[He also asked them] to remain between the tents except the...

[He also asked them] to remain between the tents except the side from which the enemy could come against them.[^7] Al-Husayn (as) then gathered stalks and firewood to a sunken place –which was similar to a canal- behind their tents. They dug it at some hour of the night and turned it into something like a ditch.

Then they filled it with those firewood and reed and said: “When they attack and fight us, we will set it on fire, so that we are not attacked from the rear and we would fight them from one side.”[^8]…