The Falsehood of Al-Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem

Authored by: Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

ABOUT THIS BOOK:

We prove in this book that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem is a falsehood, a mere harmful mosque that contradicts Islam and insults the Quran. This fake mosque was built by the caliph Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan on the ruins of the Israelite/Jewish temple of Solomon. The genuine Farthest Mosque is Mount Al-Tur of Sinai, Egypt.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION

PART I: Our Earlier Writings about the Falsehood of Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem

CHAPTER I: We Have Said it for the First Time about Al-Aqsa

CHAPTER II: An Excerpt from our Book Titled "The Night Journey Is the Night of Decree"

CHAPTER III: An Excerpt from our Book Titled "The Second Major Arab Civil War (61 – 73 A.H.)"

PART II: Our Later Writings about the Falsehood of Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem

CHAPTER I: The Genuine Farthest Mosque Is in the Land of Egypt

CHAPTER II: The So-called Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem Is A Harmful Mosque, and Palestinians Will Never Be Successful as long as they Cling to It

CHAPTER III: The Al-Aqsa Rock in Jerusalem Is the Golden Pagan Idol for the Muhammadans

CONCLUSION: Sunnite Imams Admit in their Books that Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem Has Been Built on the Ruins of the Israelite Temple

INTRODUCTION:

Firstly:

1- We have no political objectives of any kind when we refute the myth behind Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem; we never care about politics; we focus only on smashing sanctified idols and abominations of the Muhammadans, and one of such idols and abominations is the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem, built by the Umayyad caliphs Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan and (his son and successor) Al-Waleed Ibn Abdul-Malik, based on misguidance and falsehood to repel people away from performing pilgrimage at the Sacred Kaaba Mosque in Mecca. The Umayyads had built this harmful mosque called Al-Aqsa on the same site of the ruined Israelite/Jewish temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. We do not tackle politics here; we mainly address those who claim to be Quran-believing Muslims, though they reject the Quran which we preach. We address them as well by quoting history books and heritage books of traditions written by 'Muslim' authors (whom we call as the polytheistic Muhammadans).

2- Because of this harmful mosque called Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem, no one pays attention to the real, genuine Farthest Mosque mentioned in the Quran: Mount Al-Tur of Sinai, Egypt, which is mentioned many times in the Quranic story of Moses. The abomination called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem is sanctified and made 'holy' by most of the Muhammadans of all eras until now; they deem it as the first of two Qiblas and the third of two sacred mosques! With the passage of centuries, this abomination of Jerusalem has acquired more 'holiness' within the Umayyad, Abbasid, Mameluke, and Ottoman eras and even in our modern era.

3- Because of this harmful mosque called Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem, the name of the great religion of Islam is abused, as it is employed as a card/pawn in the Palestinian-Israeli (or Arab-Israeli) conflict, despite the fact that this harmful mosque has nothing to do with Islam at all; its very existence is insulting to the Quran and contradicting it. Of course, real, monotheistic believers must never abuse Islam by turning it into a mere card/pawn to win transient (political and financial) gains of this world within the struggle/scramble for loot. This is asserted before in one of our book titled "Warning Muslims against Mixing Politics with Religion".

4- This harmful mosque called Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem is a main feature of the contradiction and the huge gap (or rather the abyss) between the Quran and 'Muslims'/Muhammadans. It is silly that they have made this abomination called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem as the third of two sacred mosques; God in the Quran mentions only one Sacred Mosque/House and one Qibla for prayers, which is the Kaaba in Mecca. Thus, Muslims perform the five daily prayers in the direction/Qibla of the Kaaba and perform pilgrimage there as per the religion of Abraham, since God has ordained this Ancient House as the first and last one for all humankind to worship in peace and security, even centuries before Abraham was born. Yet, the Muhammadans have created for themselves two harmful mosques or abominations: the Yathreb mosque where a 'holy' sanctified mausoleum is being worshiped there, as Muhammad is supposedly buried beneath it, and the Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem. Both harmful mosques have undermined the stature and the sacredness of the Kaaba Mosque, which is the only sanctuary ordained by God to the humankind as far as Islam/the Quran is concerned. God is One; His Book (i.e., the Quran) is one; and His Ancient House ordained for the humankind is one: the Kaaba. Thus, the Muhammadans who have fallen into the trap of polytheism in terms of belief/faith have established for themselves these two 'holy' abominations or harmful mosques in Yathreb and Jerusalem, and they have supported such fabrications with invented hadiths and narratives that urge polytheists to perform pilgrimage to Yathreb and to Jerusalem to worship at such polytheistic abominations.

5- The Quran never mentions at all the city of Jerusalem; the Farthest Mosque mentioned in the Quran in 17:1 is Mount Al-Tur of Sinai (we have proven this in our book, in English, titled "The Night-Journey Is The Night of Decree", found on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=112). Yet, when we, as a Quranist thinker, refute the myths behind the abominations/harmful mosques in Yathreb and in Jerusalem, the polytheistic Muhammadans who read our view regarding that topic feel furious and terrified; their hearts still cling to such abominations; in fact, their hearts have become filled with the love of the two harmful mosques of Yathreb and of Jerusalem because of their disbelief/polytheism inside their hearts/souls.

