📘 ❞ Why Should Muslims Visit Al Masjid Al Aqsa ❝ كتاب ــ وصفي كيلاني

عن كتاب Why Should Muslims Visit Al Masjid Al Aqsa:
First: Accelerated violations
and Judaization of Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa | 13
1. Tunnelling and excavations | 13

2. Ariel Sharon's year 2000 strategy to Judaize Al-Masjid Al-
Aqsa, violate its sanctity and allocate parts of it for Jewish

worship | 13
3. Isolating and Judaizing Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa's history and
its environs and eradicating the Muslim character of the
area | 15
4. Obstructing the work of the Awqaf and the Hashemite
Restoration Projects | 15

5. Intense settler presence and activity and calls for the divi-
sion of Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa | 16

6. Establishing so-called ‘temple’ museums and facilities
around Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa | 16
7. Beyond the Magharbeh Gate Pathway: the comprehensive

plan to remove all Islamic relics from the Buraq Plaza (re-
ferred to by Israelis as the Wailing Wall Plaza) | 17

8. The Separation Wall and preventing Jerusalemites and the
1948 Arabs from reaching Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa | 19

9. Isolation of Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa aids in establishing the Jew-
ish narrative as truth over the Muslim narrative | 19

6

Second: Visiting Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa: between
religious duty and normalization | 23
1. Visiting Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa in the Holy Qur'an and
Sunnah | 23

2. Al-Israa' wal Mi'raaj (The Prophet Muhammad's Noctur-
nal Journey) | 26

3. The Treaty (or Sulh) of Hudaybiyah in order to reach
Mecca | 26
4. The Conquest of Jerusalem | 28
5. Visiting Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa under Crusader rule | 28
Third: Opinions of contemporary Muslim scholars
and officials regarding visiting Jerusalem while it is

under occupation | 31
Fourth: Visiting Jerusalem: between
causing benefit and warding off harm

This paper sheds light on some of the practical, politi-
cal and religious reasons why all Muslims, and not only

Palestinian Muslims, should rally around Al-Masjid
Al-Aqsa. Muslims should visit Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa in order to
empower the steadfast and stalwart Jerusalemites who struggle

to remain in the Holy City; so that they may know that respon-
sibility for the mosque does not rest with them alone, but with

the world's 1.7 billion Muslims.
Jerusalemites, the 1948 Arabs and the Jerusalem Awqaf
Administration cannot confront the campaign to Judaize the
Holy City on their own.
There are over 20 tunnels and excavations that threaten to
penetrate the walls of Al-Haram Al-Sharif. Some have been
converted into synagogues with Talmudic names that imply
to the visitor that they are part of the so-called Jewish temple.

Since the year 2000, over 50,000 settlers and 2 million non-
Muslim tourists have entered Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa without the

Awqaf's permission.
Since 1967, more than 14,000 Palestinians have been driven
out of Jerusalem and over 3,300 homes have been razed. The
Separation Wall has removed over 70,000 homes from the
perimeters of the Holy City of Jerusalem.
The daily Jewish presence and prayer in Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa

is the first step in the plan to divide Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa be-
tween Muslims and Jews; exactly as has been done in Hebron

in the Ibrahimi Mosque (referred to by Israelis as Cave of the
Patriarchs).
Since 1967, most visitors to Jerusalem are non-Muslims
who only to listen to the Jewish narrative regarding Al-Masjid
Al-Aqsa.

How do we interpret the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) visit-
ing both Jerusalem (Al-Israa' wal Miraj) and Mecca (Treaty of

Hudaybiyah) before both cities witnessed Muslim conquests?
The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said:
Whosoever wants to behold a piece of Paradise, let him
behold Bayt Al-Maqdis.
The Prophet (pbuh) also said:
Whosoever performs Ihram for Hajj or Umrah from

Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and then proceeds to Al-Masjid Al-
Haram, their past and future sins will be forgiven, or they

will be entered into Paradise.

Visiting Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa never stopped, even when Je-
rusalem was under the Crusaders. No scholars, including ibn

Taymiyyah and Al-Ghazali, ever described these visits as ‘nor-
malization’ with, or surrender to, Crusader rule.

Warding off harm: Those who forbid visiting Jerusalem base
it on the jurisprudential principle that “warding off harm takes
precedence over causing benefit”. They claim that the harm in
this instance is that visiting Jerusalem is normalization with
the occupation authority. Normalization is a political term that
means “to establish ‘normal’ relations with the other”. It must

be asked: “Is normalization the true purpose and result of visit-
ing Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa?”

Not visiting Jerusalem serves those who seek to eradicate the
Holy City's Islamic identity and history and those who aim to
isolate the Jerusalemites.
Visiting Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa is a religious duty for those
who are able to visit it, particularly for Muslim scholars and
intellectuals.
Is visiting someone who is jailed normalization with the
jailor? Imagine: a band of usurpers comes and throws your
mother in jail and visiting her can only be done through them,

the aggressors; does this mean that visiting your

his is a very important message that highlights many of the practical, political and religious reasons that Muslims have to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque. The author here refers to Muslims from all parts of the world, not just Muslims in Palestine..