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Al-Aqsa Mosque, which means "The Farthest Mosque" is a congregational mosque located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. According to Islamic law, the entire complex known today as Al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims, including the Dome of the Rock, is considered part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is located in East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 but is still claimed as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
The congregation building of the mosque, called Jami al-Masjid al-Aqsa or al-Masjid al-Qibli, can accommodate about 5,000 people worshipping inside it, while the whole Al-Aqsa Mosque compound area may accommodate hundreds of thousands. Non-Muslims were barred from entering the site in 2000 but the restriction was lifted in 2003. During times of increased security only Muslims of a certain age are permitted to access the mosque. The government of Israel has granted a Muslim Council, Waqf, full administration of the site.
The site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque originally contained a Christian church, the Church of Our Lady, built by the Emperor Justinian in the 530s AD and was consecrated to the Virgin Mary. That church was later destroyed by the Persians in the early 7th century and left in ruins. When Jerusalem came under the control of Muslims in 638 AD, Caliph Umar ibn al-Khatta-b (580-644) was given the key to the city by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius. Umar asked Sophronius to show him the "Masjid Dawud" (Mosque of David) and "Mihrab Dawud" (David's sanctuary or prayer niche) in the Qur'an (38:21). The Patriarch took him to the door of the sanctuary which was almost blocked due to the trash that was placed at the door. Umar looked left and right and said: "Allah is Great, I swear by the one who holds my soul in his hand that this is the Mosque of David which the prophet of Allah described to us after his night journey."
Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem
Photo: Matthias Kabel, GNU Free Documentation License
Umar started cleaning up the place, using his clothes to remove the rubble and other Muslims imitated him in this. After cleaning up the place, Umar entered the building and started praying, reciting the Quranic sura Sad. Thereby Umar converted the building into a mosque, an Islamic place of prayer which did not infringe on nearby Christian and Jewish sites of worship.
Umar also asked Ka'ab al-Ahbar, a Jewish Rabbi who had converted to Islam and came with Umar from Medina, to guide him to the place of the Rock.
The building currently in existence is a result of different stages of construction and renovations. It is usually agreed upon that Abd al-Malik (685-705), the Umayyad Caliph who was the patron of the Dome of the Rock, started to reconstruct the Al-Aqsa Mosque at the southern end of the precinct. This work was continued by his son and successors al-Walid I (709-715), who renovated and expanded the building. During al-Walid I's time, the mosque was given the name Al-Aqsa Mosque, which means "the farthest mosque".
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