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In Islam, Jerusalem Is Not Mecca

(Gatestone Institute) A. Z. Mohamed - Only when non-Muslims are in control of Jerusalem do Muslims seem to remember the city. Otherwise, as history shows, Muslims have never attached real significance to it. In fact, Muhammad instructed his people not to pray toward Jerusalem, as they had done previously, but to Mecca. Moreover, certain Quranic verses emphasize Jerusalem's connection to the Jews, and the Quran does not promise Muslims to enter or rule Jerusalem. One verse quotes the Prophet Moses instructing the Jews to enter the Holy Land that God has given to them - including Jerusalem. In another Quranic verse, God Himself instructs the Children of Israel to dwell in the land. In spite of almost 1,200 years of Muslim rule, Jerusalem never served as capital of a sovereign Muslim state, and it never became a cultural or scholarly center. Only six years after Prophet Muhammed's death, in 638 CE, did the Caliph Omar capture Jerusalem. When Omar arrived at the Temple Mount, he prayed facing Mecca with his back to the Foundation Stone where the Jewish Temple had stood. The Dome of the Rock shrine built there in 691-692 CE is not a mosque.
2018-08-21 00:00:00
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