Ambiguous is a word that leaps to mind when thinking about Jerusalem in the Qur˒ān. In the Old Testament, Jerusalem (literally) appears 669 times; the Christian New Testament mentions Jerusalem (literally) 154 times; the Qur˒ān (literally) mentions Jerusalem at no time.

            In reading Hadith, one can always find something to justify anything. These same six collections of Hadiths prohibit or glorify martyrdom in the form of a suicide bomber; and speak of heaven's physical reward of 70, or 71, or 72, black-haired and beautiful, or fat and gangly virgins.

            The first Hadiths were not collected until some 200 years after Muḥammad's death. The process of isnad does not change the fact that many Hadiths that were inconsistent with others were simply dropped from tradition. Even after the purging of inconsistencies, Goldziher's research demonstrated that many Hadiths remained outright forgeries.^[54]

            Many Hadiths were created for the 'good' of the community. Of course when Arabian Muslims opposed to the Damascus-based Caliphate created their own Hadiths, the Umayyad rulers naturally created their own. When the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad succeeded the Damascus Umayyads, the process gathered even more steam—they had to demonstrate their legitimacy.

            Unlike the Night Journey in 620 CE, the conquest of Jerusalem in 638, the completion of the Dome of the Rock in 691, and the Christian Crusades at the dawn of the 11th century – each occurring on a historical timeline from Muḥammad’s birth and thereafter – Ibrāhīm’s sacrifice occurred some 2,500 years before Muḥammad.^[35] Therefore, this event is of special importance because it involves more than a historical understanding of Islam as it unfolded. By way of contrast it involves a sharp disagreement with the founding principles of both Judaism and Christianity, the two religions containing the same prophets that Muḥammad and Islam claim to supersede.

            Islam, Judaism, and Christianity agree that ﷲ or הָשֶׁם tested Ibrāhīm by commanding him to sacrifice his son. Ibrāhīm complied and bound his son for the sacrifice, but seconds from carrying out its conclusion, the angel Jabriel stayed Ibrāhīm's hand and the Lord held his oath fulfilled; he had passed the test. The disagreement is over the son he was commanded to sacrifice and the event's location.

            According to Islam, ﷲ commanded Ibrāhīm to sacrifice Ismā˓īl —and this is no small matter because the Arab peoples^[36] claim lineage from Ibrāhīm through the house of Ismā˓īl .^[37] While tracing Arab genealogy to Ismā˓īl is as problematic as tracing Jewish genealogy to Isaac, the difference both in which son was chosen by ﷲ or הָשֶׁם and the location is paramount because it goes to the heart of both Jerusalem's and Mecca's earliest importance in the monotheistic religions. Jerusalem the most important place in Judaism as a direct result of the sacrificial episode. This same event is what makes Mecca the most important place in Islam.
 

            While the expanding Islamic state had shown many internal weaknesses by the 11th century, the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries were seen as “The Renaissance of Islam” including great economic and cultural expansion. Islam’s continuing conquest of the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe came to an end during the 11th and 12th centuries. At that time, almost simultaneous attacks by both external and internal enemies began to take place.

            From the east, the Steppe people (better known as the Turks) began what would become their ascendency to the vanguard of political Islam; in Africa, a new Berber empire arose in Spain and parts of Arab North Africa; the two Arab tribes of Sulaym and Hilal came out from Egypt and swept across Libya and Tunisia; in the north, the Georgians reestablished their empire and pressed into Muslim territory. At the same time Christian Europe awoke and in their re-conquest wrested vast territories away from the Islamic empire. It was during this process of fragmentation and weakness in the

Islamic world that Crusades reached the Middle East.     

            By 661, Muḥammad's dream of a unified Islamic kingdom was beset with internal schisms. Two branches of Islam were created (Sunni and Shi^˓a) and they were at odds with eachother. The last of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs, ^˓Ali, whom the Shi^˓a believe should have been Muḥammad's first successor, was murdered. A new Caliph, Mu^˓awiyya^[25] ruled the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus, a dynasty that would last from 661–750.

