MIRACLE 49 – USING THE DOOR OF KHYBER AS A SHIELD
It is reported in Tareeq al Tabari that Abu Rafie said, ‘And his (a.s.) shield fell down from his left hand, so he (a.s.) uprooted one of its doors and used it as a shield. When he (a.s.) was free, a lot of men were unable to moving it’’.1
Abu Abdullah Al-Jazaly narrated, ‘Umar said to Imam Ali (a.s.), ‘You had carried a heavy load from it’. He (a.s.) said: ‘It did not become except like my shield which is in my hands’’.2
Zurarah narrates in a tradition from Hazrat Imam Baqir (a.s.) that he (a.s.) said,
Imam Ali (a.s.) pulled with a pulling and used it as a shield, then carried it upon his back and stormed the fortress with a storming, and the Muslims stormed, and the door was upon his back”.3
Ibn Jareer Al Tabari writes in his book,
‘Imam Ali (a.s.) lifted the door of Khyber with his left hand, and it was four cubits by five palm’s width by four fingers deep of solid stone, besides his right hand. He (a.s.) inserted his fingers in it and carried it without gripping, then used it as a shield and struck the heads (of the Jews) until he (a.s.) assaulted them. Then he (a.s.) threw it behind him (a.s.) to forty cubits’’.4
And it is narrated in the book ‘Ramish Afzaie’,
‘The length of the door was eighteen cubits, and the width of the ditch for twenty (cubits). He (a.s.) placed a side upon one edge of the ditch and held one side with his hand until the army had crossed upon it, and they were eight thousand and seven hundred men, and among them were ones who hesitated and fearful upon it’’.5