A Review of the Narration About Prophet Dawud Being Forbidden from Building Bayt al-Maqdis

The present paper examines various aspects of the narrated story about Prophet Dāwūd being forbidden from building Bayt al-Maqdis. Upon studying its chain of narrators, we find that the presence of unreliable narrators and weakness brought about by incomplete chains of transmission has eliminated the reliability of the narration. As far as the text itself, there is semantic multiplicity in various textual reports such that it covers the text with an aura of weakness and disorder. As a result of this, the mechanism for assessing the correctness or incorrectness of the narration does not lead us to any reassurance regarding the text. Examining the rational and Qurʾānic positions also shows the text of the narration to have a meaning that is contrary to rational principles of epistemology. Comparing the narration to Qurʾānic teachings in accordance with the framework established in hadith sciences indicates a contradiction between the story [mentioned in the narration] and the verses of the Qurʾān. In the end, by reviewing the story in the Torah, it becomes clear that what has been narrated in the Islamic sources in reference to this story is an adaptation of the Torah’s incorrect report.