Battle of The Trench

leader of the infidels who was provoking Muslims to combat. How could the Lion of God not respond to this for the reverence of Islam! Therefore, he swiftly went in front of Talha and before he could gather himself, he was on the ground with a single strike of Ali‟s sword. Talha, the idol worshipper who was bragging about his bravery could not endure the sword of the Lion of God and collapsed on the ground in misery. The private parts of that big-headed man were exposed so Ali did not bother striking him again. However, the hapless man could not succumb to a single strike of Ali‟s sword and died at the spot.

The army of infidels was marching towards Madina like a storm. The plans of non-believers were catastrophic. They were certain that they will attack Madina with full force and destroy the Muslims. However, when they saw an uncrossable deep and wide trench around Madina, they were infuriated like a venomous snake. All their plans of attack and victory were ruined as they could not reach Madina and had to camp across the trench.

The horse riders from the army of non-believers made multiple attempts to cross the trench but failed. One day, Amr ibn Abd alWud, the famous horse rider of Arab, swiftly jumped over the trench on his horse and was able to cross it. He challenged Muslims to fight when he reached near the Muslim army. Amr ibn Abd al-Wud was a great warrior and was said to be stronger than hundreds of soldiers. Ali ibn Abi Talib was aware of this but how could the Lion of God fear anyone! When Amr ibn Abd al-Wud challenged a duel, Ali accepted it and waving his sword Dhu al-Fiqar in air positioned himself right in front of him, ready to fight.

Ali: O son of Abd al-Wud! I have heard that you have announced that if anyone among Quraish asks you to do two things you promise to agree on one. Amr ibn Abd al-Wud (arrogantly): Yes! I do proclaim that. Ali: I ask you to bring faith on Allah and His Prophet and adopt Islam.

Amr ibn Abd al-Wud (in a boasting tone): I do not need to do this.

Ali: Then come fight me. Amr ibn Abd al-Wud: I had friendly relations with your father Abu Talib, therefore I do not want you to be cut by my sword. Ali: But I would like to cut your head off with my Dhu al-Fiqar. Amr ibn Abd al-Wud got furious on hearing this. He came down the horse angrily and cut the hamstrings of the horse. Swaying his sword in air, he furiously started attacking Ali. Both the soldiers were fighting face to face now. One could hear the echo of swords striking each other. Prophet Mohammad raised his hands for prayer. The duel was so ferocious that both the fighters were lost in the big cloud of dust. The armies on both sides were not able to see anything. They could only hear the echo of striking swords or the slogans. Muslims were raising slogans of Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest) while the non-believers were raising slogans of their idols, al-Lat and al-Uzza. Finally, the timbre of swords stopped and clouds of dust slowly began to disperse. Now people could see that the Lion of God was riding on the chest of Amr ibn Abd al-Wud. The battlefield once again echoed with the slogans of Allahu Akbar as Ali cut Amr‟s head off his neck.

On that occasion, Ali recited the following poetic verses: