Seerah (56): The Battle of Ahzab/Khandaq/Trench In today's segment of the Seerah, the famous Battle of Ahzab also called

the Battle of the Trench or Khandaq will be covered. Ahzab is typically translated as, "various groups gathered together" and English typically is translated as the confederate armies meaning the armies of different tribes. Hizb means group and Ahzab means many groups. There are a number of opinions as to when the battle of Khandaq occured. As with the entire Seerah, there are a varying opinions of this. For this incident though the matter is more serious though because famous scholars have different opinions. That beind mentioned, frankly there is no practical importance for this to us today and the date is but a historical fact. Of the two main opinions, the first is the 4th A.H. of Shawwal. This means that the battle occured 1 year after Uhud as Uhud occured on the 3rd A.H. Recall that Badr occured on the 2nd year A.H. and there is no zero year of the Seerah. The year that the Prophet (s) migrated is considered the first year. The evidence is a very explicit hadith in Bokhari in a first person account. Ibn Ummar said, "on the day of Uhud I was 14 years old and I stood in ranks in Uhud wanting to be accepted and the Prophet (s) rejected me (as he did with 14 year olds), and on the day of Khandaq I was 15 and he let me go by." This hadith is as authentic as it gets as it is in Sahih Bokhari. There is no controversy regarding the dates of Badr and Uhud and thus Uhud definitely occured on the 3rd year. Thus by default the battle of Khandaq occured in Shawwal of the 4th year A.H. This position was held by Imam Al-Bokhari, Ibn Shihab as-Zuhri, Imam Nawawwi and the famous andalusi scholar Ibn Hazam. However we have all been taught that the battle of Khandaq occured in Shawwal of the 5th year A.H. This is the opinion of all famous authors of the Seerah including Ibn Ishaac, At-Tabari, Ibn Hishaam, As-Samhudi (a medieval Egyptian scholar) and Ibn-al-Qayyum. Their evidence is from the gathering of the entire Seerah and corresponding it with the date of Shawwal of 4th A.H. that is given for the battle of Khandaq. They conclude after looking at the entire data available that it would not fit in with what is known. The scholars of the opinion of the 4th year stick to their evidence (the hadith of ibn Ummar) but these particular set of scholars say that the 4th year was the second promise of Uhud, the battle called Badr. As-Sughra. They also mentioned Sa'ad bin Mua'adh who died right after the battle of Khandaq. His death is marked to the 5th year. Thus they say it must be the 5th year. So how do we reconcile with Ibn Ummar's narration? AlBayhaqqi says that maybe he had just turned 14 at Uhud and at Khandaq he was right at the end of 15 (so two years may have passed between the two battles). This is a nice attempt but two full years do not quite make perfect sense but to salvage this we rationalize that who kept track of birthdays anyway? Al-Bayhaqqi's is thus a valid point. The reason of this battle was an instigation by the tribe of the Banu Nadeer. They had been expelled from Madinah after a blatant attempt by their leaders led by Huyayy bin Akhtab (the father of Safiyyah) on the life of the Prophet (s) when he along with the Muslim leadership were sitting at the wall of the fortress. At this time the Yahudh planned to roll a boulder from the fortress and end the life of the Prophet (s). The condition of this expulsion was to leave their weapons and property except for what their camels could carry. The Banu Nadeer went to Khayber which is close, less than 2 hours away from Madinah if driving. This was thus in the close vicinity of Madinah. The Banu Nadeer were still hoping to get their land back as this was worth much and they had acres and acres of date fields. This was worth multi-millions of dollars while what they took with them was only worth few thousands. So being greedy for their land, Banu Nadeer sent an official delegation to Makkah with all their seniors. The names included Huyayy bin Akhtab, Sal-laam ibn Hukayk and other leaders from Banu Nadeer to go to the Quraysh. They asked for co-operation between the two with the Yahudh of Khayber and for them to together attack the Prophet (s). Banu Nadeer promised the Makkans as much money as required as they were backed by the wealth of Khayber. They also had the sympathy of the Quraysh because for the Quraysh their trade route to Syria was destroyed and so was their economy. What was the relationship of the Quraysh with the Yahudh? The Quraysh were somewhat fearful of them and they also had a major inferiority complex. Why the fear? Firstly because the Yahudh always acted superior and this rubbed down to the Quraysh who felt inferior. The Yahudh were all educated, had a book from God as claimed by them and had an ancient civilization with people all over the world. The Quraysh thus had an inferiority complex

