‘People of the Ditch’ is one of the stories narrated in Surat Al Burooj in the Holy Quran and was explained in many of the Hadeeth by Prophet Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him. This story explains many lessons that clarify The Almighty Allah’s, power in granting some people with certain abilities. Those people are chosen by Allah because of their clear hearts and their faith and belief in Him. Those people know that He is the Only One Who can find solutions to their problems and protect them from unjustice.
This Quranic story explains why an unjust king ordered his soldiers to dig a ditch and light a huge fire inside it.
Many centuries ago, there was an unjust and a cruel king who was very tough, conceited and supercilious. This king crossed all the red lines when he announced that he was the God of all people, asking his citizen to worship him. One of the king’s followers was a very old magician who was helping him in running his city and controlling his people, as well as predicting the king’s future.
When this magician became so old and felt that he was about to die, and was unable to respond to his king’s requests, he suggested that the king choose a smart boy for the magician to teach him magic, and the secrets of the stars, in order to replace him in helping the king. The king liked the suggestion and called for youth who were smart enough to learn magic and service him later. The king’s followers tested the youth who were interested and they chose a righteous boy, who was sent later to the old magician to learn from him magic’s secrets.
During his visits to the magician’s house, the boy spotted a house in the horizon, in which a righteous monk was living, isolated from people. The boy felt curious about the monk so he visited him. The monk’s speech, wisdom and righteous thinking impressed the boy who made sure to visit the monk at the beginning or the end of each visit to the magician.
The magician noticed that the boy was always late to his lesson so he started to punish him when he was late. The boy’s parents also punished him because he was late going back home. The boy complained to the monk who told him to say that the magician delayed him when his parents asked, and to say that his parents delayed him when the magician asked.
One day, the boy was on his way to the magician when a dangerous animal was threatening people. The boy said to himself ‘today I will know whom is more righteous the monk or the magician’. He picked a stone and threw it at the monster saying “O God if the monk is better than the magician, please kill this animal to save people.” The animal was killed and people were impressed and thought that what the kid just did was because of the magic he learned from the magician.Once the animal was killed, the crowd left and the boy went to tell the monk about what happened. The monk said ‘O boy, today you are better than me. You will face difficulties, but don’t tell people about me.”
Allah, The Almighty, gave the boy the gift of healing sick people from any diseases, no matter how difficult it was. One of the king’s followers heard about the boy’s miraculous ability, so he collected many gifts, went to the boy, and asked him to heal him from blindness. The boy wasn’t impressed with the gifts. Instead, he said to the king’s follower, “I don’t heal anyone, only Allah can heal you. If you believe in him, I will pray for you to Allah to heal you.” The man believed in Allah, the boy prayed for him, and he was healed.When the kin’s follower went back to the palace and took his usual seat close to him, the king noticed that the man was no longer blind, so he asked the man who healed him.
The man replied, “my God healed me.” The king was pleased as he thought that the man was referring to him, but was very angry later when the man completed that he meant Allah and not the king. The king asked him angrily “Do you have a God other than me?” The man said, “My and your God is Allah’. The king was madly angry so gave his orders to torture the man. The man was tortured to a point where he had to admit that the boy asked him to believe in Allah in order to heal him.
The king gave his orders to bring the boy and said to him “O boy, you became a great magician who is able to heal people from so many disease and able to do what you do.” The boy replied, “I don’t heal anyone, only Allah can heal people’. The king felt so angry and he ordered to torture him. The boy was painfully tortured to tell about the one who guided him toward faith. They kept torturing him until he told them about the monk, and his place.
The king brought the monk and asked him to deny his belief in Allah and worship the king. The monk refused the king’s request who ordered to cut the monk in half with a saw. The king called the man who was healed by the boy asking him too to disbelieve in Allah, but he refused so he ordered to cut him in half as well. Then they brought the boy to threaten him to disbelieve in Allah. When the boy refused, the king ordered his guards to take him to the top of a mountain to choose between disbelieving in Allah or to be thrown from the top.
The guards took the boy to the top of the mountain. He prayed to Allah to protect him from their evil act according to His will. The mountain shook until all the guards fell down. The boy went back to the king who asked him about the guards. The boy replied, “my God protected me from their evil.” The king ordered his guards to take the boy onto a ship and to throw him in the middle of the sea. The boy prayed again to Allah, who accepted his prayers and overturned the ship and all the guards were drowned and killed, while the boy survived and went back to the king. The king asked him about his guards and the boy said again “My God protected me from their evil.” The boy then said to the king “You won’t be able to kill me until you obey my commands.” The king asked the boy about his commands.
The boy replied “The only way to kill me is to gather all people in one place, crucify me on a tree trunk, then take an arrow from my sack and shoot me after saying ‘In the name of the boy’s God.’ If you do that you will be able to kill me.”
The king felt very happy to find a way to get rid of the boy and his call to worship Allah. He called people to gather and crucified the boy in front of them, took an arrow from the boy’s sack and shot him but missed him. The king took another arrow, saying “in the name of the boy’s God,” then he shot the boy and killed him. People were amazed and they believed that the boy was true, so they shouted loudly saying ‘We believe in the boy’s God’. The king’s friends rushed out to him saying that this was what the boy wanted to happen! Your people believe now in the boy’s God.
Later, the king ordered his soldiers to dig up a ditch and to light a huge fire in it. Then he ordered his soldiers to gather people and to ask them to choose between regressing their faith or to be thrown in the fire. The soldiers prepared the ditch and lighted a huge fire. The king supervised the process of throwing the people of faith in it. People were asked by soldiers to regress their faith and whoever refused was thrown in the fire, until it was the turn of a woman with a toddler. She was hesitated to be thrown in the fire, but Allah, The Almighty, revealed to the toddler to speak. The toddler asked his mother to hold on her faith, because she was doing the right thing, so she threw herself in the fire. This is how the People of the Ditch were killed because of their faith
