Zamir Ahmad
Hudhaifa Al Yamani was one the companions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). He was also known as “the possessor of the Secret”, since the Holy Prophet (SAW) had revealed to him the names and specific identity of those hypocrites who intended to kill him on his return journey from Tabuk, but had strictly instructed him not to disclose the secret. He later on became the governor of Madain during Caliph Omar’s time and continued to be so in the caliphate of Caliph Ali. He was buried there upon his death in 36 A.H.
This companion of the Holy Prophet became a subject of global attention centuries after his death in 1932 CE (1351 A.H.). King Faisal I of the Hashemite dynasty was then the ruler of Iraq. One day the king had a dream that he was being addressed by Hudhaifa al Yamani,who said: “O king! Remove Jaabir ibn Abdullah Ansari and me from the bank of river Tigris and bury us at some safe place because my grave is already water-logged, while Jabir’s grave is slowly getting immersed in water.” The same dream was seen by the Grand Mufti of Iraq the other day. In that dream Hudhaifa Al yamani was again asking for the transfer of his grave and that of Jabir to some other place. The place of the graves was also indicated in the dreams.
The King, after deliberations with his mufti and his prime minister, ultimately decided to carry out the instructions. The Grand Mufti issued a religious edict on the matter while the prime minister informed the press about the whole event. 20th Zilhaj, 1351 AH was selected as the day for exhumation of the graves and transfer of the bodies to some other place.
After noon prayers, a large number of people including the representatives of various newspapers converged in the city of Baghdad. The river Tigris had changed its course that year and was flowing dangerously close to the graves. The grave of Hudhaifa was opened first and was found to be water-logged. The body was lifted immaculately with a crane and shifted to a glass coffin box after being lifted from the stretcher by the King, the Grand Mufti, the Prime Minister and Prince Farooq of Egypt. The body of Hazrat Jabir was also transferred to the glass box in a similar manner.
What amazed the onlookers, including the people from media who were furiously clicking the pictures of the bodies, was that the bodies looked extraordinarily fresh as if they had been interred only a night before. Both the companions of the Prophet seemed not to have been dead for some 1300 years but looked as if in deep sleep. Even the shrouds wrapping their bodies were fresh except for the stains that had occurred to them while being transferred from the graves.
The two bodies were then buried near the grave of another companion of the Prophet, Salman-e-Farsi, some 30 miles from Baghdad.
