Jerusalem is the second most important city to the Islamic religeon/culture (after Mecca).
It is not mentioned even once in the Qu’ran…Islam’s Holy Scripture.
Is this true?
I Googled [Jerusalem mentioned Qur’an] and got several references that said that the name is never mentioned; however, the al-Aqsaa mosque (forgive the spelling) is mentioned–which is indeed in Jerusalem.
It is mentioned a few times in the parts of the Qu’ran given to the muslims by Mohammed, for examples in talks between Mohammed and the Jews of Jerusalem.
It’s also worth pointing out the Qu’ran includes much the Torah/old testemant, in which Jerusalem is mentioned on more than one occasion.
My guess is that you mean that the Qu’ran includes much of those stories and ideas. But the OP was asking about the actual text, i.e., whether or not Jerusalem is mentioned by name, as opposed to by reference.
Surely you don’t mean to suggest that “the Qu’ran includes the Torah” in the same sense that “the Bible includes the Torah”, do you? 
AAAAHHHHH!!!
Pet peeve time: It’s Qur’an. Not Qu’ran.
Okay, done with that.
Oh wait. The Torah = ! The Old Testament. The Torah is only the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. There are many many other books in the Hebrew Bible (which is pretty much equivalent to the Old Testament) that are not in the Torah.
All right.
Jerusalem is a holy site in Islam because of the hadith of the Night Journey. (A hadith is a non-Qur’anic story, like the Jewish midrash.) According to the hadith, Muhammed rode his fabulous white steed Al-Buraq (“lightning”) to Al-Aqsa in one night, where he stood on a rock (the one in the center of the Dome of the Rock) and ascended to heaven, where he chatted with Jesus, Moses, and eventually god himself.
According to my Islam professor, this hadith first appeared when the Hashemites lost control of the Arabian peninsula. As the descendents of the prophet, it was rather shameful for them not to control its holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina. But! They still had Jerusalem, which was a holy city for the Jews and Christians (not to mention the original mihrab, or focal point of Muslim prayer). And then this hadith appeared, and once again, the Hashemites controlled a Muslim holy city.
::jerks thumb upwards::
I just spotted something else in the OP I missed first time around. Jerusalem is the third most important city in Islam, not second. First is Mecca, then Medina, then Jerusalem. After that, I suppose it’s debatable.
I used to be impressed by people who memorized the Qur’an, until I read it. It’s a rather short read, I don’t know how many pages it would be printed, as I read it online, but I read it in a couple of hours so probably under 200.
Even if it is, what does that prove? The Quran isn’t the be-all and end-all of Islamic faith. Muslims also place a great deal of importance on the Hadith (collected sayings of the prophet) and on Jewish and Christian scripture (though they believe the extant copies and translations to be flawed). Jerusalem is certainly mentioned in the latter two, and I’d be surprised if it didn’t have at least a few references in the Hadith.
Me too, given my earlier post in the thread.
Your instructor was either an ignorant idiot or you misunderstood what he said. The Dome of the Rock Mosque, biult was over a thousand years old, having been built in the early Ummayad period, when the Hashemites were displaced to modern Jordan in the early 20th century. The traditions attaching Muhammed’s ascent to heaven date far back to the 600s, so no modern fabrication there.
What hopefully your instructor actually said was the Hashemites started focusing on these traditions once they lost control of the Haremiane. Even then I suspect he was wrong.
By the way, “Al-Haramain” that Collounsbury refers to means “the Two Holy Places” - namely, the Mosque in Mekkah and the Mosque in Medina.
Whereas Mekkah al-Mukarramah and Medinat-al-Munawarra (the complete names of the cities) are sacred, what makes them sacred is what’s in them, namely the Majid-ul-Haraam (Sacred Mosque - containing the Ka’bah) and Masjid-ul-Nabawi (Mosque of the Prophet - containing Hazrat Muhammad (sa)'s grave). Together, they are known as “al-Haramain.”
What makes Jerusalem sacred is the rock. (Aside: some Muslims, such as Ismailis, believe that the Mi’raj - Hazrat Muhammad (sa)'s nighttime journey to heaven in which he ascended to heaven from the Rock of Jerusalem - was a revelation and not physical or literal, in which case Jerusalem’s sacredness would diminish.)
The House of Saud is known as “the Custodians of al-Haramain.”
Well, do you think it’s possible (and maybe what Kyla’s instructor meant) that Jerusalem took on increased significance with the rise of the Umayads? With the move of the capital to Damascas, and the unrest in the Hijaz under ibn az-Zubayr (who did get named Caliph in Mecca, remember) So, someone like Abd-Malik (who built the Dome of the Rock) might want to rely on the traditions emphasizing Jerusalem’s importance, because that area was safely under Umayad control, rather than focusing on Mecca and Medina, which were in rebel hands at the time?
Oh, and the direction of prayer is the qiblah. The mihrab is a niche in the wall indicating the direction of the qiblah.
For most Muslims, the qiblah is Mekkah (where God’s house reportedly is). It used to be Jerusalem, but when the Jewish tribes refused to accept Hazrat Muhammad (sa) as their prophet, he changed it to Mekkah. Of course, others believe God changed it at His own will, but whatever.
When I was really small, I went for Eid prayers in an Islamic center (Sunni) in the US. I asked my Dad why the mihrab was there. He said because that’s where God is. Honestly, the entire time (during the sermon and prayers), I expected God to walk up and take a seat at the mihrab. Ah, the imagination of the youth.
WRS