Editing Isra' and Mi'raj (section)

==Historical ([[Anachronism|anacronistic]]) issues / Jerusalem connection ==
{{see also|Revisionist school of Islamic studies}}
In the reign of the caliph [[Mu'awiyah I]] of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] (founded in AD 661), a quadrangular mosque for a capacity of 3,000 worshipers is recorded somewhere on the Haram ash-Sharif.<ref name="Elad">Elad, Amikam. (1995). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=CDz_yctbQVgC&pg=PA29 Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship. Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage]'' BRILL, pp. 29–43. {{ISBN|90-04-10010-5}}.</ref> This was rebuilt and expanded by the [[caliph]] [[Abd al-Malik]] in AD 690 along with the [[Dome of the Rock]].<ref name="Elad" /><ref name="le Strange">le Strange, Guy. (1890). ''Palestine under the Moslems'', pp. 80–98.</ref> According to Islamic tradition, a small prayer hall ([[musalla]]), what would later become the [[Al-Aqsa Mosque]], was built by [[Umar]], the second caliph of the [[Rashidun Caliphate]]. 

A [[hadith]] reports Muhammad's account of the experience:

{{blockquote|''"Then Gabriel brought a horse (Burraq) to me, which resembled lightning in swiftness and lustre, was of clear white colour, medium in size, smaller than a mule and taller than a (donkey), quick in movement that it put its feet on the farthest limit of the sight. He made me ride it and carried me to Jerusalem. He tethered the Burraq to the ring of that Temple to which all the Prophets in Jerusalem used to tether their beasts..."'' <ref>Siddiqui, Abdul Hameed. ''The Life of Muhammad''. Islamic Book Trust: Kuala Lumpur. 1999. p. 113. {{ISBN|983-9154-11-7}}</ref>}}

Although not in all of them, in some hadiths, such as bukhari 3207,<ref>https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3207</ref> the Miraj story is handled and processed independently of Al-Aqsa. Besides that city of Jerusalem is not mentioned by any of [[Names of Jerusalem|its names]] in Surah Al-Isra 17:1, however, the consensus of Islamic scholars is that Quranic reference to ''[[Al-Aqsa|masjid al-aqṣā]]'' in the verse refers to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is mentioned in later Islamic literature and in the [[hadith]] as the place of Isra and Miʽraj.<ref>Historic Cities of the Islamic World edited by Clifford Edmund Bosworth P: 226</ref> Some figures contest the consensus that ''[[Al-Aqsa|Al-masjid al-aqṣā]]'' was in Jerusalem and believe it was somewhere other than Jerusalem. This arises from the belief that there's no evidence of a [[Islamization of Jerusalem|Mosque on the Temple Mount]] in Jerusalem before the [[Muslim conquest of the Levant|Islamic conquest of the Levant]], and [[Umar]]'s arrival;

The [[Solomon's Temple|first]] and [[second temple]]s were destroyed by the [[Siege of Jerusalem (587 BCE)|Babylonians]] and the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|Romans]], respectively, the latter more than five centuries before Muhammad's life. After the initially successful [[Jewish revolt against Heraclius]], the Jewish population resettled in Jerusalem for a short period of time from AD 614 to 630 and immediately started to restore the temple on the Temple Mount and build synagogues in Jerusalem.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ghada |first=Karmi |title=Jerusalem Today: What Future for the Peace Process? |year=1997 |pages=115–116}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kohen |first=Elli |title=History of the Byzantine Jews: A Microcosmos in the Thousand Year Empire |pages=36 |chapter=5}}</ref> After the Jewish population was expelled a second time from Jerusalem and shortly before [[Heraclius]] retook the city (AD 630), a small synagogue was already in place on the Temple Mount. This synagogue was reportedly demolished after Heraclius retook Jerusalem.<ref>{{Cite book |author=R. W. Thomson |url=https://archive.org/details/armenianhistorya00thom |title=The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos |publisher=Liverpool University Press |year=1999 |isbn=9780853235644 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/armenianhistorya00thom/page/n288 208]–212 |url-access=limited}}</ref>

[[French Americans|French American]] Academic [[Oleg Grabar]] believed that the Quranic ''[[Al-Aqsa|Al-masjid al-aqṣā]]'' referred to one of two sanctuaries in a Hijazi village known as [[al-Juʽranah]] near Mecca, basing this on the statement of two near-contemporary medieval Muslim travelers [[Al-Waqidi|Al Waqidi]] and [[Al-Azraqi]] who used the term "''Al-masjid al-aqṣā" ,'' and "''Al-masjid al-Adna"'':{{blockquote|Bevan has shown that among early traditionists there are many who do not accept the identification of the masjid al-aqsa, and among them are to be found such great names as al-Bukhari and Tabari. Both Ibn Ishaq an [[al-Ya'qubi]] precede their accounts with expressions which indicate that these are stories which are not necessarily accepted as dogma. It was suggested by J. Horovitz that in the early period of Islam, there is little justification for assuming that the Koranic expression in any way referred to Jerusalem. But while Horovitz thought that it referred to a place in heaven, A. Guillaume's careful analysis of the earliest texts ([[al-Waqidi]] and [[al-Azraqi]], both in the later second century A.H.) has convincingly shown that the Koranic reference to the masjid al-aqsa applies specifically to [[Al-Ji'rana]], near Mekkah, where there were two sanctuaries (masjid al-adnai and masjid al-aqsa), and where Muhammad so-journed in dha al-qa'dah of the eighth year after the Hijrah.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grabar |first=Oleg |date=1959 |title=The Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629098 |journal=Ars Orientalis |volume=3 |pages=33–62 |jstor=4629098 |issn=0571-1371 }}</ref>}}

Israeli political scientist [[Yitzhak Reiter]] mentions some alternative interpretations among some Muslim sects in the 21st century which dispute that the night journey took place in Jerusalem, believing instead it was either in the [[Seven heavens|Heavens]], or in [[Medina]] and its vicinity by [[Ja'fari school|Jaf'ari Shi'tes]].<ref name="Reiter-2008">Yitzhak Reiter (2008), [https://books.google.com/books?id=bZbFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 ''Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity''],  Springer, p. 21.: "The issue of al-Aqsa Mosque's location has been subject to much debate within Islam, and even today there are those who believe it is not in Jerusalem at all, according to one claim, the text was meant to refer to the Mosque of the Prophet in al-Madina or in a place close to al-Madina. Another perception is that of the Ja’fari Shiites, who interpret that al-Aqsa as a mosque in heaven. This interpretation reflects the Shiite anti-Umayyad emotions in an attempt to play down the sacredness of Umayyad Jerusalem and to minimize the sanctity of Jerusalem by detaching the qur'anic al-Masjid al-aqsa from the Temple Mount, thus asserting that the Prophet never came to that city, but rather ascended to the heavenly al-Aqsa mosque without ever stopping in bayt al-Maqdis [Jerusalem]. Apart from depriving Jerusalem of its major attraction for pilgrims, the Shiite traditions offer alternative pilgrimage attractions such as the Shiite holy city of Kufa, as well as Mecca. However, the tradition about Muhammad’s Night Journey to Jerusalem were never suppressed. They were exploited by the Umayyads and continued to be quoted in the [[tafsir]] (Qur’an interpretation) collections. The interpretation dating from the Umayyad and Crusader eras, according to which al-Aqsa is in Jerusalem, is the one that prevailed."</ref> Reiter also claimed that the location being in Jerusalem was a tradition invented after Muhmmad's life by the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] to divert pilgrimage to either Shi'ite sites such as [[Kufa|Al-Kufa]], or Mecca when it was held by [[Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr]] during the [[Second Fitna|Second Muslim Civil war]]<ref name="Reiter-2008" />