The story of the rescue of the Prophet’s ﷺ body

  The story of the rescue of the Prophet’s ﷺ body

The history of Islam has seen many instances where Muslims encountered saboteurs and spies. They carried out a wide variety of actions but they all boiled down to one goal: to undermine Islam from within, to portray it in a negative way and to denigrate it.

It was precisely spies who organised the assassination of the Caliphs ‘Umar and ‘Ali and they also rallied the people against Caliph ‘Uthman, which led to his death. There have always been strangers among our own: during the dawn of Islam, during its heyday as well as in our own times.

But what happened during the time of the righteous ruler, Nuruddin Zanki, has no parallel in Islamic history; it is only seen today in Hollywood movies. Who came up with the idea of stealing the body of the Prophet ﷺ from the holy Rawza? Who took such a daring, unprecedented step?

One day, one of the founding fathers of the Zangid Empire, Nuruddin Zanki, had a strange dream: the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ appeared to him and, pointing to two fair-haired men, said, “Save me! Save me from them.” Waking in terror, Nuruddin performed ablution and prayer and went back to sleep but the dream haunted him. Nuruddin woke again, performed ablution and prayer again but he dreamed of nothing but this mysterious dream. After the third time, Nuruddin summoned his vizier, Jamaluddin Musili, and told him of the unusual dream.

Jamaluddin was a righteous man and, fully aware that this was nothing more than a prophetic dream, told him, “Tell no one of this and set off immediately for the Enlightened City of Medina.”

Sultan Nuruddin spent the rest of the night preparing for this all-important journey to Medina. On the journey, he was accompanied by the aforementioned vizier, Jamaluddin. Upon arriving in Medina, the vizier gathered the city’s inhabitants in the Prophet’s Mosque and told them, “The Sultan has come to perform ziyarat at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ and has brought with him a large sum of money. Write down the exact number of your inhabitants.”

To be continued…