The Rock by Kanan Makiya Page A

dearest to him? Abraham was asked to kill, knowing that no one could possibly benefit from what he was about to do. Not even you, O Prince of True Believers, had to kill this way. Of all the different ways of killing, Abraham’s was by far the hardest. All other sacrifices pale in comparison with what he did. And what are those sacrifices but constant reminders of the enormous merit of what Abraham did?”
    Ka’b’s outburst had the desired effect of calming Umar.
    “What passed between Abraham and his son on that day, as you know the story?” asked Umar, his curiosity aroused.
    “Instructed to enact the priest,” said Ka’b, “Abraham set to work piling the faggots for the offering. These he gave to the boy, carrying in his own hands the fire and the knife. Father and son loaded their asses and traveled in the direction that God had indicated. For three days, they rode in silence, unhurried, at a leisurely pace. While the boy tended to the asses, Abraham cast his eyes to the horizon, looking for a sign. He did not know exactly where or when the offering was to take place. Then, on the morning of the fourth day, he saw a pillar of cloud rising from a mountain in the distance.
    “There before you,” Ka’b said, pointing to the ruins of the Temple across the valley, “somewhere in that mound of desecration, lies hidden the meeting place of Heaven and Earth upon which David so assiduously sought forgiveness, and where all the great sacrifices of the prophets have been offered.”
    “Am I to be tested like Abraham?” Umar asked.
    “Since the time of Adam,” Ka’b said, “the primary lure of the Rock has been as a testing ground for faith. Abraham set the standard for us all when he offered up the soul of him he loved the most. His ordeal was the ultimate proof of holiness, binding him to God by knots of love that outweigh all dignity. It was Abraham who rebuilt the altar of Adam, which had been demolished by the waters of the great flood. Noah tried and failed. Ever since, men and women of faith have been trying to measure belief by what the Father of Faith did. David tried by conquering Jerusalem. Solomontried by consecrating his Temple through animal sacrifice. If the Jews still blow the ram’s horn, it is to remember what Abraham did. If the followers of Muhammad cut the throat of a sheep during the forenoon of the first day of the Feast of Sacrifice, it is to remember that which Abraham did is what it means to have faith.”
    “Do the Books of the Ancients tell you anything, Ka’b, about what happened after the deed was done?” asked Umar. “Did he harbor any regrets?”
    “Most certainly not,” replied Ka’b, “but, worrying that his offering was not enough, he said these words in prayer: ‘Master of the Universe, regard it as though I had sacrificed my son first and only afterwards sacrificed this ram.’ ”

Sophronius
    T he meeting of Sophronius and the Caliph was to take place on the day before Palm Sunday. It was a brilliant ploy on the part of Sophronius, unanticipated by Umar and his advisors, for it meant that the Arab takeover of Jerusalem would be lost in a show of Christian pomp and pageantry headed by the Patriarch himself. On that day, the Patriarch would gather with the faithful on the Mount of Olives to open the Great Week of festivities commemorating Jesus’s entry into the Holy City.
    With the crowing of the cock, Ka’b spotted a trickle of people leaving the city from its eastern gate toward the Mount of Olives. He began to have visions of being “lost in a sea of Christians unfurling their crosses like banners,” as he put it to me years later. He hurried to Umar’s tent to bring the situation to the Caliph’s attention.
    “You worry too much, Father of Ishaq.” Umar was in too good a mood to bother with Ka’b’s fears as he sat relishing the details of the city’s surrender that had been worked out by his commander-in-chief, Abu Ubayda.
    The Caliph had guaranteed