One Trench, One Slave, One Miracle: How Salman Al-Farsi Saved Islam in 627 CE

Medina, 5 AH – 627 CE. The month of Shawwal.

The wind that year carried ice instead of warmth. Nights were so cold that water froze in clay pots inside homes. Yet the real chill came from outside the city walls.

More than 10,000 warriors had surrounded Medina. Quraysh banners flew beside those of Ghatafan, Banu Nadir, and Banu Qurayza. Armoured horses, gleaming swords, endless rows of shields; it was the largest army the Arabian Peninsula had ever seen. History would call this moment Al-Ahzab: the Battle of the Confederates, the battle of the coalition that wanted to bury Islam forever.

Inside the city, only 3,000 Muslims stood ready. Many carried patched shields or sharpened date-palm branches instead of swords. Food had run so low that people tied stones to their stomachs to quiet the hunger. Children cried themselves to sleep. Women prayed through the night. Everyone knew: if Medina fell, the light of Islam would be extinguished for all time.

In that hour of absolute hopelessness, a man walked quietly to the Prophet ﷺ.

His name was Salman, the Persian; Salman Al-Farsi, may Allah be forever pleased with him.

His life had already read like a legend. Born in a small village in Persia, he grew up tending the sacred fire of the Zoroastrians. Something inside him refused to accept that fire was the ultimate truth. He left home, travelled, became Christian, served priests, and kept searching. One day raiders captured him, chained him, and sold him as a slave. He changed hands until, by Allah’s plan, he was brought to Medina. There he heard the words of Muhammad ﷺ and instantly recognised the final truth he had chased across deserts and years. He accepted Islam and was freed.

Now, standing in front of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Salman spoke with the calm of a man who had nothing left to lose and everything to give:

“O Messenger of Allah, in my homeland, when an enemy came with cavalry and numbers, we never fought them in the open. We dug a deep trench around the city; so deep and wide that no horse could jump it and no soldier could cross it without breaking formation.”

The Prophet ﷺ looked at him for a long moment. Then he smiled and said simply:

“We will dig the trench.”

Six kilometres long. Five metres wide. Four to five metres deep.

Six days. Three thousand hungry men. One impossible task.

Yet they began at once. The Prophet ﷺ himself picked up a pickaxe, slung a basket over his sacred shoulder, and started carrying soil. Dust covered his blessed face, but his smile never left. The Companions worked beside him, singing through cracked lips:

“O Allah! Were it not for You, we would never have been guided,

nor given charity, nor offered prayer.

So send down tranquillity upon us…”

When iron tools shattered against buried rock, the Prophet ﷺ stepped forward. He struck the boulder once; lightning flashed across the sky. He struck again; a second flash. A third time; a third flash. Then he turned to his Companions and said:

“With the first strike, Allah has opened for me the treasures of Persia.

With the second, the empire of Byzantium.

With the third, the palace of Sana’a in Yemen.”

The hungry men cheered until their voices broke. Years later, every single word came true.

The enemy arrived expecting an easy slaughter. Their warhorses galloped forward, then skidded to a halt. Before them stretched a gaping wound in the earth; an unbridgeable trench. Arrows were loosed, insults were shouted, but no soldier could cross. Twenty-seven freezing days and nights passed. The Muslims stood guard while hunger and cold gnawed at them, yet their line never broke.

Then Allah sent His unseen army.

A wind rose unlike any the Arabs had known. It howled like a living creature. Tents were ripped from their pegs and hurled into the darkness like scraps of paper. Cooking fires died instantly. Horses screamed and bolted. Sand filled eyes, noses, mouths. Abu Sufyan, commander of the Quraysh, stood in the chaos and finally shouted:

“We cannot fight the wind itself! Retreat!”

Ten thousand warriors turned and ran. They left behind weapons, supplies, pride; everything.

When dawn broke, the desert was silent. Not one Muslim had been martyred in open battle.

Standing atop the trench, the Prophet ﷺ declared:

“From this day on, we will go to them. They will never come to us again.”

And they never did.

A single trench, hastily-dug trench saved Islam from extinction.

And the idea that saved an entire Ummah came from a man the world once called a slave.

Today we call him by his true title: Salman Al-Farsi, the Seeker of Truth, Companion of the Final Messenger, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him and upon the greatest of creation, Muhammad ﷺ.

May Allah allow us to walk in their footsteps, even if only for a moment.

Did this story give you goosebumps? Which moment hit you hardest?

Drop it in the comments.

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JazakAllahu Khairan for reading till the end.