Secondly:

All that we request from Arab readers is to calm down and to read and ponder on the lines of this book to think clearly and reach conclusions themselves; they must pose the following questions to their minds first.

1- Does the Quran mention Jerusalem?

2- Does the Quran contain a divine command to perform pilgrimage to Jerusalem?

3- Did the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem exist when Arabs conquered and captured Jerusalem? Is the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem mentioned in historical accounts about the Arab conquest of Jerusalem? When Arab troops sieged Jerusalem, did they chanted slogans about the 'holiness' of the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem, assumed to be where Muhammad went during the Night-Journey before his alleged ascension to heaven? When the caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab reached Jerusalem to receive the keys of the city, did he perform prayers inside the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem? Did this edifice exist at the time? Or did he perform prayers inside the Mihrab of David, within the ruins of the Israelite/Jewish Solomon's temple of Jerusalem?

4- Did any of the four pre-Umayyad caliphs (deified by Sunnites and Wahabis now) travel to perform pilgrimage to the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem?

5- Do the mythical narratives about sanctifying the rock under the dome near the area of the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem match with Islamic faith tenets of the Quran that entail believers never to deify/worship/sanctify things/items/sites/relics/mortals?

6- Does the grandeur and greatness of the religion of Islam cope with using its name as a card/pawn in the political struggle over the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem which is groundless and rootless as far as the Quran (i.e., real Islam) is concerned?

7- As far as the Quranic sharia legislations of real Islam are concerned, is it legal or not to commit the following grave sins?

7/1: Would it be legal in Islam to invade and conquer a country, to loot/steal its wealth, and to kill those who defended it? Such grave sins/crimes are committed by the four pre-Umayyad caliphs, the Umayyad caliphs, and other caliphs after them, in violation of the Quranic legislations mentioned in these verses: "And fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not commit aggression; God does not love the aggressors." (2:190); "The sacred month for the sacred month; and sacrilege calls for retaliation. Whoever commits aggression against you, retaliate against him in the same measure as he has committed against you. And be conscious of God in piety, and know that God is with the pious ones." (2:194)

7/2: Would it be legal in Islam to confiscate a site of the Israelite/Jewish temple of Solomon, deemed as holy to its rightful owners, to build on its ruins a harmful 'holy' mosque ascribed falsely to Islam? Would it be legal, as far as the Quranic sharia legislations are concerned, to commit such a crime? This crime violates these verses about enjoining justice and absolute religious freedom for all denominations and worshipers and the prohibition of injustice and aggression: "...Were it not that God repels people by means of others: monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques - where the name of God is mentioned much-would have been demolished. God supports whoever supports Him. God is Strong and Mighty. " (22:40); "God commands justice, and goodness, and generosity towards relatives. And He forbids immorality, and injustice, and oppression. He advises you, so that you may take heed." (16:90).

8- Tyrants of the Middle-East channel frustrations and fury of their citizens/nations towards Israel and the West countries (especially the USA) in order to protect themselves against being abdicated or ousted by revolts and to maintain the process of their looting the wealth of the nations in secret while massacring citizens who rebel against them. Thus, within several decades since 1948, most Arabs have a deep-rooted false notion that Israel and the West countries (especially the USA) are responsible for all disasters, calamities, tyranny, and frustrations in the Arab world; they are kept busy by thinking of these sentiments of 'holy hatred' towards the West and Israel for the last 50 years until now, and in the meanwhile, Arab dictatorships get more powerful, more savage, and crueler than ever. Thus, Arabs now have double-standards when the topic of Israel is mentioned; they see it as pure evil and they are never fair and just when discussing it, whereas they overlook the crimes and atrocities committed by their Arab tyrannical rulers.

9- It is never legal in the Quranic sharia of the Dominant Lord God that when you hate some people, you would be unjust and unfair towards them: "O you who believe! Be upright to God, witnessing with justice; and let not the hatred of a certain people prevent you from acting justly. Adhere to justice, for that is nearer to piety; and fear God. God is informed of what you do." (5:8). Thus, the monotheistic, pious Muslims who believe in God and in His Word (i.e., the Quran) must adhere to justice in all their stances/words as witnesses so that they please Almighty God; any feelings of animosity or deep-seated hatred must never hinder adhering to justice and saying the truth all the time in all situations.

