In Syria, the place where the tent of Sayyiduna Musa was erected, Sayyiduna Dawood laid the foundation of Bayt-ul-Muqaddas. But before the completion of the building, the worldly life of Sayyiduna Dawood came to an end. Sayyiduna Dawood bequeathed his son Sayyiduna Sulayman for the completion of the building. Therefore, Sayyiduna Sulayman deployed a group of jinns and assigned them to complete the construction. This construction work remained in progress for a long time. During this construction period, the final hour of the worldly life of Sayyiduna Sulayman reached and the construction was not yet complete. So Sayyiduna Sulayman supplicated to Allah, ‘O Almighty, don’t let my demise be revealed upon jinns so that they remain constructing the building and their claim of being knowledgeable of the unseen may be refuted as well.’
After invoking this supplication, Sayyiduna Sulayman entered in the arch and as per his normal routine, he stood for worship with the support of his staff and passed away in the same posture. But the jinn labourers presumed that Sayyiduna Sulayman was standing alive and they continued working. Sayyiduna Sulayman being in such posture for a long time was not an unusual thing for jinns as they had seen him praying several times for consecutively one month and sometimes for consecutively two months.
Ultimately, he emained in that standing posture with the support of his staff for one year after his demise. At last, by the will of Allah, his staff was eaten by the termites and his body came to the ground with the fall of the staff. At that time, his demise revealed to jinns and the people around. Allah has mentioned this event in the Holy Quran in the following words:
So when We sent the command of death towards him, nothing informed the jinns about his death, except the termite of the earth which was eating his staff And when Sulayman came to the ground, the truth about the jinns was exposed. If they had known the unseen, they would not have remained in this disgraceful punishment (of hard labour).
[Kanz-ul-Iman (Translation of Quran)] (Part 22, Surah Saba, Ayah 14)
After invoking this supplication, Sayyiduna Sulayman entered in the arch and as per his normal routine, he stood for worship with the support of his staff and passed away in the same posture. But the jinn labourers presumed that Sayyiduna Sulayman was standing alive and they continued working. Sayyiduna Sulayman being in such posture for a long time was not an unusual thing for jinns as they had seen him praying several times for consecutively one month and sometimes for consecutively two months.
Ultimately, he emained in that standing posture with the support of his staff for one year after his demise. At last, by the will of Allah, his staff was eaten by the termites and his body came to the ground with the fall of the staff. At that time, his demise revealed to jinns and the people around. Allah has mentioned this event in the Holy Quran in the following words:
So when We sent the command of death towards him, nothing informed the jinns about his death, except the termite of the earth which was eating his staff And when Sulayman came to the ground, the truth about the jinns was exposed. If they had known the unseen, they would not have remained in this disgraceful punishment (of hard labour).
[Kanz-ul-Iman (Translation of Quran)] (Part 22, Surah Saba, Ayah 14)
Moral:
1. The moral lesson that we get from this Quranic event is that the holy bodies of Ambiya neither deteriorate nor rot after their demise. As you have just read that Sayyiduna Sulayman remained in an erected posture for one whole year after his demise with the support of the staff. No change took place in his blessed body. All the Ambiya remain in the unaffected state in their graves and the soil cannot eat their bodies. Therefore, it has been stated in a Hadees reported by Ibn Majah:
No doubt, Allah has made it Haraam (prohibited) for the earth to erode the bodies of the Ambiya· Therefore, the Ambiya of Allah are alive and they are provided with sustenance.
(Sunan Ibn Majah, Kitab-ul-Janaaiz, vol. 3, pp. 291, Raqm 1637)
In the marginalia of Mishkat-ul-Masabih, it has been stated that it is the distinction of all Ambiya that they remain alive in their graves. Allah bestows them with sustenance. This Hadees is Sahih. Imam Bayhaqi has said that it is correct and legitimate to believe that the Ambiya may visit various places at different times. (Mirqat-ul-Mafatih, Kitab-us-Salat, vol. 3, pp. 460, Raqm 1366)
Based on the same principles, Ahl-us-Sunnah wa-Jama’at believes that the respected Ambiya are alive in their blessed graves with their physical attributes and characteristics. The Wahabi sect has an ill belief that the Ambiya are dead and have turned into dust, . That’s why this deviant, transgressing and disrespectful sect has regarded the holy graves of the Ambiya as mere mounds of dust and debris and is always proactive in trying to demolish and humiliate these holy graves. This is absolutely crossing the limits that despite having lots of anxieties in the Muslim world, the Saudi government never ceases to manipulate her wicked plans to demolish the Gumbad-e-Khazra (the Grand Green Dome of the holy shrine of Beloved Nabi Muhammad ). However, it is a great blessing of Allah that they have not been able to accomplish their evil plans until now and ان شاء اللہ such evil plan will not be accomplished in future either because:
2. Sayyiduna Sulayman had life span of 53 years. He was crowned as a king at the age of thirteen and ruled for forty years. His holy shrine is in Bayt-ul-Muqaddas.
