importance of Jerusalem to Muslims
Reader comment on item: Jerusalem Means More to Jews Than to Muslims

Submitted by muhammad ibn ja'fari (United Kingdom), Apr 15, 2006 at 07:56

To Muslims, Jerusalem is third only to Mecca and Medina as a sacred shrine. Through the ages the Dome of the Rock, which looms above Jerusalem, has been revered and cared for by all Muslims.

This magnificent structure stands in the heart of the Noble Sanctuary, bound to the east by Al Haram's East Wall and surrounded by eight arcades called "Mawazeen".

AL Aqsa is the largest mosque in Al-Quds and where a huge group of people normally prays. The Dome of the Rock Mosque is an octagonal structure built in 691 by the fifth Umayyad Khalifah Abd-il- Malek ibn Marwān. In the middle of the mosque is the honored rock on which the Prophet Muhammad stood on, before he was raised to heaven.

The Golden Dome is the symbol of the Holy City Al-Quds, is topped by the Crescent of Islam, which points in the direction of prayers Al Qiblah.

A woman said to the Prophet Muhammad, "O Apostle of God! Give us rule as to Jerusalem." And he said: "It is the land of the Resurrection and the Judgment assembly; go there and pray. For indeed a prayer there is worth a thousand elsewhere."

A single prayer in Al Aqsa is equivalent to 500 prayers in any other mosque except for the Haram Mosque in Macca and the Prophet's (An-Nabawi) Mosque in Medina.

It is a showcase for Islamic architecture and design from Umayyad to Ottoman times that continues as an important religious and educational center for Muslims to the present day.

It is the second house of worship on earth, and was the first direction of prayers for Muslims. ...

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Daniel Pipes replies:

For a discussion of these issues, see my longer piece on the subject at "The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem," http://www.danielpipes.org/article/84.