Posted on: 1999

By Khaled Nusseibeh

When the expanses of existence, the glory of Divine Creation, and the twining of places of sanctity manifest themselves in the miraculous, a Muslim may think of the event of Al-Isra’a W’al Mi’raj.This event was the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) trek by night from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem towards the outermost regions of the skies.

Al-Isra’a W’al Mi’raj was recorded in the Holy Qur’an in this verse: (Glorified is He who took His servant by night from the Sacrosanct Mosque to the Furthermost Mosque, the precincts of which We have blessed, that We might show him (some) of our signs. Truly He is the Hearer, the Seer) Holy Qur’an, 17:1, Tr. Dr. M. M. Khatib.

Inasmuch as this event represented a form of travel that defies the parameters of humanly knowable speed– or the physics of time and space– (considering that the trek was made to Jerusalem, and to the heavens in what is subject to experience), it also embodied a lasting bond between the Sacred Mosque of Mecca and the Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem for the nation of the Arabs and Muslims. In fact, Al-Aqsa Mosque was the first Kibla (the direction of prayer) of the nation of Islam before the Ka’aba became the focal point of worship.

From the vantage point of Islam (which is a word that carries the meaning of human surrender to God, inasmuch as it carries the meaning of peace) the sanctification of the connection between Mecca and Jerusalem is like a blessed tree, watered by the strivings and yearnings and self-sacrifice of Prophets, saints, soldiers, artisans, women, and people of all walks of life and nationalities who revered Jerusalem as the Holy City of God and as a symbol of human submission to the One Creator.

It was with this spirit of faith and righteous undertaking that the ancestral patriarch of the nation of the Arabs and the Israelites, the Prophet Abraham, planted the blessed tree of monotheistic faith in Jerusalem and Palestine; indeed, Abraham (peace be upon him) watered the terrain of Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula with this blessed tree of submission to the One God through his sojourns and travels in these ancient lands where the cradle of human civilization had its earliest beginnings.

This message of human submission to God was shouldered by countless hordes of humans who were awakened to the significance of God’s Covenant with humanity’s collective ancestor (Adam), and who lived in accordance with the fundamental premise of this Covenant: that only God should be worshipped, and that only His Law should be observed. This message was communicated by the Prophets and sages and men and women of learning that belong to every tribe and race in every age of human history.

This message was likewise guarded and defended against the follies of corruption and oppression by the towering Prophets of the Israelites and the Gentiles- the seal of whom was the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the unlettered orphan of Arabia to whom was revealed the Holy Qur’an- God’s final Revelation to the human race.

The Muslim conquests of the 7th century A.D. were to a great extent motivated by the strivings of a new universal nation, with a universal message of monotheistic worship and Law- to plant the seeds of faith and justice in the Holy Land. In this sense, the struggles of Abraham, David, Solomon, Jesus, and every righteous individual, to purify the Holy Land of profanity and corruption encountered great vindication when the Muslim-Arab army of liberation entered Palestine (with the consent of its Christian inhabitants) in the age of the Muslim Caliph ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab.

Jerusalem was liberated in 637 A.D. It is said that the pious Arab Caliph ‘Umar, upon entering the City of Jerusalem, insisted on entering the city on foot out of a sense of reverence for its sanctity and meaning in Islam. It is also a fact of history that he refrained from performing prayers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre out of a fear that Muslims would forcibly convert it into a mosque and thus infringe on the spirit of tolerance and justice that the Faith and Law of Islam enjoins.

Mr. Khaled Nusseibeh is a translator and writer. He currently manages the Ubada Center for Writing and Translation Services in Amman. Born in Amman in 1961, he obtained his BA and MA from Columbia and Princeton Universities, respectively. Mr. Nusseibeh, who originates from Jerusalem, specialized in Near Eastern Studies with a focus on Islamic thought and studies.