land their forces for a full-fledged attack on the town. Attack after attack was therefore made. Muslim defenders had to fight ceaselessly. One day they were kept so engaged in repelling these attacks that some of the daily prayers could not be said at the appointed time. The Prophet(sa) was grieved over this and said, "God punish the infidels, they have upset our prayers." The incident shows the intensity of the enemy attack. But it also shows that the Prophet's(sa) first and last concern was the worship of God. Medina had been beleaguered on all sides. Not only men, but also women and children were faced with certain death. The whole of the town was in the grip of anxiety. But the Prophet(sa) still thought of holding the daily prayers at their appointed hours. Muslims do not worship God only once a week, as do Christians and Hindus. Muslims are required to worship five times a day. During a battle, to hold even one public prayer is difficult, not to speak of holding five prayers a day in congregation. But the Prophet(sa) convened the five daily prayers even during battle. If one of these prayers was upset by enemy attack, it pained him.
To return to the battle, the enemy was attacking from the front, the Banu Quraiza were planning to attack from the rear but not in such a way as to make the Muslim population alert. They wanted to enter the town from behind and to kill the women and children sheltered there. One day the Banu Quraiza sent a spy to find out whether guards had been posted for the protection of women and children and, if so, in what strength. There was a special enclosure for families which the enemy regarded as their special target. The spy came and began to hover round this enclosure and to look about suspiciously. While he was doing so, Safiyya(ra), an aunt of the Prophet(sa), spotted him. Only one male adult happened to be on guard duty at the time and even he was ill. Safiyya(ra) reported to him what she had seen and suggested he should lay hand on this spy before he was able to inform the enemy how unprotected the women and children were in that part of the town. The sick Muslim refused to do anything upon which Safiyya(ra) herself picked up a staff and began to fight this undesirable visitor. With the help of other women she succeeded in over-powering and killing him. Later it was proved that this man was really an agent of the Banu Quraiza. Muslims became nervous and began to apprehend other attacks from this side which they had so far thought quite safe. But the attack from the front was so heavy that the whole of the Muslim force was needed to resist it. Nevertheless, the Prophet(sa) decided to spare a part of the force for the protection of women and children. As we have said in our discussion of the Muslim numbers in this battle, out of twelve hundred men, the Prophet(sa) sent five hundred for the protection of women in the town. For the defence of the ditch, therefore, only seven hundred men were left to fight an army of between eighteen and twenty thousand. Many Muslims were unnerved at the odds which they had to face. They went to the Prophet(sa) and said how critical the situation was, and how impossible it seemed to save the town. They requested the Prophet(sa) to pray. They also requested him to teach them a special prayer for this occasion. The Prophet(sa) replied, "Have no fear. Only pray to God that He should protect you from your weaknesses, strengthen your hearts, and relieve your anxiety." The Prophet(sa) prayed himself in the following words:
God, Thou hast sent to me the Qur’an. Thou waitest not to call anyone to account. These hordes which have come to attack us, give them defeat. God, I beseech thee again: Defeat them, make us dominate over them, and upset all their evil intentions (Bukhari).
And again:
God, Thou hearest those who cry to Thee in misery and in affliction. Thou repliest to those who are stricken with anxiety. Relieve me of my pain, my anxiety, and my fear. Thou knowest what odds I and my Companions are up against (Zurqani).
The hypocrites became more nervous than others in the Muslim force. All regard for the honour of their side and the safety of their town, their women and children, disappeared from their hearts. But they did not want to be disgraced in the presence of their own side. Therefore, they began to desert the Muslims one by one on slender excuses. The Qur’an refers to this in 33: 14
And a section of them even asked leave of the Prophet(sa), saying, 'Our houses are exposed and defenceless.' And they were not exposed. They only sought to flee away.
The state of battle at the moment, and the condition in which the Muslims stood at the time is described in the Qur’an in the following verses:
When they came upon you from above you and from below you, and when your eyes became distracted, and the hearts reached to the throats, and you thought diverse thoughts about Allah. Then were the believers sorely tried, and they were shaken with a violent shaking. And when the hypocrites, and those in whose hearts was a disease said, 'Allah and His Messenger promised us nothing but delusion'. And when a party of them said, 'O people of Yathrib, you have possibly no stand against the enemy, therefore turn back' (33: 11-14).
Here Muslims are reminded how they were attacked from the front by a confederacy of Arab tribes, and in the rear by the Jews. They are reminded how miserable they were at that time. Their eyes flinched and their hearts were in their mouths. They even began to entertain doubts about God. The believers were then on trial. They were all given a shaking. The hypocrites and the spiritually diseased began to say, 'We have all been fooled by false promises made to us by God and His Prophet(sa)!' A party of them even began to unnerve the Muslim force saying, 'There is no fighting now. There is nothing to do but to go back.'