            In Medina, ^˓Ali's son Husayn received word (according to Shi^˓a tradition) that he would be next in line to assume the Caliphate. When he arrived in Karbala (near Baghdad) in 680, he discovered that Mu^˓awiyya was already dead and he had appointed his son, Yazid as his successor. Husayn was subsequently killed in what has become the most defining moment in Shi^˓a history. By 685, there was open revolt. The roots of these disputes exist to today—and those roots began with the death of Muḥammad in 632. It is within this context that the Umayyad Caliph, Abd al-Malik commissioned the building of the Qubbat al-Sakhra in Jerusalem during the late 7th century.

            Sura 2 of the Qur˒ān explicitly states that one should face the Ka˓ba in Mecca during prayer. So important is this direction that in Islam, the dead are buried facing the Ka˓ba.
            El-Khatib points to al-Qibla (the prayer direction) and references the second Sura, verses 142, 143, and 145. He explains that, "We are told that Muslims when praying faced towards Bayt al-Maqdis^[20] for 17 consecutive months after the Hijra,^[21] until this was abrogated by the revelation of Q 2:142–146. These verses ordered the Prophet and the Muslim community to turn in prayer towards the Ka˓ba in Mecca instead of Jerusalem."^[22]

            Chronologically, Muḥammad’s Night Journey and Ascension are the earliest events in Islam pertaining to Jerusalem. Sura 17:1 of the Qur˒ān tells the story:

"Glory be to Him, who carried His servant by night from the Holy Mosque to the Further Mosque the precincts of which We have blessed, that We might show him some of Our signs. He is the All-hearing, All-seeing."[10]

("Subḥana al-ladhi asra bi˓bdihi laīlan mina al-masjidi al-ḥarami ila al-masjidi alaqṣā, al-adhi baraknā ḥawlaū linuriyaū min 'ayatinā inaū huwa al-samī˓u al-baṣīru")

            Below are three alternative and trusted translations of the same Sura:^[11]

Yusif Ali: Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, 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).

Pickhal: Glorified be He Who carried His servant by night from the Inviolable Place of Worship to the Far distant place of worship the neighbourhood whereof We have blessed, that We might show him of Our tokens! Lo! He, only He, is the Hearer, the Seer.

Shakir: Glory be to Him Who made His servant to go on a night from the Sacred Mosque to the remote mosque of which We have blessed the precincts, so that We may show to him some of Our signs; surely He is the Hearing, the Seeing.

            According to tradition, Muḥammad son of ^˓Abdallah was born in 570 or 571 CE to the Arab tribe of Quraysh in the small town of Mecca in western Arabia.^[4] At the time, the Arabian peninsula was mostly an uninhabited desert with a few towns along ancient trading routes. The majority of the inhabitants were nomads who secured their livelihood by raising sheep, goats, and camels, and by occasionally raiding a nearby tribe. During the 6th century, Mecca became one of several flourishing towns as it lay along a trade route while the empires of Rome and Persia renewed their hostilities.
            Muḥammad was 40 years old when the angel Gabriel appeared and revealed what would become the first four verses in the Qur˒ān.^[5] Many more revelations followed. During the early years of Muḥammad’s mission he gained a number of converts, first among his family and tribe, followed by those in wider circles. This movement that began to stir in Mecca caused suspicion among many leading families. In 622, twelve years after his first revelation, Muḥammad and a group of his disciples left for the oasis town named Yathrib (a town that later became known as Medina from the Arabic, al-Madīna or the The City).^[6]

            Everyone has heard the familiar mantra— Jerusalem is the center of the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It begs the questions, what are the various claims to the ancient city and how does one weigh these claims to the holiest place in Judaism and the third holiest site in Islam?
            The purpose of this paper is to examine Jerusalem’s importance in early Islam by focusing on the historical, religious, and political contexts. In order to draw conclusions one must focus on the historical context that gave rise to the religion. The methods used for drawing a conclusion include exploring scholarly historical, political and religious discourse, comparing the texts of the Qur˒ān with the texts of the Old and New Testament, and examining the relevant Hadiths (Islamic oral tradition).