10- Facts of history prove that the Jewish temple of Solomon belongs to Israel; Arabs of Arabia conquered Jerusalem among other cities and countries within the crime/sin called the Arab conquests during the eras of the pre-Umayyad caliphs and the Umayyad caliphs. The Umayyad caliph Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan confiscated the site of the ruins of Solomon's temple to build the harmful mosque/abomination called Al-Aqsa. This means that this site belongs rightfully to Israel; i.e., to the Israelites and the Jews in general. Maybe it is the right of any Arabs to hate Israel, but as far as Islam is concerned, one must bear witness while saying the truth, regardless of the fact that this truth would serve/harm the interests of the Israelis or the Palestinians. As a Muslim thinker, we must apply the verse: "O you who believe! Be upright to God, witnessing with justice; and let not the hatred of a certain people prevent you from acting justly. Adhere to justice, for that is nearer to piety; and fear God. God is informed of what you do." (5:8). The Quran commands us to adhere to its sharia laws, which are based on applying justice even when it is against our families and loved ones, while caring only to please and gratify the Lord God and to obey His commands, while disregarding the fact that some people might be displeased or infuriated. "O you who believe! Stand firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even if against yourselves, or your parents, or your relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, God takes care of both. So do not follow your desires, lest you swerve. If you deviate, or turn away - then God is Aware of what you do." (4:135). This is also mentioned within the Quranic Ten Commandments: "...And when you speak, be fair, even if it concerns a close relative. And fulfill your covenant with God. All this He has enjoined upon you, so that you may take heed." (6:152)

11- According to our applying of and adhering to this verse: "O you who believe! Be upright to God, witnessing with justice; and let not the hatred of a certain people prevent you from acting justly. Adhere to justice, for that is nearer to piety; and fear God. God is informed of what you do." (5:8), we pose the questions below.

11/1: Who are more protective of the lives of the people of Gaza: Israel or the terrorist Hamas movement? Hamas launches rockets at Israel from densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip near hospitals and schools, while knowing that the Israelis will defend their country, thus aiming to embarrass the Israelis by making them massacre innocent ones. Israel never defends itself randomly; the Israelis are keen to protect the life of the hundreds of thousands of the Gazans by retaliating only against the perpetrators as much as possible. The Hamas leaders have received US$ millions under the pretext of re-building Gaza after Israeli bombardments; those Hamas leaders (e.g., Khaled Meshaal and Ismail Haniya) are now millionaires!

11/2: Who are more protective of the lives of citizens: Israel or Arab tyrants? Israeli Arabs enjoy rights of which Egyptians, Syrians, Sudanese, etc. are deprived in their respective countries. If those Israeli Arabs are under suspicion, they live at least in a country that respects its Law. As for Arab dictatorships, tyrants massacre unarmed citizens who peacefully protest against anything; e.g., Saddam Hussein murdered tens of thousands of Iraqis and massacred thousands of Iraqi Shiites in different cities, the Egyptian military rule massacred Egyptians when they organized peaceful demonstrations, the terrorist Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan massacred tens of thousands of people in Darfur and other regions, Hafiz Al-Assad and his son massacred tens of thousands of Syrians in different cities, and ISIS terrorists massacred, enslaved, and raped thousands of people!

11/3: It was very silly when the Arab media celebrated the 'iconic' photos of a Palestinian young woman slapping an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian male child throwing rocks at an Israeli soldier who avoided being hit and moved away. The young woman was tried justly within an Israeli court; the armed Israeli soldier was noble enough not to shoot and kill this child. The Arabs' double standards do not allow them to see this; in contrast, if this child was an Egyptian one who threw rocks at an Egyptian soldier, this child and his family might have been shot to death! If any Egyptian young woman slapped an Egyptian soldier, she might have been raped along with her family members! We must not forget the scandal that some Egyptian soldiers in 2011 removed the clothes of a young woman who was protesting peacefully; the head of military central intelligence in Egypt at the time – Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi – has insulted the 2011 revolt by imposing the so-called virginity test on female demonstrators; yet, he was rewarded by being elected as the President of Egypt within its military rule. Israel, on the other hand, faces its foes and never its citizens; Israel, when facing its foes, has never committed 1% of the atrocities committed by Arab tyrants against their citizens/nations.

11/4: Which are worse: the Israeli prisons or the Egyptian, Saudi, Iraqi, and Syrian prisons? The Israeli prisons incarcerate enemies of the Israeli State, whereas Arab prisons controlled by the tyrants incarcerate for no reason any political rivals and thousands of innocent ones on the margin of the struggle for power, and those incarcerated ones are routinely tortured – though most of them are innocent citizens who have been demanding their rights.

11/5: When we compare between minorities in Arab dictatorships and the Arab/Christian minority inside Israel, we find that minorities in Israel lead a better life and have better conditions. It is enough to compare between Coptic Christians in Egypt and Christian Israelis, or between Sudanese Muslims in Darfur and Israeli Muslims of Palestinian origin. The same comparisons can be made in the cases of Shiites and Baha'is, etc.

11/6: Yet, Israel has its faults, violations, and crimes, but as a country, it is decidedly better than Arab dictatorships and tyrannical rulers. Before enumerating faults, violations, and crimes of Israel when dealing with Palestinians, we are to remember first the crimes and atrocities of the Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip and the crimes and atrocities of the Palestinian authority leaders in the West Bank, though both dare to claim to speak in the name of Palestinians; both have amassed and smuggled US$ millions, from Hamas to Abbas, and they never cede power at all and never apply democracy. It is a very sad fact that the Palestinians who engage into an armed struggle against Israel in the occupied territories have to choose between the worse (i.e., Israel) and the worst (the Hamas terrorist movement, affiliated to the terrorist MB group, in Gaza and the Palestinian authority leaders/thieves in the West Bank).

