The Wind of Saba, and the Factors Behind the Victory at the Trench

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

A ḥadīth in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, with versions in al-Bukhārī, records the Prophet ﷺ saying: "I was granted victory by al-Ṣabā, and ʿĀd was destroyed by al-Dabūr" (نُصِرْتُ بِالصَّبَا وَأُهْلِكَتْ عَادٌ بِالدَّبُورِ), indicating that Allah dispatches distinct named winds for distinct purposes. Ibn Ḥajar comments that al-Ṣabā is traditionally associated with the gentle eastern wind said to have carried the scent of Yūsuf to his father Yaʿqūb, and with the wind that gathers clouds to bring rain, generally a wind of mercy, while al-Dabūr, the harsher western wind, is the "severe wind" (rīḥan ṣarṣarā) that Allah sent to annihilate the people of ʿĀd. Dr. Qadhi draws out the significance of Allah's choice at the Trench: despite the Confederates' hostility, Allah sent only al-Ṣabā against them, sufficient to scatter their camp and force their retreat but not to kill them outright, sparing them, as history would show, so that many of the very men who marched against Madinah at the Trench, including the bulk of Quraysh and Ghaṭafān, would go on to embrace Islam within a few years, a mercy that would have been foreclosed had al-Dabūr been sent instead.

Following the retreat, the Prophet ﷺ declared, as recorded in Musnad Aḥmad, "Now we will raid them, and they will never again raid us", marking a permanent shift from Muslim defense to Muslim initiative for the remainder of the Sīrah. He also began the practice, preserved to this day in ʿEid takbīrāt, of declaring after this victory: "Lā ilāha illallāhu waḥdah, ṣadaqa waʿdah, wa naṣara ʿabdah, wa aʿazza jundah, wa hazama al-aḥzāba waḥdah" (لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ، صَدَقَ وَعْدَهُ، وَنَصَرَ عَبْدَهُ، وَأَعَزَّ جُنْدَهُ، وَهَزَمَ الْأَحْزَابَ وَحْدَهُ), "There is no god but Allah alone; He fulfilled His promise, gave victory to His servant, honored His army, and defeated the Confederates by Himself alone", a direct echo of the Qur'ānic statement that "Allah was sufficient for the believers in the fighting" (وَكَفَى اللَّهُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ الْقِتَالَ, 33:25), since the Muslims never had to engage the main Confederate force in open battle at all.

Dr. Qadhi summarizes several converging factors behind the victory: first and foremost, the sincerity and steadfast faith (īmān) of the Companions and the Prophet's ﷺ own du'ā', which he holds as the primary cause Allah responded to; second, Nuʿaym ibn Masʿūd's singularly well-placed deception, made possible by his unique, simultaneous personal trust with Banū Qurayẓah, Quraysh, and his own tribe of Ghaṭafān, while deliberately never drawing his own tribe directly into the deception, which would have exposed his neutrality as false; third, Quraysh's genuine unfamiliarity with Jewish religious law, which turned Banū Qurayẓah's observance of the Sabbath into what looked to them like an obvious excuse for treachery; fourth, the sheer exhaustion of a month-long siege that wore down an army whose confidence had started from arrogance and public display, while the defending Muslims, sustained by faith rather than provisions, held their position; and finally, Allah's direct intervention through the storm and the unseen armies of the angels. Dr. Qadhi frames the entire episode as proof that once genuine trust in Allah is established, victory does not require the believers to "lift a sword" at all.