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Islam's Stake: Why Jerusalem Was Central To Muhammad -- Printout -- TIME
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Monday, Apr. 16, 2001
Islam's Stake: Why Jerusalem Was
Central To Muhammad
By Karen Armstrong
Jerusalem was central to the spiritual identity of Muslims from the very beginning of their faith. When the
Prophet Muhammad first began to preach in Mecca in about 612, according to the earliest biographies,
which are our primary source of information about him, he had his converts prostrate themselves in prayer
in the direction of Jerusalem. They were symbolically reaching out toward the Jewish and Christian God,
whom they were committed to worshipping, and turning their back on the paganism of Arabia. Muhammad
never believed that he was founding a new religion that canceled out the previous faiths. He was convinced
that he was simply bringing the old religion of the One God to the Arabs, who had never been sent a
prophet before.
Consequently, the Koran, the inspired scripture that Muhammad brought to the Arabs, venerates the great
prophets of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It speaks of Solomon's "great place of prayer" in Jerusalem,
which the first Muslims called City of the Temple. Only after the Jews of Medina rejected Muhammad did
he switch orientation and instruct his adherents to pray facing Mecca, whose ancient shrine, the Kabah,
was thought by locals to have been built by Abraham and his son Ishmael, the father of the Arabs.
The centrality of Jerusalem in Muslim spirituality is apparent in the story of Muhammad's mystical Night
Journey to Jerusalem. Muslim texts make it clear that this was not a physical experience but a visionary
one (not dissimilar to the heavenly visions of the Jewish Throne Mystics at this time). One night
Muhammad was conveyed miraculously from the Kabah to Jerusalem's Temple Mount. There he was
welcomed by all the great prophets of the past before ascending through the seven heavens. On his way up
he sought the advice of Moses, Aaron, Enoch, Jesus, John the Baptist and Abraham before entering the
presence of God. The story shows the yearning of the Muslims to come from far-off Arabia right into the
heart of the monotheistic family, symbolized by Jerusalem.
Respect for other faiths was manifest in Islamic Jerusalem. When Caliph Umar, one of Muhammad's
successors, conquered the Jerusalem of the Christian Byzantines in 638, he insisted that the three faiths of
Abraham coexist. He refused to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher when he was escorted around the
city by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch. Had he done so, he explained, the Muslims would have wanted to
build a mosque there to commemorate the first Islamic prayer in Jerusalem.
The Jews found their new Muslim rulers far more congenial than the Byzantines. The Christians had never
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10/17/2014
Islam's Stake: Why Jerusalem Was Central To Muhammad -- Printout -- TIME
allowed the Jews to reside permanently in the city, whereas Umar invited 70 Jewish families back. The
Byzantines had left the Jewish Temple in ruins and had even begun to use the Temple Mount as a garbage
dump. Umar, according to a variety of accounts, was horrified to see this desecration. He helped clear it
with his own hands, reconsecrated the platform and built a simple wooden mosque on the southern end,
site of al-Aqsa Mosque today.
Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock, built by Caliph Abd al-Malik in 691, was the first great building to be
constructed in the Islamic world. It symbolizes the ascent that all Muslims must make to God, whose
perfection and eternity are represented by the circle of the great golden dome. Other Islamic shrines on the
Temple Mount, which Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif, the Most Noble Sanctuary, were devoted to David,
Solomon and Jesus.
After the bloodbath of the Crusades, when Saladin reconquered Jerusalem for Islam in 1187, the Jews
(barred from the city by the Crusaders) were invited to return, and even the Western Christians, who had
supported the crusading atrocities, were allowed back. In the 16th century, Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent permitted the Jews to make the Western Wall their official holy place and had his court
architect Sinan build an oratory for them there.
So why the rejectionism that some Muslims in Jerusalem display today? In history, a holy city has always
become more precious to a people after they have lost it. In the struggle for survival, the more
compassionate traditions tend to get lost. As Muslims the world over feel that Jerusalem is slipping from
their grasp, some espouse an intolerance that is far from the Koranic spirit. In an age in which religious
atrocity occurs in nearly all faiths, it would be tragic if the Muslim tradition of inclusion and respect were
lost to the world.
Karen Armstrong is the author of Islam: A Short History and, most recently, Buddha
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