and had a secret admiration for them. They also did not really trust the Yahudh. Abu Sufyaan thus replied in surprise that the Yahudh were reaching out to them, " tell me you are coming to us to fight against Mohammed (s), no doubt anyone who fights against him is a friend of ours, but whose religion is closer to yours? Ours or yours?." The Quraysh were confused thus because from their perspective - and this is true - that Judaism and Islam are very similar. Their "Halakha" - which literally translates as "the way" and is the same meaning as the Shari'ah - is 80% similar to our's in food, clothing, purification etc. How did this similarity take place? It is almost the same because it comes from the same source. So the Quraysh were confused about the Yahudh approaching them as their religions of polytheism and Judaism were not similar at all. And the Yahudh in response lied, "you are the ones more rightly guided than Mohammed and you are closer to the truth than Mohammed and his companions." At this Allah exposed their plots in the Qur'an and quoted them directly in Surah Nisa in verses that we recite to this day:

4:51 Hast thou not turned Thy vision to those who were given a portion of the Book? they believe in sorcery and Evil, and say to the Unbelievers that they are better guided in the (right) way Than the believers! Here we see how Allah quotes the exact words of the Yahudh to the Qurasyh and exposes their plan. The Banu Nadeer were offering another advantage to the Quraysh and this is that of food. The Quraysh were not farmers and Banu Nadeer had access to the dates of Khayber. Dates were a blessing and important food for the Arabs because they could be packed and taken anywhere and one could survive for many days with them. So the Quraysh that with this alliance knew they would have much supply for the future as well. The Quraysh thus decided to join Banu Nadeer. So after they convince the Quraysh, the Yahudh than sent a delegation to the tribe of Ghatafaan up north. The Ghatafaan were bedouin and of all the tribes known to be the most wild and barbaric. In tribes, their's was the largest tribe up North and the Quraysh were the most prestigious and well-armed of the South. Thus the two largest tribes that could attack Madinah were the Quraysh and Ghatafaan. These two tribes were also relatively closer to Madinah. And Allah says in the Qur'an:

33:10 Behold! they came on you from above you and from below you, and behold, the eyes became dim and the hearts gaped up to the throats, and ye imagined various (vain) thoughts about Allah. Some have said that the above and below refers to the tribes from North the Ghatafaan and from South the Quraysh. The Ghatafaan though did not have a vested interest in attacking Madinah. For the Quraysh their trade route was their lifeline but as for the Ghatafaan they benefitted no doubt from the Quraysh but overall they were ambivalent to attacking Madinah. They thus needed to be convinced. The Banu Nadeer offered to pay them half of the produce of Khayber for one year. This was a fortune for but one battle! Basically the Banu Nadeer hired mercenaries, bribing Ghatafan to come and attack. This was thus a win-win for both sides - the Banu Nadeer wanted a tribe like Ghatafaan with no morals and the Ghatafaan wanted favored kind of a bribe. As we will see later in the battle, this worked against the confederates as the first to flee were the Ghatafaan, who again really did not care much about attacking Madinah but were in it for the bribe that they were offered (half the wealth of Khayber for a year). When the Ghatafaan and Quraysh both agreed to join the confederation, the Quraysh sent out

delegations to the smaller tribes also affected by the trade route including the Banu Asad, Banu Sulaym, Banu Mur-ra and the Banu Kinana. Each was asked for help and each gave something either their weapons, armor, horses, a few men or even slaves. And for all these small tribes their main interest was the re-opening of their caravan route. This really appeared to be a win-win situation for all groups. For the Quraysh they were obviously looking for a way to get back at the Prophet (s) as Uhud was not the victory that they wanted, Badr As-Sughra (i.e. Uhud part 2 which was suppose to be a year after Uhud) was not fought and their caravan route was cut. They had seen the bravery and courage of the Muslims and did not want to meet them again as they knew they were not qualified to fight them. Out of nowhere the Banu Nadeer came with their offer and the Quraysh knew that in addition to eliminating the Muslims they would also have a constant food supply from the Banu Nadeer. As for the Banu Nadeer, they did not have the man power and were not skilled in the art of war as there main weapon was that of defence; their fortresses were really inpenetratable and inside they had stockpiled much dates and provision to survive. The Arabs really did not know how to conquer these foretresses. As Allah says in the Qur'an as discussed that the Yahudh thought their forts would defend them in a last lesson:

