The rock and the three pick strikes: the keys of the lands

Ibn Ishaq said: I was told by Salman the Persian that he said: I struck in a part of the Trench and a rock proved hard upon me, and the Messenger of Allah was near me; and when he saw me striking and saw the hardness of the place upon me he descended and took the pick from my hand and struck with it a blow beneath which a flash flashed, then struck with it another blow beneath which flashed another flash; then struck with it the third and flashed another flash. I said: may my father and mother be your ransom, O Messenger of Allah, what is this I saw flashing beneath the pick while you struck? He said: ’have you seen that, O Salman?’ He said: I said: yes. He said: ’as for the first, Allah opened by it Yemen; and as for the second, Allah opened by it Syria and the Maghrib; and as for the third, Allah opened by it the East.’ Al-Bayhaqi said: what Ibn Ishaq mentioned, Musa ibn Uqba mentioned in his campaigns, and Abu l-Aswad mentioned it, from Urwa.

Then al-Bayhaqi reported, through Muhammad ibn Yunus al-Kudaimi: and in his hadith there is examination: but Ibn Jarir reported it in his History from Muhammad ibn Bashshar Bondar, both from Muhammad ibn Khalid ibn Athma, from Kathir ibn Abdallah ibn Amr ibn Awf al-Muzani, from his father, from his grandfather, who mentions a hadith in which the Messenger of Allah marked the Trench, for every ten men forty cubits. The Muhajirun and the Ansar disputed over Salman, and the Messenger of Allah said: ’Salman is of us, the people of the House.’ Amr ibn Awf said:

I was I and Salman and Hudhayfa and an-Nu’man ibn Muqarrin and six of the Ansar in forty cubits, and we dug until we reached the depth and there appeared to us a smooth white rock which broke our iron and was hard upon us. Salman went to the Messenger of Allah while he was in a Turkish qubba and informed him of it, and he came and took the pick from Salman and struck the rock a blow splitting it, and a flash flashed from it lighting what is between the two Harras of Medina until it was as a lamp in the middle of a dark night; and the Messenger of Allah magnified with a takbir of conquest and the Muslims magnified; then he struck it the second and it was likewise, then the third and likewise.

Salman and the Muslims mentioned that to the Messenger of Allah and asked him of that light, and he said: ’there was lighted for me from the first the palaces of al-Hira and the cities of Khusrau, like the fangs of dogs, and Gabriel informed me my community will triumph over it; and from the second the red palaces of the land of the Romans flashed like the fangs of dogs, and Gabriel informed me my community will triumph over it; and from the third the palaces of Sana’a flashed like the fangs of dogs, and Gabriel informed me my community will triumph over it; so receive glad tidings.’ The Muslims received glad tidings and said: praise to Allah, a true promise. He said: when the Confederates appeared the believers said: this is what Allah and His Messenger promised us, and Allah and His Messenger spoke truly, and it added to them only faith and submission; and the hypocrites said:

he informs you he sees from Yathrib the palaces of al-Hira and the cities of Khusrau, and that they will be opened for you, while you dig the Trench unable to come out! So there descended upon them: and when the hypocrites said, and those in whose hearts is disease: what Allah and His Messenger promised us is but deception; and this hadith is strange.

The hafiz Abu l-Qasim at-Tabarani said: Harun ibn Mallul narrated to us: Abu Abd ar-Rahman narrated to us: Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ziyad narrated to us, from Abdallah ibn Yazid, from Abdallah ibn Amr, who said: when the Messenger of Allah ordered the Trench and dug around Medina they said: O Messenger of Allah, we found a rock we cannot dig; and the Prophet rose and we rose with him, and when he came to it he took the pick and struck with it a blow and magnified, and I heard a crash the like of which I had never heard, and he said: ’Persia has been opened’; then he struck another and magnified, and I heard a crash the like of which I had never heard, and he said: ’Rome has been opened’; then he struck another and magnified, and I heard a crash the like of which I had never heard, and he said: ’Allah has brought Himyar as aid and support’; and this too is strange by this route, and Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ziyad ibn An’um al-Afriqi is weak in it; and Allah knows best.

At-Tabarani also said: Abdallah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal narrated to us: Sa’id ibn Muhammad al-Jarmi related to me: Abu Tumayla related to me: Nu’aym ibn Sa’id al-Abdi informed me that Ikrima related from Ibn Abbas:

the Messenger of Allah dug the Trench and his companions had tied stones upon their bellies from hunger; and when the Messenger of Allah saw that he said: ’have you indicated to me a man who would feed us a bite?’ A man said: yes. He said: ’then advance and point him to us’. They went to the man’s house and there he was in the Trench working his share of it, and his wife sent word: come, for the Messenger of Allah has come to us. The man came running and said: may my father and mother be your ransom: and he had a goat with its kid, and he leapt to her, and the Prophet said: ’the kid is behind her’.

So he slaughtered the kid, and the woman set to some flour she had and kneaded and baked, and the pot swelled, and she brought her bowl near to the Messenger of Allah and his companions, and the Messenger of Allah placed his finger in it and said: ’in the name of Allah; O Allah, bless it; eat’. They ate of it until they departed, having eaten only a third of it, and two thirds of it remained; so he dismissed those ten who were with him: go and send me your numbers; and they went, and those ten came and ate of it until they were full; then he rose and prayed for the mistress of the house and blessed upon her and upon the people of her house; then they walked to the Trench and he said: ’go with me to Salman’: and there was a rock before him grown weak: and the Messenger of Allah said: ’leave me to be the first to strike it’, and said: ’in the name of Allah’, and struck it, and a third of it fell, and he said: ’Allah is greatest:

the palaces of Rome and the Lord of the Kaaba’; then he struck another and a part fell, and he said: ’Allah is greatest: the palaces of Persia and the Lord of the Kaaba’: and the hypocrites said: we dig for our own persons and he promises us the palaces of Persia and Rome!

