The Original Place Of Mohammed's
Tomb Was Ascertained With Great Difficulty; The Walls Of The Hujrah
Were Then Rebuilt, And The Iron Railing Placed Round It, Which Is Now
There."
[FN#51] Upon This Point Authors Greatly Disagree.
Ibn Jubayr, for
instance, says that Abu Bakr's head is opposite the Apostle's feet, and
that Omar's face is on a level with Abu Bakr's shoulder.
[FN#52] The vulgar story of the suspended coffin has been explained in
two ways.
Niebuhr supposes it to have arisen from the rude drawings
sold to strangers. Mr. William Bankes (Giovanni Finati, vol. ii., p.
289) believes that the mass of rock popularly described as hanging
unsupported in the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem was confounded by
Christians, who could not have seen either of these Moslem shrines,
with the Apostle's Tomb at Al-Madinah.
[FN#53] Some Moslems end their Ziyarat at the Apostle's Tomb; others,
instead of advancing, as I did, return to the Apostle's window, pray,
and beg pardon for their parents and themselves, and ask all they
desire, concluding with prayers to the Almighty. Thence they repair to
the Rauzah or Garden, and standing at the column called after Abu
Lubabah, pray a two-bow prayer there; concluding with the "Dua," or
benediction upon the Apostle, and there repeat these words: "O Allah,
Thou hast said, and Thy word is true, ‘Say, O Lord, pardon and show
Mercy; for Thou art the best of the Merciful,' (chap. 23). O God,
verily we have heard Thy Word, and we come for Intercession to Thy
Apostle from our own Sins, repenting our Errors, and confessing our
Shortcomings and Transgressions! O Allah, pity us, and by the Dignity
of Thy Apostle raise our Place, (in the Heavenly Kingdom)! O Allah,
pardon our Brothers who have preceded us in the Faith!" Then the Zair
prays for himself, and his parents, and for those he loves. He should
repeat, "Allah have mercy upon Thee, O Apostle of Allah!" seventy
times, when an angel will reply, "Allah bless thee, O thou blesser."
Then he should sit before the Pulpit, and mentally conceive in it the
Apostle surrounded by the Fugitives and the Auxiliaries. Some place the
right hand upon the pulpit, even as Mohammed used to do. The Zair then
returns to the column of Abu Lubabah, and repents his sins there.
Secondly, he stands in prayer at Ali's Pillar in front of the form.
And, lastly, he repairs to the Ustuwanat al-Ashab (the Companions'
Column) the fourth distant from the Pulpit on the right, and the third
from the Hujrah on the left; here he prays and meditates, and blesses
Allah and the Apostle. After which, he proceeds to visit the rest of
the holy places.
[FN#54] It is almost unnecessary to inform the reader that all Moslems
deny the personal suffering of Christ, cleaving to the heresy of the
Christian Docetes,-certain "beasts in the shape of men," as they are
called in the Epistles of Ignatius to the Smyrneans,-who believed that
a phantom was crucified in our Saviour's place.
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