59:2 It is He Who got out the Unbelievers among the People of the Book from their homes at the first gathering (of the forces). Little did ye think that they would get out: And they thought that their fortresses would defend them from Allah. But the (Wrath of) Allah came to them from quarters from which they little expected (it), and cast terror into their hearts, so that they destroyed their dwellings by their own hands and the hands of the Believers, take warning, then, O ye with eyes (to see)! And Allah says about their humilitation:

3:112 Shame is pitched over them (Like a tent) wherever they are found, except when under a covenant (of protection) from Allah and from men; they draw on themselves wrath from Allah, and pitched over them is (the tent of) destitution. This because they rejected the Signs of Allah, and slew the prophets in defiance of right; this because they rebelled and transgressed beyond bounds. Allah says about them that they are in humilitation wherever they go except if they are under protection from Allah Himself from His Qadr or others help them out. That they are unable to stand independently and they must always get the help of others. This is a fact as history and reality has demonstrated. So the Banu Nadeer got help from the Quraysh and this is what their reference of needing help from the people is. Others were affected by trade but Ghatafaan's main motivation was the money. Skirmishes had already also started though between the Northern tribes and the Muslims, as we spoke about with the massacre of Ma'una, and this was advanced planning as they thought to eliminate the Muslims right now. And there is no doubt that one of the combining factors was sheer hatred of this new religion.

These are thus all the reasons for the battle of Khandaq. Abu Sufyaan was placed in charge of the army as he is the senior most military leader and he was the most potent fighter amongst them even though other chieftains were also present at the army. This is similar to how he was put in charge of Uhud two years before. Ibn Ishaac estimates the confederates at around 10,000 men and this is a rough estimate as there was no census at the time but they were definitely 3-4 times the quantity of Muslims who could not be more than 2500 fighting men. There was really no way that they could fight the confederates and this is unprecedented in the history of Arabia. We see another thing happening; that all of Arabia is uniting other two banners - Kufr vs Islam. Before this time the Arabs were disparate people of tribes where maximum two tribes would form temporary alliances to fight a third. Never before had 10-15 tribes come together. Now there was a massive battle that had never been seen before and this shows us that a little over 10 years of the Prophet's message now we have about 15,000 people fighting in two armies. And this was really a battle between Islam and Kufr and we know that within 5 years this would come to an end and Islam would be victorius. Abu Sufyaan asked them to meet at a specific pre-determined place so the Ghatafaan came down, the Quraysh came up and the tribes met at a specific place. These massive numbers of the confederates really can not be hidden and the news had reached the Prophet (s) and as was his sunnah at Uhud and Badr he convened a gathering of the sahaba in the masjid, informed them of the situation and asked them for their advice. The books of Seerah do not mention many options and this is really because there were no options. What can be done when 10,000 people surround a city? All that can be done is to find a place to fight and than do so. This was when Salman Al-Farsi (and this was his first battle) came forth. At this time Salman was likely 70 years old, probably even 100 and some books mention that he died at the age of 120. If that is true that at this time he was about 100. As we know, he went through a long life of being a Zorastrian to Christian (going through 4 monks for about 15 years) until the final monk asked him to go to the land of the date palms as the Prophet (s) was just about to come. Three signs were given for him; that this Prophet would come at the land of the date palms, that he had a seal of Prophethood on his shoulder plate and that he would not accept charity but would accept gifts. Salman wanted to make his way to Khayber (the primary producing dates of the entire region, it was far larger than Madinah) but Allah willed that he was taken captive and sent to Madinah. Eventually he came to the Prophet (s) and told him the story and the Prophet (s) showed him the seal. Salman agreed with his master to be freed for a proposterous sum: around 100 date palms that were grown to their full (this would take 15 years!). So Salman asked the Prophet (s) for help, who asked Salman to call him when the time came. When this happened the Prophet (s) himself went and laid every single seedling himself and obviously when he did so Salman was freed with a much expedited process. He was thus not able to participate in Badr and Uhud because he was not free and here he was at Khandaq, his first battle. Because of his age he could not participate physically but he did give the plan of the trench as was a war tactic in Persia. He was the one who imported this idea in Arabia. This shows us a very important point that when it comes to new ideas Islam is very open. In Islam, technical innovation is good while in worship it is not. This was a custom of Persia and the Arabs had not done this before, yet this was useful and beneficial and the Prophet (s) himself adopted it. And there are many examples of this in the Seerah. Thus the rule is that when it comes to rituals, Aqeedah and worship we do not compromise our values but when it comes to this world we benefit from all experiences without caring where it comes from. As is a common saying, "Wisdom is a lost item of the Mu'min, he picks it up wherever he finds it." This is an incident on technology. Even knowledge of this world was taken upon by the Prophet (s). As the Prophet (s) said, "I was about to prohibit you from Gheela (having a child with one's wife while she is breastfeeding) but than I saw that the Romans and Persians having kids one after another and it does not harm them so go ahead with it..." Because this was a non-religious worldly topic he allowed it. And with all other sciences not contradicting the Shari'ah it is encouraged to adopt it if it is beneficial. The Prophet (s) even adopted cultures of the world because it was the norm. As

