Al-Aqsa Mosque (“the Farthest Mosque”), also known as Al-Aqsa and Bayt al-Muqaddas, is the third holiest site in Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem. Whilst the entire site on which the silver-domed mosque sits, along with the Dome of the Rock, seventeen gates, and four minarets, was itself historically known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, today a narrower definition prevails and the wider compound is usually referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif (“the Noble Sanctuary”). Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) led prayers towards this site until the seventeenth month after the emigration (Hijrah), when God directed him to turn towards the Kaaba. Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (photo: iStock by Getty Images).
Glory be to He Who did take His Servant for a Journey by night, from the Sacred Mosque (in Makkah) to the Farthest Mosque (Masjid al-Aqsa), Whose precincts We did Bless, in order that We Might show him some Of Our Signs: for He Is the One Who heareth And seeth (all things). (Quran 17:1)
The blessed Masjid al-Aqsa has been referred to in the Quran and hadith, as a land which Allah (swt) placed special blessings upon. In our search for knowledge and our desire to follow in the footsteps of the righteous and rightly guided, the land of Palestine and the sanctuary of the al-Aqsa cannot be stressed enough.
• Abu Dharr reports that the Messenger said, “One night I was asleep, in the Makkan Sacred Precinct (al-Haram) near the Ka‘bah when I was woken by Jibra’il. He informed me of the divine will and took me to the well of Zamzam, where upon he opened my chest and poured wisdom and faith into it. Then he sealed it. I was then presented with the beautiful Buraq. This is an animal larger than a mule but smaller than a horse. I mounted it…”
• Anas Ibn Malik reported that the Messenger of Allah said: “He (the Buraq) puts its hoof wherever its eyesight ends.” He said, “I rode it (and started the journey) until I arrived at Bayt al-Maqdis.” He continued, “Then I tied it to a ring that the Prophets used to tie their animals on.” He said, “Then I entered the Masjid, and I prayed two units of prayer, then I went out, so Jibra’il brought me a cup of wine and a cup of milk. I chose the milk, so Jibra’il said, ‘You chose the fitrah (natural goodness, good instinct),’ then we were raised to heaven…”
