Page 30 - HaMizrachi02-04( #12)2019RoshHaShanaYomKippurUSA

ISRAEL INSIGHT • ONE CITY, TWO PERSPECTIVES
how did jerusalem
come to be so holy to muslims?
hen Islam came to the
world in the 7th century
WCE, Islamization was
practiced on places as well as
persons: Mecca and the holy stone
– al-Ka’bah – were holy sites of
the pre-Islamic pagan Arabs. The
Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and
the Great Mosque of Istanbul were
erected on the sites of Christian-
Byzantine churches – two of the
better-known examples of how
Islam treated sanctuaries of other
faiths.
Jerusalem also underwent the
same process of Islamization. At
first Muhammad attempted to
convince the Jews of Medina to
join his young community, and by
way of persuasion, established the
direction of prayer (Qiblah) to be
to the north, towards Jerusalem,
in an attempt to convince the Jews
of Medina to convert to Islam.
However, after he failed in this
attempt, he turned against the Jews,
killed the men, took the women
and directed the Qiblah southward,
towards Mecca.
Muhammad’s abandonment of
Jerusalem explains the fact that
this city is not mentioned even once
in the Koran. After Palestine was
occupied by the Muslims in 638 CE,
six years after Muhammad died, its
capital was Ramlah, 30 miles west of
Jerusalem, signifying that Jerusalem
meant nothing to them.
Islam rediscovered Jerusalem
almost 50 years after Muhammad's
death in 682 CE, when ‘Abd Allah
ibn al-Zubayr rebelled against
the Islamic rulers in Damascus,
conquered Mecca and prevented
pilgrims from reaching Mecca
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Dr. Mordechai Kedar
for the Hajj. Yazeed, the second creating a scene in which the former
Umayyad Calif, needed an prophets agree to Muhammad’s
alternative site for the pilgrimage mastery, thus making him Khatam
and settled on Jerusalem, then al-Anbiya’ (“the Seal of the
under his control. To justify this Prophets”). The deep meaning of
choice, a verse from the Koran was this legend is that Islam came to the
chosen (Sura 17, verse 1) which world in order to replace Judaism
states: and Christianity rather than to live
with them side by side.
“Glory to Him who took His servant
by night from the Sacred Mosque This legend was attached to
(Mecca) to the Further Mosque, Jerusalem to convince the people
whose precincts We have blessed, to go to Jerusalem for Hajj rather
in order to show him some of Our than Mecca. In addition, thousands
wonders, He is indeed the All- of Hadith (oral tradition) stories
Hearing, the All-Seeing.” were concocted by the Ulama’
(learned people) who served in the
It should be noted that at the time of Calif Yazeed’s court, to support
Muhammad, the “further mosque” the idea that Bayt al-Maqdis (the
was in the Arab peninsula, near classic name of Jerusalem in Arab
a village called Ju’rrana, between sources) should replace Mecca as
Mecca and Ta’if. a place for Hajj. It is important to
In order to justify the transfer of mention here that the Shi’a, the
the Hajj to Jerusalem, the meaning enemies of the Calif Yazeed and the
ascribed to this verse was that entire Umayyad dynasty, have not
“the furthest mosque” (al-Masgid accepted the idea that Jerusalem is
al-Aqsa) is in Jerusalem and that the third holiest place after Mecca
Muhammad was conveyed there and Medina; for them, traditionally,
one night, on the back of al-Buraq, the third place is Najaf, in southern
a magical horse with the head of Iraq. It was only after the Khomeini
a woman, the wings of an eagle, revolution in 1979 that the Shi’a
started to speak about Jerusalem.
the tail of a peacock, and hoofs
reaching to the horizon. He tethered Conclusion: the sacredness of
the horse to the Western Wall of Jerusalem in Islam was, and still
the Temple Mount and from there is, no more than a myth, caused
ascended to the seventh heaven by political problems the Islamic
together with the angel Gabriel. empire has suffered from since its
On his way he met the prophets dawn. The question which we –
of other religions who are the Jews and Christians – face today is:
guardians of the Seven Heavens: will we give up on our sacred city
Adam, Jesus, St. John, Joseph, Idris only because Muslims concocted
(Seth?), Aaron, Moses and Abraham their own stories about this city?
who accompanied him on his way
to Allah and who accepted him as
their master by praying behind him. Dr. Mordechai Kedar is an Israeli scholar
Thus Islam tries to gain legitimacy of Arabic culture and a lecturer at Bar-
over other, older religions, by Ilan University