Then the hafiz al-Bayhaqi said: Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abdan informed us: Ahmad ibn Ubayd as-Saffar informed us: Muhammad ibn Ghalib ibn Harb narrated to us: Hawdha narrated to us: Awf narrated to us, from Maymoun ibn Ustad az-Zuhri: al-Bara ibn Azib al-Ansari related to me: when the Messenger of Allah commanded us to dig the Trench there appeared to us in part of the Trench a great, hard rock which the picks did not take, and they complained of that to the Messenger of Allah; and when he saw it he took the pick and said: ’in the name of Allah’, and struck a blow breaking its third, and said: ’Allah is greatest: I have been given the keys of Syria, and by Allah I see its red palaces if Allah wills’; then he struck the second, cutting another third, and said: ’Allah is greatest: I have been given the keys of Persia, and by Allah I see the white palace of al-Mada’in’; then he struck the third and said: ’in the name of Allah’, cutting the remainder of the stone, and said: ’Allah is greatest: I have been given the keys of Yemen, and by Allah I see the gates of Sana’a from my place at this hour’.

This hadith is strange too: Maymoun ibn Ustad alone reports it, and he is Basran, reporting from al-Bara and Abdallah ibn Amr; from him Humayd at-Tawil and al-Jariri and Awf al-A’rabi; Abu Hatim said,

from Ishaq ibn Mansur, from Ibn Ma’in: he was reliable; and Ali ibn al-Madini said: Yahya ibn Sa’id al-Qattan did not report from him.

An-Nasa’i said: Issa ibn Yunus narrated to us: Damra narrated to us, from Abu Zur’a as-Saybani, from Abu Sukayna: a man of the freed: from a man of the companions of the Prophet, who said: when the Messenger of Allah ordered the digging of the Trench there appeared to them a rock barring them from the digging; and the Prophet rose and took the pick and placed his cloak at the side of the Trench and said: ’and the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice; none can change His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing’ [al-An’am: 115]; and a third of the stone crumbled, and Salman the Persian standing looking; and with the blow of the Messenger of Allah a flash flashed; then he struck the second and said: and the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice; none can change His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing; and the other third crumbled, and a flash flashed which Salman saw; then he struck the third and said: and the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice; none can change His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing; and the remaining third crumbled, and the Messenger of Allah went out and took his cloak and sat, and Salman said: O Messenger of Allah, I saw you when you struck, not striking but a flash came with it.

The Messenger of Allah said: ’O Salman, did you see that?’ He said: yes, by Him who sent you with the truth,

O Messenger of Allah. He said: ’when I struck the first blow there were raised for me the cities of Khusrau and what surrounds it, and many cities, until I saw them with my eye’; and those of his companions present said: O Messenger of Allah, pray to Allah to open it for us and let us take their children as spoils, and demolish their land with our hands; and he prayed that; then said: ’then I struck the second blow, and there were raised for me the cities of Caesar and what surrounds it, until I saw them with my eye’. They said: O Messenger of Allah, pray to Allah to open it for us and let us take their children as spoils and demolish their land with our hands; and he prayed; then said: ’then I struck the third blow, and there were raised for me the cities of Abyssinia and the villages around it, until I saw them with my eye’; then the Messenger of Allah said: ’leave the Abyssinians so long as they leave you, and leave the Turks so long as they leave you’.

Thus an-Nasa’i reports it at length, while Abu Dawud reported only: ’leave the Abyssinians so long as they leave you, and leave the Turks so long as they leave you’, through Issa ibn Muhammad ar-Ramli, from Damra ibn Rabi’a, from Abu Zur’a Yahya ibn Abi Amr as-Saybani, likewise. Ibn Ishaq said: one whom I do not suspect related to me, from Abu Hurayra, that he used to say, when these lands were opened in the time of Umar and the time of Uthman and after him: search what seems good to you; and by Him in whose hand is the soul of Abu Hurayra,

you shall never open a city until the Day of Resurrection but Allah had given Muhammad its keys before that. This too is broken by this route, though connected by another; and to Allah belongs praise. The Imam Ahmad said: Hajjaj narrated to us: Layth narrated to me: Uqayl ibn Khalid related to me, from Ibn Shihab, from Sa’id ibn al-Musayyab, that Abu Hurayra said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: I was sent with comprehensive words and aided with dread, and while I slept I was brought the keys of the treasuries of the earth and they were placed in my hand. Al-Bukhari reported it alone, from Yahya ibn Bukayr and Sa’d ibn Ufayr, both from Layth, likewise, and at his side Abu Hurayra said: the Messenger of Allah has gone and you are plucking them.

The Imam Ahmad said: Yazid narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Amr narrated to us, from Abu Salama, from Abu Hurayra: the Messenger of Allah said: I was aided with dread, given comprehensive words, the earth made for me a mosque and a purifier, and while I slept I was brought the keys of the treasuries of the earth and they were unrolled in my hand: a good, strong chain upon the condition of Muslim, and they did not report it. In the two Sahihs: when Caesar perishes there will be no Caesar after him, and when Khusrau perishes there will be no Khusrau after him, and by Him in whose hand is my soul you shall surely spend their treasures in the path of Allah; and in the sound hadith: Allah has bent for me the earth, its easts and its wests, and the kingdom of my community will reach what was bent for me of it.