Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem

Al-Aqsa Mosque, which means "The Farthest Mosque" is a congregational mosque located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. According to Islamic law, the entire complex known today as Al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims, including the Dome of the Rock, is considered part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is located in East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 but is still claimed as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The congregation building of the mosque, called Jami al-Masjid al-Aqsa or al-Masjid al-Qibli, can accommodate about 5,000 people worshipping inside it, while the whole Al-Aqsa Mosque compound area may accommodate hundreds of thousands. Non-Muslims were barred from entering the site in 2000 but the restriction was lifted in 2003. During times of increased security only Muslims of a certain age are permitted to access the mosque. The government of Israel has granted a Muslim Council, Waqf, full administration of the site.

The site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque originally contained a Christian church, the Church of Our Lady, built by the Emperor Justinian in the 530s AD and was consecrated to the Virgin Mary. That church was later destroyed by the Persians in the early 7th century and left in ruins. When Jerusalem came under the control of Muslims in 638 AD, Caliph Umar ibn al-Khatta-b (580-644) was given the key to the city by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius. Umar asked Sophronius to show him the "Masjid Dawud" (Mosque of David) and "Mihrab Dawud" (David's sanctuary or prayer niche) in the Qur'an (38:21). The Patriarch took him to the door of the sanctuary which was almost blocked due to the trash that was placed at the door. Umar looked left and right and said: "Allah is Great, I swear by the one who holds my soul in his hand that this is the Mosque of David which the prophet of Allah described to us after his night journey."

Umar started cleaning up the place, using his clothes to remove the rubble and other Muslims imitated him in this. After cleaning up the place, Umar entered the building and started praying, reciting the Quranic sura Sad. Thereby Umar converted the building into a mosque, an Islamic place of prayer which did not infringe on nearby Christian and Jewish sites of worship.

Umar also asked Ka'ab al-Ahbar, a Jewish Rabbi who had converted to Islam and came with Umar from Medina, to guide him to the place of the Rock.

The building currently in existence is a result of different stages of construction and renovations. It is usually agreed upon that Abd al-Malik (685-705), the Umayyad Caliph who was the patron of the Dome of the Rock, started to reconstruct the Al-Aqsa Mosque at the southern end of the precinct. This work was continued by his son and successors al-Walid I (709-715), who renovated and expanded the building. During al-Walid I's time, the mosque was given the name Al-Aqsa Mosque, which means "the farthest mosque".

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

 Share your travels and/or ask a travel-related question

Join the Penang Travel Tips Facebook Group to share photos, tips and anything related to your travels, or ask travel-related questions.

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

Discover with Timothy

Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.

Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

Songs about Penang

About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.