Verily, Al-Aqsa is
a name for the whole mosque which is surrounded by the wall, the length and
width of which are mentioned here, for the building that exists in the southern
part of the Mosque, and the other ones such as the Dome of the Rock and the
corridors and other [buildings] are novel (muhdatha).
Firas
Al-Sawway is a Syrian scholar. He writes
on mythology, religion, and history. In
a recent video clip from MEMRI
TV dated March 3, 2019, Sawway argues,
The Al-Aqsa Mosque that is mentioned in the Quran is not
the place we know today. The one who said that this place in Jerusalem is the
Al-Aqsa Mosque was Abd Al-Malik Ibn Marwan. He wanted to build a holy place
there and decided to call it the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Historians say that this place
indeed became a Qibla for the Muslims
at that time. People from all over the world came to visit it, and it has
remained a holy place to this day.
It
seems there are several ways to interpret all of the above: 1) someone might
suggest that the Quran’s reference to the Al-Aqsa was not located on the Temple
Mount, but somewhere else; 2) another view might argue that Al-Aqsa in the
Quran refers to the entire mount and that the area belongs entirely to Moslems
and not to Jews; or 3) someone might reason that the Al-Aqsa refers to the
entire mount, but this area was where the Jewish Temple once stood and that the
Israeli people still have a claim to the sacred space. It is interesting that when the Quran speaks
of the Jewish Temple, it uses the term الْمَسْجِدَ, which
literally means mosque (Surah 17:7). Perhaps the temple (الْمَسْجِدَ)
is in a real sense the most distant mosque in time and space. God will again show His mercy.
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| Dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (2017) |
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| Wider View of Dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Southern Side of Temple Mount (2017) |
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| Southern View of Dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (2017) |
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