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ʾidh jāʾūkum min fawqikum wa-min ʾasfala minkum wa-ʾidh zāghati l-ʾabṣāru wa-balaghati l-qulūbu l-ḥanājira wa-taẓunnūna bi-llāhi ẓ-ẓunūna
When they came at you from above and below you, and when the eyes rolled [with fear] and the hearts leapt to the throats, and you entertained misgivings about Allah,
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-’Ahzab – Verses 10-11
10. “When they came against you from above you and from below you, and when the eyes swerved and the hearts reached to the throats, and you did imagine about Allah diverse thoughts,”
11. “There it was that the believers were tried, and they were shaken a tremendous shaking.”
You can taste the sweetness of the graces of Allah when you depict the bitter scenes before you. The spiritual moods affect on the body. (Fear causes the ordinary function of the eyes and the heart to be disturbed. For example, the eye becomes terrified and the pulse of the heart becomes fast.) This holy verse illustrates the dangerous situation of the Battle of ’Ahzab, the great power of the enemy’s army, and the intensive anxiety of a lot of Muslims.
It implicitly says that you may remember when the enemies entered your city from above you and from below you and surrounded Medina and when the eyes swerved because of fear and the hearts reached to the throats and you imagined badly about Allah with diverse thoughts. The verse says:
Many of the commentators believe that the Arabic word /fauq/ (above) mentioned in this holy verse refers to the east of Medina wherefrom the tribe of Qatfan entered, and the word /’asfal/ (below) refers to the west of it wherefrom the tribe of Quraysh and their assistants came. Of course, regarding to the fact that Mecca is located in the south of Medina, the pagans of Mecca must have come from the south, but perhaps the condition of the road and that of the arrival the gate of Medina were in a state that they had to turn round a part of the city and arrive from the west.
However, the above sentence points to the siege of this city from the side of different enemies of Islam. The Qur’anic phrase: /zaqat-il-’absar/ (the eyes swerved) refers to the state that a person feels at the time of intensive horror when his eyes turn aside and gaze on a proper fix point. The Qur’anic sentence /balaqat-il-qulub-ul-hanajir/ (the hearts reached to the throats) is an interesting allusion, like that which is said in Persian language: ‘his soul reached his lips’, else the heart, the special organ, the distributor of blood, never moves from its place and it never reaches to the throat.
The Qur’anic sentence which says:
points to this fact that in that state there had been appeared some wrong thoughts among a group of the Muslims, because from the point of Faith, they had not reached to a perfect stage. Such were the same ones about whom the next verse says:
Perhaps some of them thought they would finally be defeated and the enemy’s army, with that power and might, could be victorious. They imagined that the last days of the life of Islam had approached and the Prophet’s promises about the triumphant of Islam would never happen. These thoughts, of course, had appeared in the minds of some of the Muslims in the form of a temptation. This is similar to that which the Qur’an mentions concerning the Battle of ’Uhud, saying:
It was here that the furnace of the Divine examination became hot, as the next verse says:
It is natural that when a person falls into the tempest of thoughts, his body is not aloof of that tempest either, and it involves in an anxiety and agitation. Many times we have seen the persons who have mental agitation and, while they are sitting in their seat, they ceaselessly move, rub their hands to each other, and completely show their own anxiety in their manner. One of the evidences of this horrible terror was that, as it is said, five famous heroes of Arabs, the greatest of whom was ‘Amr-ubn-i-‘Abdiwudd, had worn the clothes of war and came into the battle-field with a special pride, and challenged for champion. ‘Amr-ubn-i-‘Abdiwudd, in particular, was boasting and ridiculed both Hereafter, and Paradise. He said:
“Do you not say that your slain members will be admitted in Paradise? Is there none of you who desires to see Paradise?”
But all of the members of the army of Islam were silent before his shouts, and none dared to face with him, save Ali-ibn-Abitalib (as) who fought against him and caused a great victory for the Muslims. As it is evident from its name, the Battle of ’Ahzab was a battle in which all the clans and different groups of the enemies of Islam had united in order to destroy the ‘young Islam’. The Battle of ’Ahzab was the last effort, the last trial of the infidels, and the last exhibition of the power of polytheists. It was for this reason that when the greatest champion of the enemy, i.e., ‘Amr-ubn-i-‘Abdiwudd stood before the brave officer of Islam, Amir-ul-Mu’minin Ali-ibn-Abitalib (as), the Prophet (S) said:
“The whole of Faith stood against the whole of polytheism.” 4
For, in that event, the triumphant of one of these two groups over the other was the triumphant of infidelity over Faith or Faith over infidelity. In other words, it was a Battle which could define the future of Islam and polytheism. That was why, after the defeat of the enemies in this great Battle, they could not stand firm any more, and from then on always the control of action was in Muslims’ hand. The star of the luck of the enemy began to decline and the basis of their power was ruined.
Of course, at first Amir-ul-Muminin Ali (as) invited him to Islam, but he did not accept. Then he (as) invited him to leave the battlefield, he refused it, too, and he counted it shame for himself. The third suggestion was that he would come down from the horse and have a battle on foot. ‘Amr became angry and said:
“I did not believe that a person from among Arab gives me such a suggestion.”
He came down from his horse and attacked against Ali (as) with his sword. Here, Ali (as) used a special style of fight, and quickly, and with a particular way, he struck with sword on the enemy’s leg and pushed it into his leg. It was at this time that the powerful body of ‘Amr fell on the ground. A thick dust filled the space of the battle-field. A group of hypocrites thought that Ali (as) was killed by ‘Amr, but when they heard the sound of Takbir, ‘proclaim His greatness’, Ali’s victory was confirmed.
Suddenly they saw Ali (as) was coming toward the camp while he had a smile of victory on his lips and ‘Amr’s body, without head, was on the ground in corner of the battlefield. The slain of the famous champion of Arab was not tolerable for the army of the clans and it ruined their hopes and desires. It was a stroke which weakened their spirit very much and disappointed them from victory. So, the Prophet (S) told Ali (as) about them:
“If they compare your action today with the deeds of all the followers of Muhammad, your action will be preferred to their deeds, because by the slain of ‘Amr there will remain no house of the polytheists but there entered a disgrace in it; and there remains no house of the believers but entered an honour in it.” 5
The famous learned man of the Sunnite, Hakim-i-Neyshaburi has narrated the same meaning about it from the Prophet (S) with a different statement. Here is the Prophet’s statement:
“The struggle of Ali-ibn-Abitalib against ‘Amr-ubn-i-‘Abdiwudd on the Day of Ditch is better than the deeds of my Ummah until the Hereafter Day.” 6
In another tradition we recite that, after the end of the Battle of ’Ahzab, the Prophet (S) said:
“Now we fight against them and they are not able to fight against us.” 7
Footnotes