Lastly:

1- Our peaceful, intellectual jihad as a Quranist thinker is to reform Muslims/Muhammadans using the Quran; the Quran is the only criterion we use to judge and refute tenets, notions, history, heritage, beliefs, laws, and fiqh of the Muhammadans. The Quran undermines all notions of the Sunnite, Sufi, and Shiite earthly, man-made religions. The misguiding notions that drive the Muhammadans to worship/sanctify/deify the abominations/harmful mosques of Yathreb and of Jerusalem have made them among the losers in the Hereafter if they die without repentance and without adherence to the Quranic monotheism. Besides, the Muhammadans who blindly obey their clergymen and their earthly, man-made religions are losers who have lost everything in this transient world as well.

2- We have written a lot about refuting and undermining the abomination called the Yathreb mausoleum ascribed falsely to Muhammad and to Islam; we write this book now to refute and undermine the abomination of Al-Aqsa harmful mosque of Jerusalem, ascribed falsely to Islam. It is very clear to us that the sanctification to the 'holy' abomination of Jerusalem is more dangerous that sanctifying the Yathreb abomination; many lives are lost because of the brainwash resulting from the Palestinian-Israeli (or Arab-Israeli) conflict.

3- We never care about this political conflict at all; we focus only on providing enlightenment to Muslims/Muhammadans by showing to them the true Quranic facts of Islam in order to bridge the huge gap (or rather the abyss) between them and the Quran. At the same time, we never impose ourselves or our Quranist view of Islam on anyone. As per the Quranic facts, we respect the religious choices of every human being on earth, within the Quranic principle of absolute religious freedom for everyone; we only preach and assert peacefully in our writings what we deem as True Islam, and we quote these verses to those who reject Quranism: "..."Act according to your ability; and so will we." "And wait; we too are waiting."" (11:121-122).

4- God is Sufficient and Enough to us; He is the Best Supporter and Protector.

PART I: Our Earlier Writings about the Falsehood of Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem

CHAPTER I: We Have Said it for the First Time about Al-Aqsa

We have declared in 1997, in Cairo, Egypt, that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam and that the real, genuine Farthest Mosque mentioned in the Quranic verse 17:1 is Mount Al-Tur, in Sinai, Egypt.

1- This amazing discovery is first made by our person in 1990 while we have been writing our book titled "Egypt in the Holy Quran" (found in English on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=97). In the introduction of this book, we have tackled the obstacles made by Wahabis and their agents who hated our person and desired not to have this book published in Egypt. The one who stood by our person at the time was the late senior journalist Mr. Abdel-Warith Al-Disouky who managed to surmount all obstacles to have our book published. When we have been writing this book, we researched the mention of Sinai in the Quranic text; our Quranist research findings assert that the Farthest Mosque mentioned in 17:1 is Mount Al-Tur. Significantly, the title of the Quranic Chapter 17 is "The Night-Journey". We have consulted references and seminal books of history, and we read that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was never known, and it did not even exist, at the time when Arabs conquered the Levant. In fact, this Jerusalem mosque was built by the Umayyad caliph Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan, whose caliphate capital was Damascus, the main and largest city in the Levantine region, within the circumstances and events of the political struggle between him and his rival, Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr, the self-proclaimed 'caliph' in Mecca, in the Hejaz region which he controlled before being defeated by the Umayyads. In fact, we were about to add a chapter, in our book titled "Egypt in the Holy Quran", about Mount Al-Tur as the Farthest Mosque, but what prevented us to do so was the piece of advice of Mr. Al-Disouky who told us not to stir any controversies within out book that may shock readers so that the book would get published by the Cairo-based, state-owned publishing house; i.e., Akhbar Al-Yom Press. Our book titled "Egypt in the Holy Quran" got published eventually, after omitting this chapter, and after so many struggles whose news have been mentioned by some newspapers at the time.

2- We felt pricks of conscience as a researcher, because we must never conceal our Quranist research findings; it is a great honor to our homeland, Egypt, to announce everywhere the fact that Mount Al-Tur of Sinai is where Muhammad was transported miraculously through the Night-Journey from the Sacred Kaaba Mosque, in Mecca, to meet with Gabriel to receive the Quran, in the same location where Moses received the Torah. Mount Al-Tur of Sinai must come to the foreground after long centuries of oblivion and obscurity.

