Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 621
UNVEILING OF THE 'UNSEEN' BY THE QURAN. A HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE. Hence, after consultation it was decided that the digging of a ditch was the only option. A one mile long ditch was required to be dug in extremely difficult rocky terrain. . The estimate as to the number of Muslims involved in this task differ. The minimum mentioned is seven hundred and the maximum three thousand. According to our estimate it was around one thousand eight hundred at the most, because the one thing on which the authorities are agreed is that to every group of ten persons, ten yards of the ditch were allocated. As it was not longer than one mile, the number of Muslims could not have been more than one thousand seven hundred and sixty. The task was hard and exacting. An overall state of poverty and deprivation further compounded the problems of the Muslim camp. At times they had to work for days an end on empty stomachs. . It was during this state of extreme adversity that the. Holy Prophetsa was once informed that despite the best efforts of the sappers, a hard rock stubbornly refused to yield. The Prophet sa proceeded forthwith to visit the troubled spot. Having reached there he took up the pickaxe in his own hands and struck the rock three times before it yielded and broke into fragments. Each time he struck, sparks flew from the rock and he exclaimed out loud Allaho-Akbar! (Allah is the Greatest). At the end the. Companions inquired from him why he had shouted Allaho-Akbar! with such a triumphant note. The Holy Prophetsa answered: 'In the sparks which flew at the first strike, I saw the Syrian palaces of the Byzantine Empire and their key was given to me. The second time I was shown the illuminated palaces of Persia at Madain and to me the key was handed. Again I was granted the key of the palaces of. San'a as they appeared in the sparks when I struck the rock for the third time. ' History bears witness that this is exactly what followed but the wonder lies not in their fulfilment 583