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28

February 11 • 2010

IN

The Myth Of Al-Aqsa

Ramat Gan, Israel

Majid Fakhri):
"Glory to Him who caused
hen the Prophet
His servant to travel by night
Mohammad
from the Sacred Mosque to
established
the Farthest Mosque, whose
Islam, he introduced a
precincts We have blessed, in
minimum of innovations.
order to show him some of
He employed the hallowed
Our Signs, He is indeed the
personages, historic legends
All-Hearing, the All-Seeing."
Cti .2-
and sacred sites of Judaism
The meaning ascribed to
and Christianity, and even
Mordechai
this verse is that "the fur-
paganism, by Islamizing
Kedar
thest mosque" (al-masgid
them. Thus, according to
Special
al-aqsa) is in Jerusalem
Islam, Abraham was the
Commentary
and that Mohammad was
first Muslim and Jesus and
conveyed there one night
St. John (the sons of Miriam, sister of
(although at that time the journey took
Moses and Aron) were Muslim proph-
three days by camel,) on the back of
ets and guardians of the second heaven. al-Buraq, a magical horse with the head
Many biblical legends underwent an
of a woman, wings of an eagle, the tail
Islamic conversion; the Koran (Islam's
of a peacock and hoofs reaching to the
holy book) and the Hadith (the Islamic
horizon. He tethered the horse to the
oral tradition) are replete with them.
Western Wall of the Temple Mount and
Islamization was practiced on places from there, ascended to the seventh
as well as persons: Mecca was holy
heaven together with the angel Gabriel.
for the pre-Islamic pagan Arabs. The
On his way, he met the prophets of
Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and
other religions who are the guardians
the Great Mosque of Istanbul were
of heaven.
erected on the sites of Christian-
Thus, Islam tries to gain legitimacy
Byzantine churches.
over other, older religions by creating
Jerusalem, too, underwent the
a scene in which the former prophets
process of Islamization. At first,
agree to Mohammad's mastery, thus
Muhammad attempted to convince
making him Khatam al-Anbiya ("the
the Jews near Medina to join his young Seal of the Prophets").
community, and, by way of persuasion,
established the direction of prayer
Mecca's Role
(kiblah) to be to the north, towards
However, there is another Islamic
Jerusalem, in keeping with Jewish
tradition that tells us that al-Aqsa
practice; but after he failed in this
mosque is near Mecca on the Arabian
attempt, he turned against the Jews,
Peninsula. This was unequivocally
killed many of them and directed the
stated in Kitab al-Maghazi, a book by
kiblah southward, towards Mecca.
the Muslim historian and geographer
Muhammad's abandonment of
al-Waqidi. According to al-Waqidi,
Jerusalem explains the fact that this
there were two "masjeds"(places of
city is not mentioned even once in the
prayer) in al-Gi'irranah, a village
Koran. After Palestine was occupied by between Mecca and Ta'if — one was
the Muslims, its capital was Ramlah,
"the closer mosque" (al-masjid al-
30 miles to the west of Jerusalem, sig-
adna) and the other was "the further
nifying that Jerusalem meant nothing
mosque" (al-masjid al-aqsa) and
to them.
Muhammad would pray there when he
went out of town.
Jerusalem, Again
This description by al-Waqidi
Islam rediscovered Jerusalem 50
was not "convenient" for the Islamic
years after Mohammad's death. In
propaganda of the Seventh Century.
682 CE, Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr
In order to establish a basis for
rebelled against the Islamic rulers
the awareness of the "holiness" of
in Damascus, conquered Mecca and
Jerusalem in Islam, the Caliphs of the
prevented pilgrims from reaching
Ummayad dynasty invented many
Mecca for the Hajj. Abd al-Malik, the
"traditions" upholding the value of
Umayyad Caliph, took Jerusalem as
Jerusalem, which would justify pil-
an alternative site for the pilgrimage.
grimage to Jerusalem for the faithful
In order to justify this choice, a verse
Muslims. Thus was al-Masjid al-Aqsa
from the Koran was chosen (sura 17,
"transported" to Jerusalem.
verse 1), which states (translation by
Another aim of the Islamization of

W