3- We used to head and manage the Cairo-based Ibn-Khaldoun Center's weekly forum that went on every Tuesday from Jan. the 1st, 1996, to June 30th, 2000; i.e., until the Ibn Khaldoun Center closed down by the Mubarak regime. This weekly forum used to discuss new topics within (1) the Arab-Israeli conflict, (2) the conflict over power between the Mubarak regime and the terrorist MB group, (3) democratic transition, (4) minorities in Egypt, and (5) unspoken-of topics related to politics and religion. Many of the topics of this weekly forum have been introduced by ourselves; thus, we have had the chance to discuss the topic of the true location of the Farthest Mosque in a forum titled "The Farthest Mosque Is in Sinai and Not in Jerusalem". These forums in general had many attendees and drew the attention of the Egyptian media; among the attendees were journalists and cultural elite members as well as representatives of many different political trends, from the terrorist MB to Marxists and from Sunnites to Shiites. The forums whose topics were chosen by ourselves, and within which we delivered the speech that would be discussed, used to be covered by the Egyptian media and this caused the agents of Wahabism who hated us, as a Quranist thinker, to seize the chance to slander, attack, and verbally abuse our person. We used to take delight in their attacking our person in their writings, because they unwittingly helped us to spread our ideas (though with some distortions on their part) and to make people get to know about Quranism, though the Wahabis leveled many accusations against our person, such as betraying Egypt and Islam, being and apostate/heretic, and being an agent of the West who ardently seeks to undermine Islam.

4- Within the forum held in 1997 about the Farthest Mosque, we have proven, using the Quran, that Mount Al-Tur of Sinai is the Farthest Mosque mentioned in 17:1. We have proven, using history books, that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is indeed a harmful mosque; this is because its very existence and the myths narrated about it are undermining Islam and are very insulting to it. We have asserted that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is indeed a mere fraud used by rulers and politicians who mix politics with religion – or rather with religious mythology – and that it is built on the site of the ruins of the temple ascribed to Solomon, and this means that this mosque is related to the Israelites and not to Muslims. Some of the attendees of the forum remained flabbergasted and speechless; we have assumed that they remained for a longer while as such, even after the forum ended! Others tried to 'refute' our Quranist findings in an angry, emotional manner, away from knowledge and reason, as their religious sensibilities were offended. The prevalent view of such furious men was that they must consult Al-Azhar sheikhs and clergymen regarding this topic. Some other men mentioned the fact that our person is more knowledgeable than anyone among the Azharite scholars, who typically declare any reformers and thinkers as apostates/heretics and enlist the help of the Egyptian State Security Apparatus men to persecute thinkers so that those Azharite ignoramuses would hide their inability to think and their lack of knowledge.

5- As expected by us, many newspapers at the time included articles attacking, slandering, and verbally abusing our person, written by journalists bribed by the Saudi embassy in Cairo. Among these newspapers is the state-owned newspaper "Aqidaty" (literally in Arabic, my faith), whose journalists were agents of Wahabism and the terrorist MB group, though the publishing house that issues such a newspaper was state-owned and it issues other newspapers and publications, chief among them is Al-Gomhouriya newspaper.

6- We quote below one page of a reportage published by "Aqidaty" to level accusations against our person, such as: being an agent of Israel, an enemy who betrayed Egypt, and an agent who ardently seeks to undermine Islam. Thus, the Wahabi agents sought to make the Mubarak regime persecute and intimidate us.

7- This one-page excerpt from the newspaper is from the issue dated Tuesday, 17th of Shawwal, 1417 A.H., Feb. the 25th, 1997 A.D.

The Headlines: (Casting Doubt on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Serves the Purposes of Who?!/ A Suspicious Center Holds A Forum Headed by A Former Professor Fired from Al-Azhar University to Serve Israel and Zionism/ Dr. Saad Zallam: These Agents Are Devils to Be Rejected/ Dr. Ahmad Shalaby: Jerusalem Is An Arab City And Al-Aqsa Mosque Was Built by Early Muslims/ Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League: Casting Doubt on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Is Deemed High Treason/ Ambassador M. Subeih: No Reasonable Person Would Announce Such Myths and Illusions/ A Reportage by Moussa Hal and Tariq Abdullah).

