[Pooya/Ali Commentary 33:10] The sight of the enemy who surrounded the city round the trench was frightful. All the Muslims save the Holy Prophet, his Ahl ul Bayt and their followers feared that they might not be able to stand the trial and would be slaughtered and destroyed. "The hearts jumped to the throats" is expressive of cowardice. "They came on you from above you" refers to the heathens and "from below you" refers to the hypocrites and the weak-hearted wavering converts. The word muminin in verse 11 refers to those who posed themselves as believers but were not in fact true faithfuls. Their insincerity and false guise became known when Amr threw an open challenge but none of the companions came forward to meet him in single combat because they were shaken by a frightening terror. As stated in the commentary of verse 9 the Holy Prophet had seen clear signs of victory, but the hypocrites and the insincere believers accused him and the true believers of keeping the Muslims in delusive hopes. Yathrib is the ancient name of Madina. The disaffected hypocrites and the insincere spread defeatist rumours and persuaded the Muslims to leave the scene of the impending battle and withdraw for the defence of their homes, although their homes were not exposed to enemy attack. So prone and ever-ready were they to every act of hostility against Islam that if the enemy had been able to penetrate into the city, they, sitting on the fence, would have joined the forces of the invaders at once, although, after the battle of Uhad, certain men who had deserted the Holy Prophet, made a covenant with Allah and His Prophet that they would behave better next time. See commentary of Ali Imran: 121, 122, 128, 140 to 142, 144, 151 to 156, 159, 166 to 168 and Anfal: 16. Imam Ali said: "On which day (can) I run away from death? The day which is decreed (or) the day which is not decreed!". Most of the companions of the Holy Prophet who were weak in faith fell easy prey to the machination of the clever hypocrites, as they did in the battles of Badr and Uhad (see verses of Ali Imran and Anfal noted above) and afterwards in Hunayn (see commentary of Bara-at: 25 to 27). In times of danger they would look to the Holy Prophet and Ali for protection, and keep themselves snugly away from the fight. When the danger is past, they would come and brag and wrangle and show their covetousness and greed for gains. Even any good they might have done was obliterated because there was no sincere motive behind it except envy, greed and cowardice. Verse 20 gives a vivid picture of the psychology of the most of the companions of the Holy Prophet. Even when the enemy had gone they were so much confused in their minds that they secretly decided to run away from the city and take refuge in the desert if the enemy made another attack. Aqa Mahdi Puya says: "They would fight but little" shows that the companions made almost no contribution to the mission of the Holy Prophet. Even a commentator like Allama Yusuf Ali (who has not mentioned the Ahl ul Bayt at all in his entire commentary) admits in his note (3685) that "Ali particularly distinguished himself in many fights, wearing the prophet's own sword and armour."