A Critical Examination of the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Glad Tidings of the Conquest of Lands in the Narration of the Trench Rock

علوم قرآن و حدیث

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 13 July 2025   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jquran.2025.90413.1760

Authors

Mehdi Salah¹; Mohammad Amraei^{* 2}

¹Associate Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran

²PhD student, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran

Abstract

During the digging of the trench (in 5 AH), the Muslims encountered a hard rock that none of them could break. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) personally struck and shattered it. This incident has become known in historical sources as the “Narration of the Trench Rock.” According to some versions of this report, the Prophet (PBUH), while striking the rock, gave the Muslims the glad tidings that they would conquer the lands of Persia, Byzantium, and Yemen.
The present study seeks to answer the main question: What are the reasons for the authenticity or lack thereof of the report attributing the Prophet’s (PBUH) prophecy of future conquests to the time of the trench digging? To this end, the chains of transmission (isnads) of the narrations will be examined using the method of biographical evaluation (ʿilm al-rijāl), and the content of the narrations will be analyzed through a historical lens.
The findings of this study indicate that the content of the “Trench Rock” narration can be classified into two general categories. The core account of the rock appearing and being broken by the Prophet (PBUH) has reliable chains of transmission. However, all versions that attribute the prophecy of future conquests to the Prophet (PBUH) not only suffer from textual inconsistencies but also have weak or unauthentic chains of transmission

Keywords

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH); Trench Rock; Narration; Chain of Transmission (Isnād)

References