an example the first time he sent a letter to Hiraclius he was told that kings do not accept a message from another unless there is a sealed wax on it (so they know it is directly sent from the ruler without a messenger reading it). This was the custom of the time and the Prophet (s) was encouraged to do this. So the Prophet (s) asked about this and he was told to make a special signature unique to him. And so at this he asked for a special ring to be made with the saying "Mohammed" in the bottom line, "Rasool" on the middle line and "Allah" on the top line. The order of "Mohammed Rasool Allah" was switched and done to give respect to Allah that even in writing that His name is the highest. So he made this ring and would use this ring every time he would send a letter with wax on it and his seal or stamp as well. This shows us an important idea; today in our Ummah we have this prevalent mentality, "this is the system of the Kufar and we can not do it" but this is not what the Prophet (s) said or did. There is a system that the world operates by and as long as it is not haraam we also work this way in the world. Again that there is no problem taking from the language, knowledge, customs and cultures of others as long as it does not explicitly contradict our Shari'ah. So the Prophet (s) agreed to the trench and he also said right at the beginning to gather all the women and children and send them to the fortress of Banu Haritha. The Banu Haritha from the Ansar had taken this tactic from the Yahudh (by virtue of them living with the Yahudh for centures) and imitated a fortress and this was the largest fortress of the Ansar. This was obviously but an imitation and not at the level of Yahudi architecture but it was regardless the most protected fortress of the Ansar. Only a few tribes of the Ansar actually had fortresses. We see here that the Prophet (s) was thinking many steps ahead and was worried. He was worried that all of the men would be busy guarding the perimeters when inside Madinah there is still the tribe of Banu Quraydha whose loyalty was uncertain. This is what made Ahzab so sensitive and why what happened to Banu Quraydha happened. Remember that of the 3 Yahudi tribes, Banu Qaynuqa' were expelled and than Banu Nadeer were expelled even more harshly. The Banu Quraydha had taken three seperate oaths to the Muslims - the treaty of Madinah when it was written, after Banu Qaynuqah were expelled the treaty was renewed with both Banu Nadeer and Banu Quraydha, and finally when Banu Nadeer were being besieged the Prophet (s) explicit left the seige and went to Banu Quraydha to renew the treaty - promising by Allah to the constitution of Madinah. So the last of the three Yahudi tribes' loyalty was still uncertain and had they turned around and betrayed the Muslims, because they are on the inside of the trench, this would be absolutely disastrous for the Muslims. So the Prophet (s) is automatically thinking ahead and as the trench is commanded to be dug he also commands for the women and kids to be sent to Banu Haretha's fortress. Fortresses and camels would be named as was custom and the name of this fortress was Al-Fari'. A famous story of this fort is narrated by Abdullah Ibn Zubayr who was only 4 years old at the time (remember he was the first Muslim to be born in Madinah as he was born right at the entrance of the city at Quba and and his birth was taken as a positive omen). Ummar bin Abi-Salama was also with him at the time (being the step son of the Prophet (s) as he was the son of Abu Salama and Umm Salama). Chronologically this story happened a week from this time but it is being mentioned here as the fortress has been mentioned. The issue was that the women and children were sent to the fortress and it is said that 1-2 very elderly men were sent with one younger man sent with them - Hassan ibn Thabit. Hassan was likely 40-50 years old at the time. Why was he left behind and sent to the fortress? Though it may be seem to be controversial we mention this because everything in the Seerah has much benefit and wisdom. The story in Musnad Imam Ahmed as narrated by Ibn Zubayr is that he was put into the fortress with other kids, elders, the women and Hassan who was basically not able to fight. Hassan was not of those that could carry a weapon as it was said that when he would carry a weapon he would tremble. Allah has created people differently but generally speaking those involved in the arts are not known for their vallour and bravery, and Hassan was known to be a poet. Hassan thus could not carry a sword, could not participate in war and was the only man in the fortress. A week later after the 10,000 confederates were outside the city the Banu Quraydhah decided to betray the Muslims. The first thing they did was - and this is important to understand when we look at what was the fate of Banu Quraydha later on - that they planned to execute the women and children. They thus sent two scouts to Al-Fari' in the middle of the night to see if it was protected or not before deciding to launch an offensive. The Yahudh lived at the time in Awali

