The History of the Grave of the Prophet ﷺ

The Grave in the Fatimid era

The historian Ibn al-Najjar, wrote an appendix to the book “Tarikh Baghdad” which was originally written by the historian, lecturer and scholar Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi. In this appendix, the story of an attempt by the Fatimid Caliph to remove the body of the Prophet ﷺ from his grave is included.

In a year, said to be at least 400 Al-Hijri, the Fatimid ruler Al-Hakim Ba Amrullah wanted Egypt to be respected by the Muslims. So he devised a plot to steal the body of the Prophet ﷺ and transfer it to Egypt, where a large and lavish shrine would be built for it. The ruler bribed the governor of Madinah, a man named Abu'l Futuh. Abu'l Futuh accepted the bribe and he set out to the center of Madinah to carry out the plan.

The residents of Madinah had overheard of the plan from third party sources. They, armed, confronted him as he arrived. Everyone cornered him, and the village elder, an old man named Al-Zalbani, began reciting the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the Qur'an's Surah at-Tawbah; “And if you break their oaths after your treaty and assail your religion, then fight the leaders of disbelief, for they have no binding oaths, so that they may desist.” This made Abu'l Futuh weep, and he promised that he would not carry out the evil plan. He even rebelled against the Fatimids many years later but died in 430 Al-Hijri.

Ba Amrullah died a year later, it was said. He was assassinated in a family feud, at a desert on one of his spiritual retreats. And then, his own body was stolen, and it has not been recovered to this day.