Palestine: Panorama of the Prophets

By Shafiq Morton

What does one say? Where does one begin? How does a person ever encapsulate successfully in words a visit to Islam's Holy Sanctuaries? Indeed, Mecca, Madina and Jerusalem are all so divinely special to mankind. And to visit Palestine is to tread in the footsteps of the Prophets. It is to witness the panorama of their triumphs and tribulations.

Mecca, the most Noble City of all, is the birthplace of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW), admitted favorite of the Almighty, and is the site of the first mosque built on earth by the Prophet Adam (upon whom be peace). Madinah, the second most important sanctuary, came to reflect the Nur Muhammadi, the Prophetic message, and gave birth to the world's greatest civilization.

The third sanctuary, Jerusalem, the city of Prophets Sulaiman, 'Isa and Dawud (upon whom be peace)  (Solomon, Jesus and David) presented our beloved Prophet with his first Qiblah, the initial direction of Muslim prayer. Jerusalem also became the departure point for our Prophet's (SAW) wondrous Ascension - or Mi'raj - into the heavens. In addition, Jerusalem's Holy Mount or Haram Sharif, is the world's second oldest place of worship after the Ka'bah in Mecca. Ibn Kisa'i relates that the Ark floated over the Mount during the great flood, and Nuh (Noah) (upon whom be peace) was told that prophets from his loins would one day live and worship there.

How then, does one describe the bursting excitement, the subtle spiritual elevation, the intimate love, the distant longing, and the overwhelming joy that a fills a heart when we visit the Holy sanctuaries? How do you pour the ocean into a mere thimble? All that I can offer is a brief and selective chronicle of my personal journey to the Holy Land, where Bait ul-Muqaddas (the Holy House) also known as Bait ul-Maqdis (the House of the Sanctuary), is situated. These are classical names for Jerusalem as well as the Qur'anic al- Aqsa - the furthest mosque - a place honored for the miracle of the Isra (the Night Journey) and the Mi'raj (the Ascension).

And here I was, en route to al-Aqsa! I remembered Mukhtar Holland's translations of Imam Ghazali's Ihya on the status of al-Aqsa. “….. one prayer in Mecca is worth 100,000, one in Madina 10,000 and one in al-Aqsa 1,000.” Numbers in these cases were just relative, we had been taught back home at the Azzawia in Cape Town, Allah alone knows their real value. 

Arrival at Haram Sharif

After a fitful sleep, at 4 a.m. it was time to prepare for Fajr, the dawn prayer. Still totally disorientated, we called for a taxi to get us to the Haram, the holy sanctuary. The driver expertly negotiated the narrow streets of the ancient city.  Stepping through a gate into the 34-acre complex, the adhan wafted over the rooftops--what a welcome! The Dome of the Rock - the Qubbat us-Sakhra - was dark, silent and serene. Interestingly, the Dome of the Rock is not masjid al-Aqsa: the mosque is a separate building on the southernmost point of the complex.

One's first impression of the al-Aqsa compound at dawn is of a tranquility that belies the constant turmoil surrounding it. The contrast is profound. The nefarious social injustice prevalent in modern-day Palestine, side-by-side with the luminosity of its divine historical legacy, mirrors at the same time the chaotic outward state of the world, al-Dunya, and the serene inner condition of the Prophets.

Has the Palestinian nakba (catastrophe) been Allah's way of showing us something - that the material world, this Dunya, is indeed a vexatious passing illusion, and that the Afterlife (al-Akhirah) is the concrete Prophetic truth? For Palestine is also the land of the Dajjal, the anti-Christ, the great imposter who will turn reality on its nose and make Paradise hell, and Hell paradise.

To stand where the Mi'raj took place  makes one's heart want to fly into the sky.

Religious Teachings Come to Life

Palestine presents a bustling historical and spiritual landscape - archeological diggings in Ariha (Jericho), for example, have revealed the ruins of 23 different cities. The Prophets Sulaiman (Solomon), Shu'aib, Lut (Lot), Ishaq (Isaac), Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), Salih, Yunus (Jonah), Yusuf (Joseph), Zakariyyah, Yahya (John), Dawud (David), Ya`qub (Jacob), and 'Isa (Jesus) (peace be upon them) are all part of its multi-layered mosaic as is the Last of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Geographical, Architectural and Spiritual Feats

In fact, the 120-foot-high dome constructed by the Ummayyad Khalif 'Abdul Malik in 691 C.E. (69 A.H.) is an engineering masterpiece, one of Islam's oldest works of devotional architecture. To stand at the railing that surrounds the hallowed rock, to look at the spot where the Mi'raj actually took place, to see a footprint of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and to cast one's gaze into the dome is an amazing sensation. It is as if one's heart wants to fly into the sky.

Another fascinating aspect of the granite rock, the tip of Mount Moriah, is that there is a cave or crypt underneath it. But that is not all. A man-sized hole is in its roof, apparently an effect of the Mi'raj when the Rock trembled and an Angel had to hold it up on its east side.

Traditions (through Jalal ud-Din as-Suyuti) speak of the second Righteous Khalifah, 'Umar, rediscovering the Sacred Rock as a sewer and rubbish dump sixteen years after the Hijrah (migration from Mecca to Madina). Therefore, the hole in the rock could also have been a result of the many desecrations by the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, or even the Babylonians.

The dome glowed in the dawn light, silhouetted against a pink and purple sky heralding the rising of the sun. I thought of Nabi Sulaiman, a prophet who chose knowledge over dominion, but who was blessed with dominion, knowledge, reason and perfect temper. A Prophet who was given Adam's special ring from Paradise, a prophet whose control over the winds, the Jinn and animals, saw him building a magnificent temple of some 1,000 marble pillars on this very spot.

Not much remains of this noble Prophet's legacy today, except for perhaps speculation that the eastern section of the al-Aqsa once housed his stables. Its ancient arches, massive cellars and underground passages have recently been converted into an extension of the mosque. Called the Marwani masjid, it can house several thousand worshippers.

The Sanctity Linking Three World Faiths

This area, say the Palestinians, is where they believe our Prophet Muhammad (blessings be upon him) prostrated in prayer before his miraculous journey and that his noble steed, al-Buraq, was tethered to the western wall. Strong symbolism is evoked when one looks eastwards from the Haram Sharif over the Kidron valley towards the Mount of Olives, said to be the site of Nabi 'Isa's ascension into heaven. It is also the spot where the Jews maintain the Masiha or Messiah will appear.

I was also told that the Sirat ul-Mustaqim (the Righteous Path) or Bridge on the Day of Judgement, will cross over the Kidron valley. Humanity will either slip off the Bridge into Hell or move on towards al-Aqsa where, presumably, believers will experience their final "Mi'raj." It is said the Rock will be transformed into heavenly white coral and that the Ka'bah will be led to the Sakhra as its bride.

The outer western side of the al-Aqsa complex is where the famous "Wailing Wall" of the Jewish faith is located. The wall was actually built in about 20 B.C. by King Herod to shore up the infill of the Holy Mount. To pay respect to the Wailing Wall is as much of one's devotional odyssey as is anything else in Palestine. I found it to be one of the saddest places in the Holy Land.

To focus exclusively on the Messengers of Palestine, however, is to only partly paint the picture. The canvas has always been a vibrant and colorful one. For with the Kings, crusaders and conquerors came their armies, and with the Prophets came their companions, noble people whose graves punctuate the countryside in great numbers.

In this timeless land, there are as many graves as there are people. And if the ground is not covered with the tombs of Sahabis, saints or Prophets, it is redolent with the blood of martyrs, and resonant with the screams of the faithless in their barzakh - the realm between the grave and the resurrection.

After the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him), many great Sahabis traveled to what was then called "Greater Syria" (Sham) as they fanned out from Madinah to propagate Islam. To trace the movements of Sayyidina 'Umar, the second Righteous Khalifah and the renewer of al-Aqsa, is quite easy as a mosque marks almost every step he took in the Holy Land.

On a hilltop, just a stone's throw away from the Mount of Olives, lies Salman al-Farsi, one of the most meritorious companions and a personal favorite. His body rests in a small mosque that reminds me of our humble "karamats" back home in Cape Town, shrines of the awliyya, the beloved friends of Allah. In his time, this pious Persian's home must have commanded magnificent views of the Haram Sharif and the surrounding hills. Another celebrated Sahabi, Abdur- Rahman bin Awf (one of the ten promised the Garden by the Prophet (peace be upon him)) lies in the now devastated town of Ramla.

Visiting the Grave of Prophet Musa (upon whom be peace)

In fact, it was one of the Sahabis who rediscovered the site of Nabi Musa’s (upon whom be peace) grave in the desert some twenty odd miles outside Jerusalem. Acting on a Hadith that said Musa's qabr (grave) lay but a stone's throw away from al-Aqsa, a shining light in the desert lead him to the grave. We visited the holy site one bright morning, driving into a timeless desert. A shepherd was tending his flock of sheep near the precincts of the mosque that housed Nabi Musa's qabr. It was an ancient construction apparently built by Salahuddin Ayyubi - the great Kurdish general who liberated Palestine from the Crusaders in 1187 C.E.

The kabr itself was impressive in size, being about seven feet in height and twelve feet in length. Whether this was the actual size of Nabi Musa (upon whom be peace) I could not say. His turban and staff in the Topkapi museum do not give the impression of him being much bigger in stature than 20^th century man. 