The Reportage: ( A third column is lurking inside Egypt and working diligently day and night to undermine religious and historical fundamental notions of our Arab and Muslim nation, and such agents are paid and bribed by the foreign powers to negatively influence political stances of the State and to undermine Islam itself. At this time in particular, when the Egyptian State fully supports the rights of Palestinians to have their own state with Jerusalem as its capital and stands against the Judaization/Judaification of Jerusalem by its Israeli occupiers, a suspicious center in Cairo, the Ibn Khaldoun Center, has held a forum headed by a suspicious ex-professor who was fired from Al-Azhar University, Ahmed Subhy Mansour, to justify the Israeli practices in Jerusalem and to claim that the Farthest Mosque is Mount Al-Tur of Sinai and not the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Scholars of history and political sciences as well as Palestinians have asserted that what Mansour has tackled is nothing but nonsensical myths and groundless falsehoods based on suspicious motives. Meticulous studies of history that delve deeper into certain issues show that Al-Aqsa Mosque existed before the advent of Islam, and its site has been regarded as a holy spot by Arab Jebusites and Canaanites who lived in ancient Palestine. The king named Maliki Sadif was regarded by his subjects in the Levantine region as a pious monotheist who used to worship God in this holy site in Jerusalem. This site remained a holy place for worship by many generations until Jerusalem was destroyed by the conqueror Nebuchadnezzar, who stole jewels, gold, and silver of this holy site of worship in Jerusalem and moved such spoils to Babylon. Yet, this location remained blessed and holy by other generations as well, and the holy rock there witnessed Prophet Muhammad who stood on it before his ascension to heaven. A known hadith of the Holy Prophet is about never to travel to perform pilgrimage except to three locations deemed as holy sites: the Sacred Kaaba Mosque, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Yathreb Mosque. At the time when the Holy Prophet said so, there was no mosque built in Jerusalem, but the holy site remained the same as early Muslims prostrated to its direction instead of the Kaaba that was surrounded by pagan idols. Hence, how come that there are those imposters who emerge to claim that Al-Aqsa Mosque is not located in the Holy City of Jerusalem and is located in Sinai instead?! History tells us that the Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab conquered Jerusalem to restore the holy site to Arabs, as its rightful owners, and he found that this holy spot was a garbage dumb, and he made his men clean and purify this holy spot so that he would perform prayers inside it. Later on, the Caliph Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan commissioned builders to build the Al-Aqsa Mosque on this holy site and the edifice was completed by his son and successor Al-Waleed Ibn Abdul-Malik. The false claims that Jerusalem has nothing to do with Islam have created angry reactions from all the Palestinian political, religious, and intellectual figures. The Ambassador M. Subeih who represent Palestine in the Arab League and is the Secretary of the Palestinian National Council asserts that there is no reasonable person who would announce such myths and illusions; no real scholar would deny serious academic studies, as Al-Aqsa Mosque is mentioned in the Quran and the Sunna hadiths as well as geography and history books. History of Al-Aqsa Mosque, he adds, is known for many centuries, and the sanctity of it and of Jerusalem is undeniable an irrefutable. The claims of making Al-Aqsa in Sinai negate and disregard real facts of history, religion, and all fields and braches of human knowledge, he adds, and no one must take heed of such nonsensical claims at all, as they serve the purposes of Zionists who aim to Judaize Jerusalem and to disrupt the Islamic Umma and to divide its public opinion. Such claims, he adds, are hostile to both Islam and Christianity and seek to undermine Islam in particular and to cause political unrest inside Palestine. This is very insulting to all Arab nations, and the imposters who spread such claims about Al-Aqsa must be tried in court and punished as they have betrayed their country, their religion, and the Arab nationalist cause. As for the Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League for Palestinian affairs, the Ambassador Saeed Kamal Ameen, he asserts that those imposters who spread such lies are serving their own purposes and seek only their own financial interests, as they are paid and bribed by enemies of Arabs to betray their countries and their religion; at this time in particular when Israel builds many settlements in Jerusalem to Judaize it, he adds, we are hardly surprised to witness the emergence of such inveterate liars who seek to undermine the vital importance of Jerusalem in Islam, thus serving Zionism, and to cast doubt on the unified Arab stance toward the Holy City in order to make Arabs disregard crimes committed by the Israeli occupiers in Jerusalem. No tangible proofs, he adds, could be obtained to support the claim that Al-Aqsa is in Sinai; besides, this claim denies the Quran and Sunna hadiths of the Holy Prophet Muhammad; this is a flagrant crime of apostasy. Samira Abou Ghazala, head of the Cairo-based Palestinian Women's League, asserts that there are those bribed fame-seeking professors who spread lies and falsehoods to distort historical facts to serve the purposes of the Israeli occupiers, and this is hardly regarded as a new phenomenon, as agents of Israel help to convince people of the ongoing Judaization process of Jerusalem and to make Arabs accept the fait accompli later on. This has been done within the times of crusaders when they captured Jerusalem, she adds, as anti-Arab propaganda of the Europeans tried to divest the Holy City of its Arab identity. All claims that undermine the stature of Jerusalem in Islam are to be condemned, she adds, as some cultural elite members are, in fact, bribed to cast doubt on Al-Aqsa Mosque; we must never forget that there are many tombs of Muslim leaders in Jerusalem and that the holy rock inside the Dome of the Rock Mosque is where Muhammad came to ascend to heaven after the Night-Journey. Such facts of Islam are undeniable; yet, some thinkers cast doubt on these facts to gain money by our enemies who pay much money to seek to distort our history and our identity. Those who deny these facts of Islam and of history are acting against their countries and their religion, she adds, and they are traitors who have betrayed Islam; was it not enough that Israel has confiscated a wall of the Holy Aqsa Mosque under the pretext that it is supposedly a part of a former Jewish temple?! She adds finally that those who deny Al-Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem and its stature in Islam are like Satanists and atheists. Dr. Saad Zallam, dean of the Arabic Language Department, Al-Azhar University, asserts that centuries-old facts of history and Islam cannot be refuted or undermined by claims of agents of the West who are bribed to spread lies, falsehoods, and groundless claims to serve political purposes of the enemies of Egypt. Those with dark souls and ulterior motives who lack insight and reasonable mind must not be allowed to express their destructive views that undermine Islam, he adds, because it is a known fact that Al-Aqsa Mosque mentioned in the Quran is in Jerusalem, to which Prophet Muhammad was transported during the Night-Journey, where he prayed and stood on the holy rock before his ascension to heaven.......).

