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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
RICHARD T. NOWITZ/CORBIS
that Muhammad brought to the Arabs,
Inside the Dome of the Rock: The Rock is believed by
the Jews to be the spot where Abraham offered Isaac in
venerates the great prophets of the Judeosacrifice, and by Muslims to be the site of Muhammad's
Christian tradition. It speaks of Solomon's
ascent to heaven in the Night Journey
"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 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, more recently, Buddha