A Critical Examination of the Prophet’s Glad Tidings of Conquest in the Narrative of the Trench Rock

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Mehdi Salah ¹
• Mohammad Amraei ²

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

² Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran

10.22067/jquran.2025.90413.1760

Abstract

During the digging of the trench in the fifth year of the Hijra, Muslims encountered a massive rock that no one could break until the Prophet himself shattered it. This event became widely known in historical sources as the narrative of the “Trench Rock.” According to certain versions of this report, the Messenger of God (PBUH), while striking the rock, promised the Muslims that they would conquer the lands of Persia, Rome, and Yemen. The present study seeks to answer the main question: What are the reasons for the authenticity or inauthenticity of the report regarding the Prophet’s glad tidings of territorial conquests during the digging of the trench? To this end, the study employs the method of isnād (chain of transmission) criticism to examine the narrations and conducts a historical content analysis. The findings indicate that the narrative consists of two parts: the original account of the rock’s emergence and its breaking by the Prophet (PBUH), which possesses a reliable chain of transmission; however, all reports attributing the prophecy of future conquests to the Prophet lack sound isnād and also present textual inconsistencies.

Keywords

• Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
• Trench Rock
• hadith
• chain of transmission

Main Subjects

• Quran and Hadith Studies

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