By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

 

The current dalliance of reactionary Arab regimes with the illegal Zionist entity and the avowed goals of these two against Islam and Muslims may have surprised some simple-minded persons, but to those well versed in history this is not something new. 

In fact, ever since the advent of Islam that revolutionized the Arabian Peninsula and consequently the world by enlightening the hearts of the seekers of truth – whether Arabs, Africans, Persians, Turks, Europeans, Indians, Chinese and others, including Jews and Christians awaiting the Great Messenger promised by both Prophet Moses and Prophet Jesus (peace upon them) – those amongst the Arabs and the Israelites opposed to humanitarian values have never ceased to plot against Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), his Infallible Ahl al-Bayt, and his dynamic “Sunnah wa Seerah” (practice and behaviour). 

Although they have not succeeded despite the devilish nature of their plots, these two seditious groups have never missed an opportunity to gang up together in a bid to undermine genuine Muhammadan Islam. 

Those still unable to properly figure out the unholy alliance between the Zionist entity and the unrepresentative Arab regimes under the tutelage of the Great Satan (the US), against the Islamic Republic of Iran, against the Palestinian people, and against the goal of the Ummah for liberation of Islam’s former qibla, the al-Aqsa Mosque, are advised to study the life and times of the Seal of Messengers. 

Every year, the 17th of Shawwal reminds us of one of the gravest plots against Muslims by the Arabs and the Israelites, who had mustered a joint force of 10,000 to besiege Medina and wipe out Islam by killing Prophet Muhammad (SAWA). 

The day, however, made their joint plan go awry, and could be called the anniversary of a decisive victory of truth over falsehood, virtue over vice, right over wrong, and above all faith over hypocrisy. 

To be more precise, the 17th of Shawwal is the day on which in the year 5 AH (627 AD) Islam resoundingly triumphed over the unholy alliance of the Arabs and Israelites, shattering forever the dreams of the confederates who were in league with the Fifth Column (the hypocrites) amongst the Muslims of Medina . 

Surah al-Ahzaab (The Confederates) of the holy Qur’an refers to this crucial encounter that is also called “Battle of the Ditch” (Khandaq – corruption of the Persian word ‘kandak’ which means ‘to dig’), because the Prophet on the suggestion of his newly arrived Iranian companion, Salman Farsi, had dug a moat on the side of Medina that did not contain any dense palm groves and was exposed to attack. 

Several Ayahs of this Surah refer to the state of the hypocrites and of those weak of faith amongst the Muslims.  It is obvious by the wordings of these Ayahs that this was a Divine tribulation, yet those who feared battle and were reluctant to risk their life in exchange for the eternal bliss of Paradise in defence of Islam, miserably failed. They not just entertained doubts in the mission of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), but some amongst them even conspired to hand him over to the joint Arab-Israelite force. 

Infant Islam was thus facing its most grueling test. Archenemy Abu Sufyan was confident that with the Israelites firmly on the side of the pagan Arabs, the Jewish tribes of Medina in secret contact with their co-religionists for breaking the pact with the Prophet, and the hypocrites amongst the Muslims serving as the Fifth Column, it would only be a matter of time for a complete victory over Islam. 

Perhaps, modern analysts might draw similarities to the current situation of the Muslim World, where certain Arab regimes which fund terrorists and hypocrites, have openly ganged up with the illegal Zionist entity under protection of the US, to try to wipe out the Islamic Resistance and those with firm faith in Muhammadan Islam – in Gaza, in the West Bank and throughout Occupied Palestine, in Syria, in Iraq, in Bahrain, in Yemen, in Egypt, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Iran, etc. 

Surah al-Ahzab is undeniable proof of the universality and immortality of Islam, and how gloriously it triumphed in Medina in 5 AH in the decisive encounter with the Arab-Israelite hordes, and how it has continued to thrive and enlighten the world throughout the past millennium, four centuries and forty-five years despite the gravity of the plots of its satanic enemies in every age and place. 

This means that for true Muslims, firmly adhering to the path of the Prophet, the present phase of Islamophobia by enemies of all hue and colour – the US, the Zionists, the Europeans, the Takfiris, the hypocrites, the atheists, the polytheists, etc. – is just another Divine test from which Islam, after due sacrifices, will emerge more stronger, while this current lot of devilish hordes will vanish forever. 

Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), on learning of the Arab-Israelite plot

against Islam, prepared the defences of Medina, whose natural fortifications were rocky heights and thick palm groves. On the suggestion of his Iranian companion, Salman, he dug a trench at the city’s edge that was vulnerable to enemy attack. 
When the joint Arab-Israelite army (in whose ranks was the veritable giant Amr ibn Abduwad noted for his brute strength), arrived, it found its entry blocked by the newly dug ditch. For some two weeks, the formidable force, confident of its strength, maneuvered, shooting arrows at the Muslim defenders on the other side. 
On the 17th of Shawwal, Amr bin Abduwad, along with two other horsemen found the narrowest point of the ditch and managed to spur the horses in a giant leap to the other side. He then challenged the Muslims to combat, at which most of them quaked with fear, while the hypocrites amongst them, devised plans to seize the Prophet and hand him over to the enemy. 
The Prophet of Peace appealed for calm and asked who will accept the infidel’s challenge. He repeated these words and on all three occasions no one rose except his cousin, son-in-law and Divinely-designated heir, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). 
 Some of the Muslims, instead of responding to the Prophet’s call, started to praise the strength and physical power of Amr bin Abduwad in a bid to demoralize the ranks of the faithful – similar to what the self-styled Muslims in the service of the US do today by extolling Washington’s military might and the benefits for the Arabs to ally with the Americans and the Israelis against Palestinian liberation movements, against the Hezbollah of Lebanon, against the Ansarallah of Yemen, against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, against Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), against Iran, and against the entire Axis of Islamic Resistance. 
The Prophet told the Imam to face the challenge of the Arab-Israelite warlord, saying “the embodiment of faith is all set to fight embodiment of infidelity.” 
The rest is history. Imam Ali (AS), after inviting Amr to Islam, and on his refusa, telling him to leave in peace rather than risk his life, engaged in combat.
Then with a flashing stroke his famous twin-bladed sword Dhu’l-Feqar, the Imam dispatched Amr to the bowels of hell, but not before allowing him to renew the life-and-death combat, because the cowardly representative of the Arab-Israelite force, when hurled to the ground, had dared to spit at him. 
On Amr’s fall the other two infidels fled, and as fear gripped the Arab-Israelite force, God Almighty sent powerful gales to disrupt their camps. Soon the confederates broke rank and fled.
No wonder, the Prophet hailed the Imam’s selfless feat which was solely for the sake of God and without personal emotions involved, as “The stroke of Ali on the Day of Khandaq is superior to the worship of the Thaqalayn (mankind and jinn combined).”