The Dead Sea

After the compelling experience of visiting the resting place of one of mankind's most celebrated Prophets - who incidentally begged Allah to be part of Muhammad's ummah - we journeyed to the Dead Sea, a stretch of water whose oily, greasy depths are eight times saltier than any other ocean on the planet.

Some 1,300 feet below sea-level, the Dead Sea is symbolic of Jahannam or punishment in the grave. Continually fed by the Jordan River, it is a lifeless ocean that cannot evaporate completely. In Arabic it is called Bahr Lut, the “Sea of Prophet Lut”. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be buried in its murky, impenetrable depths.

The surrounding desert is the region where John the Baptist (Yahya) wandered in the wilderness. The nearby Jordan River is where he baptized Nabi 'Isa (Jesus).

Site of the Preserved Scrolls

The caves of Qumran are where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. When a bedoiun threw a stone into Cave Number 4 in 1947, and heard the sound of breaking pottery, little did he realize that he had shattered more than just a jar. The scrolls have since revealed that the Essene (Nasrene/Nasara) community that lived there until about 70 C.E., could have been the first Christians following the gospel of Jesus.

The elders in Jerusalem regarded them as a heretical Jewish sect that had to be suppressed. Saul of Tarsus (destined to be the founder of modern Christianity) was sent by the High Priest Ananas to put down the Nasara living in the desert caves close to the Dead Sea. The scrolls mention three chief characters: the Righteous One or leader (believed to be the Apostle James), the Wicked Priest (believed to be Ananas) and the Liar (believed to be Saul of Tarsus).

Hebron: the City of God’s Friend

No journey to the Holy Land is complete without a visit to the ancient city of Hebron. Hebron means "Khalil," the friend of Allah, he honored title of Prophet Abraham who, according to Kaab al-Ahbar, was given five gifts by his Creator: the Coat of Friendship, the Turban of Prophethood, the Girdle of Victory and Contentment, the Ring of Prophethood, and the Staff of Light with its five branches: Ibrahim himself, Ishaq, Isma'il, Ya`qub and Yusuf (peace be upon them all).

If one considers that God’s Messengers Ibrahim, Ishaq, and Ya`qub (upon whom be peace) are lying in the tombs on the hill of Masjid ul-Khalil (or the Ibrahimi mosque), it is no wonder that some consider it a Holy Sanctuary. It is also known as the “Tomb of the Patriarchs” and “Houses Rebecca” (one of Nabi Ibrahim's wives).

Hebron, which is 3,000 feet above sea-level, is the biblical land of "milk and honey." The city dates back to 3,000 B.C. and, like Jerusalem, is the focus of dissent. Here the joy and awe at making ziyarat (visitation of the holy places) is counter-balanced by anxiety, for soldiers are everywhere.

In 1994, after the right-wing extremist Barusch Goldstein had slain 29 Muslims in prayer in this mosque, Israeli authorities divided it into two: one half is a synagogue, the other a masjid. Nabi Ibrahim's tomb lies in between. A footprint of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is housed next to the qabr in the Muslim section.

We prayed 'Asr in the mosque, a small jama'at of South Africans and Palestinians standing shoulder-to-shoulder in prayer between the tombs of Rebecca and Ishaq. After making du'a, we noticed a dividing screen where the silhouette of an armed soldier was seen against the frosted glass. Through a crack we could see them in their black coats.

Reflections of the Ascension

It had been a very long day and it was already dark. "This is my special gift for you," said the guide. From the Mount of Olives, the floodlit golden dome of the Sacred Mount stood out like a beacon against the backdrop of the old city. "I just want you to sit here for a moment's silence," he said. I pondered at the vista, now deserted except for our group. My trip had been a profound awakening. I had walked through the pages of the Qur'an, encountered Hadith, visited the burial sites of Prophets and stared face-to-face into the akhir az- zaman, the Last Days, right down to the spot where the wretched Dajjal would die.

Jerusalem: Islam’s first Qiblah, and the  departure point of the miraculous Mi'raj.

The Mi'raj was not just a miraculous ascension bringing back wonderful tales and frightening images. It was a harbinger, a major sign of the times that the final seal of Prophethood on earth had been consummated. For the first time, Allah the Almighty, the incredibly Merciful, had opened up His veils for mankind through the Prophet right up to His Heavenly Presence. Not since the days of Adam (upon whom be peace) had humankind been given such access to the Divine.

About the author: Shafiq Morton is a South African of British ancestry and a revert to Islam. He is a photographer by profession, also working at times as a journalist and a radio announcer for Voice of the Cape Radio in Cape Town, South Africa.

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