which was far from this fort so this is why the scouts were sent. The purpose of this attack was to demoralize the Muslims and allow a passageway for the confederates to enter into Madinah. Now in the middle of night, Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib heard the noise of somoene climbing the fort. She woke up Hassan who was the only man in the fort, encouraging him to fight. But he replied, "oh aunt of the Prophet (s), don't humiliate me more, you know this is not my field!" So she took a male shawl, threw it around her to give the image of a man, and she next she takes a dagger and puts it into her mouth and climbs out through a window and in pitch darkness she finds this man climbing up speaking to his companion down below. So she waits, completely surprises him as she jumps on him, slits his throat (which requires much force) and throws the head down to the companion to scare him. The companion shrieks and runs, thinking the place was guarded! And after the job was done she comes back in to Hassan asking him to take the armor of the enemy so that they could atleast have something, but Hassan answers "I have no need of them!" The purpose of narrating these stories, as are authentically mentioned in the books, is that they are less commonly mentioned because our culture and custom is to cover up and this is good sometimes. But this narration is mentioned in all authentic books. Some modern authors have tried to re-interpret this and defend Hassan as not actually being this way but their arguments are emotional that he was not brave. Why? Because the enemies of Islam today try to bring up personal faults of Hassan to smear the image of the tribe and the Muslims in general. But really we don't mention this to make fun of a sahabi (this is in fact a sin), but rather we do this because there are some negatives on Hassan's resume as well and this is one of them. We discussed another last week; his spreading of the slander of Aisha and frankly this was much worse as this (not being able to fight) is beyond his control. This is mentioned to demonstrate the humanity of our tradition and our sahaba. We have a tendency to make them super human but the problem with this is that we can no longer relate to them. It is healthy for us to know that the sahaba committed sins and made mistakes and repented and Allah forgave them because we know we are also very sinful. Yet all of the sahaba have achieved the pleasure of Allah despite their mistakes and this is a very important point of wisdom and a glad tiding for us. Allah explicitly mentioned that after his punishment of 80 lashes, Hassan was forgiven for what his role in the slander of Aisha. The second reason for mentioning this story is that despite these issues on Hassan's resume, the positives of Hassan are far higher. He was the official poet of the Prophet (s), the one who when the Quraysh wrote a poem the Prophet (s) told Hassan, "stand up and defend me and the angel Jibreel will be with you!" So the angel Jibreel was whispering to Hassan - "Il-Haam" is a type of whispering of angels to non-Prophets such as how the mother of Musa was spoken to by an angel - and Hassan had a special mimbar erected for him. He was the only Sahabi to have such an honor and this mimber was called the mimbar of Hassan. Here he would stand and recite his poetry. The books of history also mention that Ummar bin Khattab, who was as we know very stern, when he became khalifa he once entered a masjid and there he saw that Hassan was giving his poetry. Immediately Ummar hit Hassan with his stick but Hassan got irritated at this. Ummar replied, "You are saying poetry in the masjid of the Prophet (s), how dare you!" and Hassan replied, "By Allah I have recited poetry in it when there was someone in it far better than you !" and he turned to Abu Hurayra, "oh Abu Hurayra, I ask you by Allah did you not hear the Prophet (s) say that day when he commanded me to stand up and write poetry and the angel Jibreel would help me?" And Abu Hurayra affirmed to this. So Hassan had such an honorable role with the angel Jibreel helping him and being the official poet of the Prophet (s). Isn't it comforting for us to know that he was also human? The main wisdom is the following: every single one of us has a unique role to play and our sins and weaknesses and shortcomings should not hold us back in stepping up to that role. Hassan knew his weakness and the public knew it at the time. This is why he is automatically put with the women and kids at Khandaq, and he tells Safiyyah to not make it worse than it is. We also know that he was publicly punished with 80 lashes for his role in the incident of the slander of Aisha! Yet when the Prophet (s) told him to stand up and defend him did Hassan make an excuse that he was sinful or not qualified? No he did not! Or did he realize that perhaps in this is his honor and dignity as a Muslim and forgiveness from Allah. This is extremely profound and heartening for us! We can all sympathize with Hassan's weaknesses because we all have far more problems than