Finally:

We feel sorry that we have only one page from this reportage, which we have found accidentally among our stored documents; yet, this one page is more than enough to show to readers how agents of Wahabism and the agents of the Mubarak regime slandered our person to serve their own purposes.

CHAPTER II: An Excerpt from our Book Titled "The Night Journey Is the Night of Decree"

Firstly: a brief overview of this book:

The title of the book: "The Night-Journey Is The Night of Decree"

Authored by: Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

The link of the book (translated into English): (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=112)

About this book:

We prove, for the first time, that the Night-Journey is the Night of Decree and refute the myth of Muhammad's alleged ascension to heaven. The Night-Journey was made to the Farthest Mosque: Mount Al-Tur, located in Sinai, Egypt, which has nothing to do with the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem built by an Umayyad caliph. The entirety of the Quranic text was inspired into Muhammad's heart at Mount Al-Tur and then in installments into his tongue in Arabia. We provide an overview about the Night of Decree in light of modern science.

Table of contents of the book:

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I: Refuting the Myth of Ascension to Heaven and Tackling the Night of Decree

CHAPTER II: The Divine Revelation and the Descent of the Quran

CHAPTER III: The Night-Journey Is the Night of Decree

CHAPTER IV: The Farthest Mosque Is at Mount Al-Tur and Not in Jerusalem

CHAPTER V: The Descent of Fates during the Night of Decree

CHAPTER VI: The Night of Decree in Light of Modern Science

Lastly: an excerpt of the book, the entire Chapter Four:

CHAPTER IV: The Farthest Mosque Is at Mount Al-Tur and Not in Jerusalem

Firstly: the historical roots of the fake Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem:

1- Both of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus and so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem were built by the Umayyad caliph Al-Waleed Ibn Abdul-Malik. There were no mosques at all in Jerusalem when it was conquered by the Arab troops of the caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab; the historical accounts of the Arab conquest of Jerusalem never mentions anything about the Farthest Mosque as being there at all. The only religious edifice there at the time was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and its patriarch insisted on never to hand over the keys of Jerusalem except to the caliph Omar, who went there himself to get the keys of the city and enter into it. As per Arab accounts of history, when Omar desired to perform prayers, there were no mosques at all in Jerusalem; Omar refused to pray inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher so as not to give a pretext to Arabs to demolish it to build a mosque in its place. Thus, there were no mosques at all in Jerusalem, let alone the Farthest Mosque whose Arabic name, Al-Aqsa, has been 'borrowed' by an Umayyad caliph by force, for a political reason, to be the name of a mosque he built in Jerusalem.

2- The political reason that drove the Umayyad caliph, Al-Waleed Ibn Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan, to propagate a fake story that his Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was where Muhammad was transported during the Night-Journey was that there was a strong motive to make the Levant seem as a 'holy' region (because Damascus was the capital of the Umayyads) as opposed to Hejaz, where political opposition figures who hated the Umayyads and incited others to rebel against them settled in Yathreb and Mecca. Military struggle between Hejaz (where rebellious men settled) and the Levant (center of the Umayyad rule) began with the rebellion of Hussein Ibn Ali (who was in Yathreb and killed in Iraq) and then by Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr who settled in Mecca and proclaimed himself as a caliph in defiance of the Umayyad dynasty. Of course, the Umayyads won this struggle and crushed all rebellions; this made the Levant in the limelight and the defeated Hejaz dwellers felt that their region became of minor importance in terms of political influence. This marginalization of the Hejaz region was a main systematic policy for all Umayyad caliphs. The oral narrators/fabricators of hadiths were employed (and paid handsomely) by the Umayyad caliphs for the purpose of propaganda. Thus, orators in mosques served the Umayyads by inventing hadiths as per the political and religious whims of caliphs; such hadiths include the ones about the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem that has been forcibly made to appear as linked to the Night-Journey of Muhammad; other mythical stories were fabricated and spread all over mosques to assert the false idea that this Jerusalem mosque (and Al-Waleed Ibn Abdul-Malik was the one who built the mosque called 'the dome of the rock' in Jerusalem as well, linked to the myth of ascension to heaven) is a 'holy' site and linked to the Yathreb mosque (rebuilt also by the caliph Al-Waleed), to the Sacred Kaaba Mosque, and to the Night-Journey. Some other orators/narrators invented the myth of the alleged ascension of Muhammad to heaven, and they urged the Muhammadans to perform a pilgrimage to this Jerusalem mosque. Such falsehoods served the Umayyads to make the Levant the focus of attention instead of Mecca and Yathreb in Hejaz. Such myths of oral traditions were written down during the Abbasid Era; with the passage of time, heritage books of traditions have become sanctified as 'holy' tomes and 'irrefutable', 'unquestionable', and 'infallible' sources of 'divine' knowledge during the Mameluke and Ottoman eras. Arab readers among the Muhammadans would be amazed as they read these lines of ours and may condemn us and reject the facts of history we present here.

