—he consulted Kaʿb as to where the mosque should be built. Kaʿb suggested (1) that it be placed behind the Rock, whereupon ʿUmar struck him on the chest and said, “Son of Umm Kaʿb, you are imitating the Jews!” (2) He then ordered that it be erected at the front of Bayt al-Maqdis.

Imām Aḥmad (3) said: “Al-Aswad ibn ʿĀmir narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, from Abū Sinān, from ʿUbayd ibn Ādam, Abū Maryam, and Abū Shuʿayb, that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was at al-Jābiyah and spoke of the conquest of Bayt al-Maqdis. Ibn Salamah said:

“Abū Sinān related to me from ʿUbayd ibn Ādam: I heard ʿUmar say to Kaʿb, ‘Where do you think I should pray?’ Kaʿb replied, ‘If you take my advice, pray behind the Rock, and the whole of Jerusalem will be in front of you.’

“ʿUmar answered, ‘You have resembled Judaism! Rather, I will pray where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed.’ He then advanced toward the qiblah and prayed, after which he spread out his cloak and swept the refuse into it, and the people followed his example.”

This chain of transmission is sound; it was selected by the ḥāfiẓ Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn al-Maqdisī in his book al-Mustakhraj. We have discussed its narrators in our separate work Musnad ʿUmar (4), which gathers both the Prophetic hadiths related by him and the reports ascribed to him, arranged under the chapters of jurisprudence—praise and thanks belong to Allah.

Sayf ibn ʿUmar (5) likewise narrated from his teachers (6) on the authority of Sālim: When ʿUmar entered Syria, a Jew of Damascus met him and said, “Peace be upon you, O Fārūq. Are you the one bound for Iliyaʾ? By Allah, you shall not return until Allah grants you its conquest!”

Aḥmad ibn Marwān al-Dīnawarī (7) reported—from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, from his father, from al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī, from Usāmah ibn Zayd ibn Aslam, from his father, from his grandfather Aslam, the freedman of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—that he once arrived in Damascus with a group of Quraysh merchants. When the caravan departed, ʿUmar lingered behind for some personal need. While he was in the city, a Byzantine patrician seized him by the neck. ʿUmar tried to free himself but could not; the man led him into a house that contained a pile of earth, a pick-axe, a shovel, and a basket, and said, “Move this from here to there,” then locked the door and left, not returning until midday.

Aslam said: I sat there thinking and did not do anything he had ordered. When he returned he asked, “Why have you not done it?” and struck me on the head with his hand. So I took the pick-axe, struck him with it, and killed him. I then fled at random until I came to a monk’s monastery and sat with the monk from