 |
| Photo © JIA |
| Jerusalem 2002 |
For the Jews, the significance of Jerusalem is quite clear. The Jewish connection to Jerusalem is an ancient and powerful one. Judaism made Jerusalem a holy city over three thousand years ago and through all that time Jews remained steadfast to it. Jews pray in its direction, mention its name constantly in prayers, close the Passover service with the wistful statement “Next year in Jerusalem,” and recall the city in the blessing at the end of each meal.
The destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 AD looms very large in Jewish consciousness; remembrance takes such forms as a special day of mourning, houses left partially unfinished, a woman’s makeup or jewelry left incomplete, and a glass smashed during the wedding ceremony.
In addition, Jerusalem has had a prominent historical role, as the only capital of a Jewish state, and is the only city with a Jewish majority during the whole of the past century. In the words of its current mayor, Jerusalem represents:
- … the purest expression of all that Jews prayed for, dreamed of, cried for, and died for in the two thousand years since the destruction of the Second Temple
For Muslims, the role of Jerusalem is more complex, a combination of religious and political aspects. Some Arabs claim they are related to the Jebusites who founded Jerusalem during the bronze age. At the time of the arrival of the Israelites in Palestine the Jebusites were defeated by Joshua and their king was slain, but they were not entirely driven out of their city Jebus till the time of David, who made Jebus, renamed Jerusalem, the capital of his kingdom instead of Hebron. The site on which the temple was afterwards built belonged to Araunah, a Jebusite, from whom it was purchased by David, who refused to accept it as a free gift (2 Sam. 24:16-25). The Jebusites disappeared by 586 BC and it is highly doubtful that any modern Arabs, nomads from Arabia, are descended from them.
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Qur’an and did not occupy any special role in Islam long after Mohammed’s death. Following the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 636 AD, the new government did not make Jerusalem the political center of the area. This was fixed at Lydda till the year 716, then at Ar-Ramla (Ramleh). But in the Muslim view, too, Jerusalem, the city of David and Christ, became a very holy place, third only after Mecca and Medina, because of political developments.
In the reign of Caliph ‘Abd-al-malik (684-705, the fifth Ommaid caliph, at Damascus, Syria) the people of what is now Iraq revolted and conquered the Hijaz, the region and province in eastern Saudi Arabia, including the cities of Mecca and Madina, Jedda and At Ta’if. Syrian Muslims could not longer go to those cities. In order to give his followers a substitute for the haraman (Mecca and Medina), which they were prevented from visiting, the Caliph resolved to make Jerusalem a center of pilgrimage. He, therefore, set about to adorn the place of the Temple with a splendid mosque.
It appears that the Christians had left the place where the Temple had once stood untouched. Omar visited it and found it filled up with refuse. In his time a large square building with no architectural pretension was put up to shelter the True Believers who went there to pray. In 691 ‘Abd-al-malik replaced this by the exquisite “Dome of the Rock” (Qubbet-es-Sachra), built by Byzantine architects, that still stands in the middle of the Temple area.
Then, in 715, to build up the prestige of their dominions, the Ommaid caliphs concocted a masterstroke: they built a second mosque in Jerusalem, again on the Temple Mount, and called this one the Furthest Mosque (al-masjid al-aqsa, or Al-Aqsa Mosque), from a passage of the Qur’an (17:1) describing the Prophet Mohammed’s Night Journey to heaven (isra’). With this, the Ommaids retroactively gave Jerusalem a role in Mohammed’s life, a role that was entirely fictional since Mohammed never visited Jerusalem, died in 632, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque was not built until 715, eighty-three years after his death.
This association of Jerusalem with al-masjid al-aqsa fit into a wider Muslim tendency to identify place names found in the Qur’an with locations they coveted, and then to claim it and build a mosque to replace whatever was there before.
An 1854 report states Jerusalem’s total population at 15,000, of which a majority (8,000) were Jews.
Note: This is a moderated site. Only comments that add value to the discussion will be published.
it was the city of david and christ.
Early Muslims pray in the direction of jerusalem,
‘masjid qiblathain’ in saudi is the proof of this event,
A quranic verse said that ‘ oh prophet, Allah knows your desire to change the qiblah to a holly place as in your mind’
This is a complete twisting and misrepresentation of facts. Although the historical events took place at the times indicated, the author unfortunately completely misrepresents the historical sequence.
Before I explain, I would like to note that the word Masjed in Arabic means Mosque. Al Masjed Al Aqsa (The Aqsa Mosque) is mentioned specifically in the Quran. Muslims prayed in the direction of Al Masjed AL Aqsa, Jerusalem, in the early years of Islam; then changed the direction of prayer to Mecca later. In the documented history of Prophet Mohamed, he said that muslim are to pay religious tribute and visits to three Mosques: The one in Mecca (Kaaba), The one in Medina (Mohamed’s Mosque) and Al Masjed Al Aqsa. So the name Al Masjed Al Aqsa and the Mosque itself were known to Muslims and part of Islam long before what the author claims to be during the time of Caliph ‘Abd-al-malik. They were know and part of Islam some 80 – 100 years earlier than the author claims.
A few questions to you, does the Quran say that the Furthest mosque is in Jerusalem? NO. The reason why the Muslims prayed towards Jerusalem was not because the furthest mosque was in Jerusalem, they prayed towards Jerusalem the city only. Did the Quran say that Jerusalem is a Holy city? NO. Did the quran ever ask Muslims to pray towards the Al-Aqsa? NO. The only time the Quran mentions the Al-aqsa is when the prophet made a night journey to it.
Glory to He (God) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless (Yusuf Ali’s translation). „
—[Qur’an 17:1
You will never find any verse referring to Al-Aqsa before this incident. And by the way, it is the islamic scholars who translate this verse to mean Jerusalem. So it was humans, not God who commanded Muslims to consider Jerusalem as an important place. Its a fact that you alluded to when you mentioned
“In the documented history of Prophet Mohamed, he said that muslim are to pay religious tribute and visits to three Mosques: The one in Mecca (Kaaba), The one in Medina (Mohamed’s Mosque) and Al Masjed Al Aqsa. ”
Since this “documented history of the prophet” was written many years after his death by scholars who no doubt were employed by Muslim rulers, definitely they would like to add some details to justify their political masters ventures. Lastly, Jerusalem is only mentioned by name in the Hadiths, the Hadiths are not the word of God and they compiled by people who lived many years after the prophet’s death(100 years to be exact) who did it under political patronage. The term “al-Aqsa” is vague any mosque could be considered the furthest mosque, it was Muslims who purposely impose their own meaning to this word to suit their own political agenda, both today and yesterday.