Thereat he said...

Thereat he said: Ka’b told a lie, as Allah says: “Verily God holdeth the heavens and the earth lest they come to naught.” 302 Ibn Abbas said to a man coming from the Sham: Whom did you meet? He replied: I met Ka’b. He asked him: What did you hear him saying? He said: I heard him say: The heavens revolves round a shoulder of an angel. Ibn Abbas said: Ka’b uttered falsehood...hasn’t he abandoned his jewishness yet?

Then he recited: “Verily God holdeth the heavens and the earth lest they come to naught.” 303 There are numerous reports in this regard, but I suffice with the examples cited above. Story of the Rock between Umar and Ka’b: After conquest of Ilya and its land during the reign of Umar in Rabi’ al-Thani 16 H., and when Umar entered Bayt al-Maqdis, he summoned Ka’b al-Ahbar and said to him: Where do you think better to build the oratory (musalla)? Ka’b said: Beside the rock!!

304 Umar said: O Ka’b, by God you have resembled the Jewish creed. 305 In another narration: O son of the Jewish woman, the Jewishness is mingled with you (with your blood). I shall build it at the forefront of the mosque, as to us belong the forefronts of the mosques, and I saw you and the way you took off your shoes! He said: I liked to conduct it with my foot!

When he started to clean Bayt al-Maqdis from the sweeping which the Romans buried into it, 306 he heard the takbir (God is Greater) from behind him, while he was averse to evil of dissimulation 307 in everything. He said: What is this? They replied: Ka’b said God is Greater and people repeated after him. He (Umar) said: Bring him here. Ka’b said: O Amir al-Mu’minin, a prophet foretold of what you did today five hundred years ago!! He asked: How is that?

He replied: The Romans attacked Banu Israel and buried it (Bayt al-Maqdis), till you were appointed a ruler, when Allah delegated a prophet over the sweepings who said: O Jerusalem, I have good tidings for you, al-Faruq has come to cleanse you of that which inside you. 308 In another narration: Al-Faruq came to you with obedient soldiers, who will retaliate and take vengeance of your people upon the Romans... etc. Beside other similar superstitions that were fabricated by this impostor and liar.

The rock remained uncovered during caliphate of Umar and Uthman when ruling over the Sham, and also caliphate of Ali though he didn’t rule over it (Sham), continuing till the government of Mu’awiyah, his son and the son of his son.