he did yet when his time came to shine what did he do? He stood up and did what Abu Bakr, Ummar, Uthman, Khalid bin Waleed and Abu Hurayra could not even do. His role was unique to him despite his shortcomings and this is the humanity of the sahaba that makes them perfect stars! Quoting these negative things while seeing how their positive far outweighed their negative and seeing how they repented - achieved Allah's forgiveness and His pleasure on top of this - is most inspiring and heartening to us indeed. Thus if you find an opportunity to do good for the Ummah do not let Shaytaan come to you and put you down and not let you take advantage of your opportunity! The true Muslim never dismisses his sin but he never uses a sin to stop from doing some good. Back to the trench, the Prophet (s) agreed to dig this trench and assigned 10 people for every portion of it. The exact length and location of this trench is not known as there were no detailed maps of Madinah where the sahaba planned this, so any estimation in our times is exactly that: an estimation. Some modern authors who have really researched the Seerah have calculated that the trench was around 2km long and along 13 feet wide usually (at times 10 or more feet) and between 7 to 9 arms deep. The question arises, what about the rest of the city and why was only 2 km dug? The most obvious response is the most feasible - Madinah was naturally protected by the volcanic lava-rocks on the West and East boundaries of the city. It seems that there was a volcano thousands of years ago and spread in such a weird shape that it is impossible for an army to walk on these rocks. To this day the two areas are called Har-ra Sharqiyah and Har-ra Gharbiyah because of these two rocks. The rest of the Madinah in the direction of the army attacking were plantations of date-palms and an army can not attack through these. Thus the most obvious answer is that the only stretch of land that could allow them to enter Madinah was dug in as a trench. And as for their numbers of 10,000 strong - these numbers proved against them thus as for such a large number the horses, camels and supplies needed a large area to enter. Imagine digging 2km without bull-dozers or slaves. This was a massive and cumbersome human effort to dig a trench so wide and deep in a matter of less than 10 days. This was the only option they had and the point was to stall the army and wait for another plan. Frankly this was an act of desperation because it was but a temporary tactic, and so immediately the sahaba worked non-stop, working day and night. Each and every member of the sahaba, from the poor to rich, participated and even the Prophet (s) participated in it himself. The sahaba mention that this was the greatest motivational factor for them. Anas bin Malik narrates (he was a young child at the time) that, " the Prophet (s) went out to the trenches and the Ansar and Muhajiroon were digging and it was a cold evening (this was winter time and they really could not take a break from the digging at night or in the evening) and we had no slaves to help us, and when the Prophet (s) saw how tired and hungry he made a du'a to Allah and said, 'oh Allah there is no good except in the Akhira so have mercy on the Ansar and the Muhajiroon' and they responded to the Prophet (s) that, 'we are the ones that gave you our oath upon Jihad and as long as we live we will do this!'". Al Baraa-ibn Hazib narrates, "I saw the Prophet (s) on the day of Khandaq and he was carrying the dust for so long that his entire chest hair was covered with dust (this means he had taken his shirt off and was sweating with the people) and he was a man with much chest hair and all of it was covered with the dust of carrying the trenches, and he was saying poetry along with us (this was done to motivate), 'oh Allah were it not for you we would not be guided nor would we give charity and we would not pray so send your peace down upon us and make us firm when our enemies come to us, verily the enemies have transgressed upon us and when they want a fitnah (meaning shirk, death) we refuse to listen to them - abayna' and the sahaba would repeat "abayna! abayna!" after the Prophet (s)"