It is a well-known account that Sultan Nur al-Din Mahmud Shaheed son of Imaduddin Zengi once, after the Tahajjud prayer at night, saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in a dream, and saw that he ﷺ was pointing towards two cat-eyed men (with grey-blue eyes) and saying, “Save me from these two.”
The Sultan awoke in alarm, performed wudu, offered nafl prayers and lay down. As soon as he lay down, he fell asleep and saw the same dream again. He got up again, performed wudu and offered nafl prayers, and as soon as he lay down he fell asleep and saw the same dream once more. And then he saw the same dream a third time. Upon this, his sleep fled, and in distress he summoned his minister Jamal al-Din Isfahani and related the whole account to him. The minister said, “Do not delay; set out for Madinah Taiyyabah immediately and do not mention this to anyone,” thinking that certainly some calamity had befallen Madinah Taiyyabah and that one must reach there as quickly as possible. The Sultan, taking with him his minister, twenty members of the council and two hundred soldiers, and many emeralds and jewels, mounted extremely swift riding-camels and travelled day and night, reaching Madinah Taiyyabah from Sham in sixteen days. At that time Arabia had come under the Sultan’s influence, so the people of Madinah were astonished at the Sultan’s sudden arrival. When the Governor of Madinah asked the reason for his unexpected visit, the Sultan related the whole matter. The Governor said to the Sultan: “On the pretext of rewards and gifts, I will have all the people of Madinah pass before you. You identify those two men among them.” Accordingly this was done, but the sought-after persons did not appear. The Sultan was perplexed, and finally asked whether there was any person in the city’s population who had been deprived of receiving the reward.
The attendants submitted: “O King, only two people from the West remain, who are extremely righteous, religious and reclusive. They perform the service of providing water in Jannat al-Baqi’, and spend the whole day devoted to worship in their dwelling.” The Sultan summoned them, and as soon as they came before the Sultan, he recognised them, but thought it not appropriate to say anything before investigation. So he shook hands with them, seated them with respect, and spoke with them; then, while conversing, he went to their cell, where a simple mat was lying on the floor. On a shelf there were the Holy Qur’an and religious books, and a small quantity of goods for giving alms and charity. The Sultan was astonished, saying, “O Allah, what is this matter?” When he decided to return disappointed, he felt something moving beneath the mat. When the mat was removed, a board was seen; when it was lifted, a tunnel was revealed, which had been dug towards the Holy Tomb of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. At this point both of them were arrested, and when the whole situation was asked of them, both confessed to their guilt and admitted that they were Christians whom the Christian kings had given a great deal of wealth so that, by some means, they might extract the blessed body of the Noble Prophet ﷺ and take it to Rome, so that the centre of the Muslims would be destroyed. “The people of Madinah fell into the trap of our disguise, and I found a cell right in front of the Holy Tomb to live in. We dig the tunnel all night, and early in the morning we put this soil in two leather bags, carry them to Jannat al-Baqi’ on the pretext of reciting Fatiha, and pour it there. We wander around the places of visitation all day and remain busy in this work all night. After years of effort, today we reached near the blessed body.” (It is said that on the night this tunnel was about to reach near the sacred body, a severe rain and storm arose, and lightning kept flashing and thundering, due to which people became extremely distressed.) Hearing these accounts, the Sultan wept bitterly, and at that moment, directly in front of the cell, he had the heads of these two accursed men severed from their bodies. Then he performed the prostration of gratitude, and after that he had a trench dug all around the Holy Tomb so deep that water emerged. Then molten lead was poured into this trench up to the surface of the ground, so that there would be no danger in future, and a wall was built over it.
Takhrij al-Hadith:
إسناده ضعیف۔
Its chain is weak. See:
This story is weak and unestablished for the reason that al-Isnawi (Jamal al-Din) did not cite a continuous chain to any reliable and truthful witness among the contemporaries of Nur al-Din al-Shaheed, and a chainless or broken report is rejected. The biographies of Nur al-Din Zengi have been written by Ibn al-Jawzi, Ibn Asakir and other scholars, but none of them mentioned this incident. Therefore, what was the source through which the aforementioned al-Isnawi, who was born (135) years after Zengi’s death, came to know of this incident? Samhudi also mentioned al-Majd and al-Mutri, but both of them were also born long after Zengi’s (may Allah have mercy on him) death.
In summary, this story of the dream is not established with an authentic chain.
