Shams ad-Din Sawab Lamti was the chief supervisor of the Mosque of the Prophet ﷺ in Madinah. He had a close friend who worked as a servant for the Abbasid governor of Madinah. Sawab usually recieved insider information about the Abbasids from this close friend of his. One day, his friend told him, “Something big is about to take place in Madinah. A group of people have come from Halab. They have bribed the governor of Madinah, and have demanded from him the bodies of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and Umar. The governor has approved of their plan.”
Sawab could not believe what he was told. He was very worried. Later on, in the afternoon, an envoy from the governor of Madinah arrived at Sawab's house. The envoy greeted him, told him the intention of the visit, and then took him to the governor's residence, located outside of the Mosque of the Prophet ﷺ. The governor said to Sawab, “Some people will knock at the door of the Prophet's Mosque at night. Open the door for them, and let them do what they want to do. Don't interfere in anyway.” After the meeting, Sawab came back and was crying bitterly. After the Isha' prayer, the doors of Al-Masjid an-Nabawi were closed as usual. In the middle of the night, a loud knock was heard from the western entrance door of the mosque (this place is now known as Bab al-Salaam, the gate of Tranquility). Sawab, who had stayed up all night in the mosque, opened the door. He was very scared when he saw what was outside.
A large group of men were outside the mosque of the Prophet ﷺ and they demanded Sawab to move out of the way, so that they could dig up the bodies of Abu Bakr and Umar. These men were armed with stone tools and shovels, the kind used to demolish buildings. They were also carrying torches. The men advanced towards the Rawdah, and prepared their equipment. However, Allah would not allow the graves of the companions of His Messenger ﷺ to be disturbed. Just as the men were about to walk towards the Rawdah, the floor cracked open. The men fell into the large hole in the ground with all their tools. The hole in the ground then sealed itself again, and only a small gash line was visible on the floor.
The governor of Madinah was waiting for these men to finish their job. But after a while, he did not hear from them. The next morning, the governor entered the mosque and called Sawab, who had witnessed the whole thing happening in front of his eyes. He said, “Sawab, did some people not come to you?” Sawab replied, “Yes, indeed. They were, however, buried in the earth.” The governor was in disbelief at what he had just said, so Sawab pointed at the small gash line on the floor of the holy mosque. The governor, bewildered, said, “Leave the matter as it is. Do not mention this to anyone, or else I shall cut your head off.” Eventually, the governor died, so Sawab told the story to his friends, one of them the famous scholar Imam al-Tabari who recorded the whole story down.
Who were the people who intended to steal the bodies of the blessed companions? It seems likely that they were the Rafidhah, who had risen to prominence during the era of the Abbasids. It is likely that the perpetrators were a group of Ismailis, a sect of the Rafidhah. The Ismailis were known for having raided Makkah and breaking the Hajr Aswad, before murdering pilgrims and dumping their bodies into the Zamzam well.
Source:
Al-Tabari's Tarikh
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