Allâh is Great, the keys of Ash-Shâm (Geographical Syria) are mine, I swear by Allâh, I can see its  palaces at the moment;” on the second strike he said: “Allâh is Great, Persia is mine, I swear by Allâh,
I can now see the white palace of Madain;” and for the third time he struck the rock, which turned into  very small pieces, he said: “Allâh is Great, I have been given the keys of Yemen, I swear by Allâh, I  can  see the gates of San‘a while I am in my place.” The same version was narrated by Ishaq. The northern  part of Madinah was the most vulnerable, all the other sides being surrounded by mountains and palm  tree orchards, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) as a skillful military expert, understood that the
Confederates would march in that direction, so the trench was ordered to be on that side. The Muslims  went on digging the trench for several days; they used to work on it during the day, and go back  home  in the evening until it had assumed its full dimensions militarily before the huge army of the idolaters;  which numbered, as many as ten thousand fighters, arrived and settled in the vicinity of Madinah in  places called Al-Asyal and Uhud.
“And when the believers saw ‘Al-Ahzab’ (the confederates), they said: ‘This is what Allâh and His
Messenger Muhammad (Peace be upon him) had promised us, and Allâh and His Messenger
Muhammad (Peace be upon him) had spoken the truth, and it only added to their Faith and to  their submissiveness (to Allâh).” 33:22
Three thousand Muslims, with Muhammad (Peace be upon him) at their head, came out to encounter  the idolaters, with Allâh’s Promise of victory deeply established in their minds. They entrenched  themselves in Sila‘ Mountain with the trench standing as a barrier between them and the disbelievers.
On attempting to attack the Muslims and break into Madinah, the idolaters were surprised to see a  wide  trench, a new stratagem unknown in Arabia before, standing as an obstinate obstruction.
Consequently  they decided to lay siege to Madinah and began to manoeuvre around the trench trying hard to find a  vulnerable spot through which they could infiltrate into Madinah. To deter their enemies from  approaching or bridging any gap in their defences, the Muslims hurled arrows, and engaged in  skirmishes with them. The veteran fighters of Quraish were averse to this situation waiting in vain in  anticipation of what the siege might reveal. Therefore they decided that a group of fighters led by
‘Amr  bin ‘Abd-e-Wudd, ‘Ikrima bin Abi Jahl and Dirar bin Al-Khattab, should work its way through the  trench.
They, in fact, managed to do that and their horsemen captured a marshy area between the trench and
Sila‘ Mountain. ‘Amr challenged the Muslims to a duel, and ‘Ali bin Abi Talib was deputed. After a short  but fierce engagement, ‘Ali killed ‘Amr and obliged the others to evacuate in a state of panic and  confusion. However, some days later, the polytheists conducted fresh desperate attempts but all of  them failed due to Muslims’ steadfastness and heroic confrontation.
In the context of the events of the Trench Battle, the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) failed to  observe some prayers in their right time. Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him)  narrated: On the Day  of
Trench ‘Umar bin Al-Khattab (May Allah be pleased with him) came, cursing the disbelievers of
Quraish  and said: “O Allâh’s Messenger! I have not offered the afternoon prayer and the sun has set.” The
Prophet (Peace be upon him) replied: "By Allâh! I, , have not offered the prayer yet.” The Prophet
(Peace be upon him) then went to Buthan, performed ablution and observed the afternoon prayer  after  the sun had set and then offered the sunset prayer after it.” He was so indignant for this failure that  he  invoked Allâh’s wrath on his enemies and besought Allâh to fill their houses and graves with fire  because they distracted him from observing the afternoon prayer. It was narrated by Ahmed and
Shafa‘i that the events of that battle detained him from the noon, afternoon, evening and night  prayers,  but he observed them combined. The different narrations point to the fact that the situation lasted for  a  few days.
It is clear that, and because of the trench standing between the two parties, no direct engagement  took  place, but rather there were military activities confined to arrow hurling, consequently the fight