How true believers behaved on this occasion is also described in the Qur’an:
And when the believers saw the confederates, they said, 'This is what Allah and His Messenger(sa) promised us; and Allah and His Messenger(sa) spoke the truth.' And it only increased them in faith and submission. Among the believers are men who have been true to the covenant they had made with Allah. There are some of them who have fulfilled their vow, and some who still wait, and they have not changed their condition in the least (33: 23, 24).
The true believers, that is to say, were unlike the hypocrites and the weak. When they saw the huge numbers of the enemy, they were reminded of what God and His Prophet(sa) had told them already. This concerted attack by the tribes of Arabia was proof only of the truth of God and the Prophet(sa). The true believers remained unshaken. Rather they increased in the spirit of obedience and in the fervour of faith. The true believers stood by their compact with God. Some of them had already attained to the goal of their lives by meeting their death. Some were only waiting to die in the path of God and reach their goal.
The enemy attacked the ditch fiercely and uninterruptedly. Sometimes he succeeded in clearing it. One day, important generals of the enemy succeeded in going across. But they were attacked so bravely by the Muslims that they had to fall back. In this encounter, Naufal, a big leader of the disbelievers, lost his life. So big was this leader that the disbelievers thought they would not be able to stand any insult to his dead body. They, therefore, sent word to the Prophet(sa), that if he would return the body of this chief, they would pay ten thousand dirhams. It was a high price for the return of the dead body. The offer was made out of a sense of guilt. The disbelievers had mutilated the Muslim dead at Uhud and were afraid that Muslims would do the same. But the teaching of Islam was different. Islam forbade outright the mutilation of the dead. When the Prophet(sa) received the message and the offer, he said, "What use have we for this body? We want nothing in return for this. If it please you, take away the body" (Zurqani, Vol. 2, p. 114).
A passage in Muir's Life of Mohammad (London-1878, p.322) describes eloquently the fierceness of the attack on Muslims. We need not apologize for quoting it here:
Next morning, Mahomed found the whole force of the Allies drawn out against him. It required the utmost activity and an unceasing vigilance on his side to frustrate the manoeuvres of the enemy. Now they would threaten a general assault; then breaking up into divisions they would attack various posts in rapid and distracting succession; and at last, watching their opportunity, they would mass their troops on the least protected point, and, under cover of a sustained and galling discharge of arrows, attempt to force the trench. Over and again a gallant dash was made at the city, and at the tent of Mahomed(sa), by such leaders of renown as Khalid(ra) and Amr(ra); and these were only repelled by constant counter-marches and unremitting archery. This continued throughout the day; and, as the army of Mahomed(sa) was but just sufficient to guard the long line, there could be no relief. Even at night Khalid(ra), with a strong party of horses, kept up the alarm, and still threatening the line of defence, rendered outposts at frequent intervals necessary. But all the endeavours of the enemy were without effect. The trench was not crossed.
The battle had gone on for two days. Still there had been no hand-to-hand fighting, no great bloodshed. Twenty-four hours of fighting had resulted in only three deaths on the enemy side and five on the Muslim side. Sa’d bin Mu’adh(ra), a chief of the Aus tribe and a devotee of the Prophet(sa), was wounded. Repeated attacks on the ditch, however, resulted in some damage, and this made further attack easier. Great scenes of valour and of loyalty were witnessed. It was a cold night, perhaps the coldest in Arabia. We have on the authority of A’isha(ra), the Prophet's(sa) holy consort, that the Prophet(sa) rose from his sleep again and again to guard the damaged part of the ditch. He became exhausted. He returned to bed but then, having warmed himself a little, went again to guard the ditch. One day he was so exhausted that he seemed quite unable to move. Then he said he wished some devoted Muslim would come and relieve him of the physical labour of guarding the ditch in the cold of the night. Soon he heard a voice. It was Sa’d bin Waqqas(ra). The Prophet(sa) asked him why he had come.
"To guard your person," said Sa’d(ra).
"There is no need to guard my person," said the Prophet(sa) "A part of the ditch is damaged. Go and guard it that Muslims may be safe." Sa’d(ra) went, and the Prophet(sa) was able to sleep. (There was some coincidence. For when the Prophet(sa) arrived at Medina and danger to his person was very great, even then it was Sa’d(ra) who offered himself for a guard.) On another occasion during these difficult days, the Prophet(sa) heard the sound of arms. "Who is it?" asked the Prophet(sa). "Ibad bin Bishr(ra)," was the reply.
"Have you anyone else with you?" asked the Prophet(sa). "Yes," said Ibad(ra), "A party of Companions. We will guard your tent."
"Leave my tent alone. The disbelievers are trying to cross the ditch. Go and fight them" (Halbiyya, Vol. 2).
As we said before, the Jews tried to enter the town surreptitiously. A Jewish spy lost his life in the effort. When they found that their intrigue had become known, they began to help the Arab confederates more openly. A concerted attack in the rear, however, was not attempted, because the field on this side was narrow and with the posting of the Muslim guards a large-scale attack had become impossible. But a few days later, the Jews and pagan confederates decided to make a simultaneous and sudden attack upon the Muslims.