The Dome of the Rock (Qubbah al-Sakhrah) in
Jerusalem built, as commonly perceived,[1] between 65 H/684 CA and 72 H/691 CA
within the precincts of the original al-Aqsa Mosque (al-Haram al-Sharif or
Noble Sanctuary)[2] is one of the earliest existing monuments of Islamic art
and architecture. Its significance lies in its religious, civilizational,
geographical and historical contexts.
The Dome of the Rock is located on an artificial
platform, approximately in the center of the al-Haram al-Sharif or the original
al-Aqsa Mosque.
According to Creswell, it is “an annular building
and consists in its ultimate analysis of a wooden dome 20.44 m. in diameter,
set on a high drum, pierced with sixteen windows and resting on four piers and
twelve columns, placed in a circle just large enough to surround the Rock, and
so arranged that three columns alternate with each pier.
A central cylinder is thus formed, of height about
equal to its diameter. This circle of supports is placed in the center of a
large octagon averaging about 20.59 m. a side, formed by eight walls 9.50 in
height (excluding the parapet, which measures 2.60 m.).
Externally there are seven bays in each side, but
those next the corners – that is to say the bay at each end of each side, or
sixteen in all – are treated as blind panels. The remainder are each pierced in
their upper part by a window.”[3]
The Rock (Sakhrah), which the domed edifice (the
Dome of the Rock) shelters, is the highest point in the al-Haram or the Al-Aqsa
Noble Sanctuary.
It is a bluish rock.[4] It stands about one and a
half meters above the floor – or about the height of an average man[5] – at its
highest part and is approximately eighteen by thirteen meters in area. Beneath
it is a cave about four and a half meters square, in the roof of which there is
a hole about a meter in diameter.[6]
Much extraordinary reverence is attached to the
Rock, which, nevertheless, is rooted in little or no truth. In the main, such
reverence is based on copious groundless legends and myths that are either work
of some Muslims who have been contriving and propagating them in different
ages, under different circumstances and for different purposes, or are no more
than the re-creation or even re-telling of the same as found in the Jewish
tradition.
Indeed, the Rock bears no special importance in
Islam. It is significant inasmuch as it constitutes a part of the original
Al-Aqsa Mosque or Noble Sanctuary, the second mosque on earth established forty
years after the construction of the Ka’bah or Al-Masjid al-Haram.[7]
In no way can the Rock be more important and as such
more revered than the other parts of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
By the same token, everything that the Holy Quran
and the Prophet (peace be upon him) have said about Al-Aqsa Mosque applied as
much to the Rock as to the rest of the sections of the Mosque.
Al-Aqsa Mosque, with all its elements including the
Rock, was the first qiblah (the direction to which the Muslims turned in prayer
for about one year and a few months following the migration (Hijrah) to
Madinah).
It was a place where the Prophet was taken {for a
Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque (al-Masjid al-Haram) to the Farthest
(al-Aqsa) Mosque whose precincts We did bless, – in order that We might show
him some of Our signs…} (Quran 17:1), and thence, the Prophet (peace be upon
him) ascended to the sky for his al-Mi’raj Journey.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the only three mosques to
which journey ought to be undertaken, the other two being the al-Masjid
al-Haram and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.[8]
And finally, Al-Aqsa Mosque is a mosque where a prayer
is worth five hundred prayers performed in ordinary mosques, as narrated by
al-Bazzar (in the al-Masjid al-Haram a prayer is worth one hundred thousand
prayers, while a prayer in the Prophet’s Mosque is worth one thousand prayers
performed in ordinary mosques[9]).
The only thing in the Islamic authentic tradition
that could be loosely linked with the Rock is the moment when the Prophet
arrived at Al-Aqsa Mosque during his Night Journey (Al-Isra’) from the
al-Masjid al-Haram.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) was riding a beast
called Al-Buraq. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) arrived and disembarked
in Al-Aqsa Mosque, the angel Jibril (Gabriel), who accompanied the Prophet
(peace be upon him) all the way through, tied Al-Buraq to the stone, having punctured
it beforehand with one of his fingers.[10]
However, two concerns could be raised as to the
content of this account.
Firstly, the Prophet (peace be upon him) used the
word al-hajar (stone or rock) therein, rather than al-sakhrah, and the latter
was always the matter of the regular reference to the Rock.
Thus, it stands to reason that Al-Buraq could have
been tied to any of many existing rocks and stones in and around Al-Aqsa
Mosque.
Source : muslim-stories
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