Secondly: Quranic contexts assert that the Farthest Mosque is at Mount Al-Tur of Sinai:

1- This topic is a very lengthy one; we mention brief points about how many Quranic verses assert the fact that the Farthest Mosque, mentioned in 17:1, is at Mount Al-Tur of Sinai and NEVER in Jerusalem, as this city is NOT mentioned, explicitly or implicitly, in the Quran at all.

2- In fact, God mentions the Levant implicitly (i.e., without mentioning this appellation itself) in the Quran as a blessed land and a holy land: "O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned for you..." (5:21); "And We delivered him, and Lot, to the land that We blessed for all people." (21:71). Yet, the Farthest Mosque is never mentioned as being in the Levant or as associated with it. The fact that the areas of the Farthest Mosque are blessed does NOT make it necessarily in the Levant as assumed by Abbasid Era authors who wrote down oral traditions/hadiths. If the Farthest Mosque were in the Levant, it would have been mentioned in the Quranic stories of prophets who dwelled in the Levant, from Abraham till Jesus; these prophets' stories occupy a large part of the Quranic stories. Mount Al-Tur of Sinai is mentioned repeatedly in the Quran as holy and blessed, more than the Quranic implied mention of the Levant. Mount Al-Tur in the Quranic text is linked to revelation of both the Torah and the Quran and is associated with the Sacred House; i.e., the Kaaba.

3- We thematically trace, in the points below, certain Quranic verses to show how the location of the Farthest Mosque is inferred.

3/1: The verses 17:1-2 tackle the descent/revelation of the Quran and the Torah; we are not to separate the context of 17:1 and 17:2, because of the grammatical word (and) at the beginning of 17:2. "Glory to Him who journeyed His servant by night, from the Sacred Mosque, to the Farthest Mosque, whose areas We have blessed, in order to show him of Our wonders. He is the Listener, the Beholder. And We gave Moses the Book, and made it a guide for the Israelites: Take none for protector other than Me." (17:1-2). We know from the Quran that Moses received the Torah at Mount Al-Tur of Sinai, and hence is the link between the Sacred Kaaba Mosque and Mount Al-Tur, which is the Farthest Mosque mentioned in 17:1. Within the Night-Journey, Muhammad was miraculously transported from Mecca to Mount Al-Tur. Thus, Mount Al-Tur is the Farthest Mosque, as opposed to the Sacred Kaaba Mosque in Mecca.

3/2: Mount Al-Tur is described in the Quran as holy and blessed, as we read God's words with Moses at Mount Al-Tur of Sinai: "Then, when he reached it, he was called, "O Moses. I - I am your Lord. Take off your shoes. You are in the sacred valley of Tuwa." (20:11-12). This location is made holy because it witnessed God's talking to Moses, and even the olive tree (or the burning bush) in Mount Al-Tur is described as blessed: "When he reached it, he was called from the right side of the valley, at the Blessed Spot, from the bush: "O Moses, it is I, God, the Lord of the Worlds." (28:30); "Then, when he reached it, he was called: "Blessed is He who is within the fire, and He who is around it..." (27:8). This blessedness of this tree/bush at Mount Al-Tur (the real and only Farthest Mosque) goes on as the Quran associates it with divine revelation, the heavens and the earth, and God's Light and Guidance: "And a tree springing out of Mount Al-Tur of Sinai, producing oil, and seasoning for those who eat." (23:20); "God is the Light of the heavens and the earth...fueled by a blessed tree, an olive tree...God guides to His light whomever wills to be guided..." (24:35). Of course, Guidance and Light from God is His Scripture/Book; this increases the bond between Mount Al-Tur and the Quran itself.

3/3: Mount Al-Tur is associated with the descent/revelation of the Torah to Moses and it is the location where God talked to Moses for the first time. Besides, Mount Al-Tur is the one moved by God above the Israelites when the covenant was made with them and they prostrated on their chins while their eyes were fixed at the Mount hanging above their heads. Moreover, Mount Al-Tur is the one at which Moses asked the Lord to be enable his eyes to see Him, and when God manifested Himself to Mount Al-Tur, it turned into dust and Moses fell down unconscious, and when he recovered, he prostrated and implored God for forgiveness: " And when Moses came to Our appointment, and his Lord spoke to him, he said, "My Lord, allow me to look and see You." He said, "You will not see Me, but look at the Mount; if it stays in its place, you will see Me." But when his Lord manifested Himself to the mountain, He turned it into dust, and Moses fell down unconscious. Then, when he recovered, he said, "Glory be to you, I repent to you, and I am the first of the believers."" (7:143). This means that Mount Al-Tur is a location for prostration before the divine manifestation in the Quranic story of Moses; the Israelites prostrated when Mount Al-Tur was raised above them during the event of making the covenant; they were frightened lest Mount Al-Tur fall upon their heads: "And when We suspended the Mount over them, as if it was an umbrella, and they thought it would fall on them: "Hold fast to what We have given you, and remember what it contains, so that you may be attain piety."" (7:171). The Arabic word for (mosque) is masjid, a term that means literally: "the location of prostration", and because Mount Al-Tur is very far from the Sacred Kaaba Mosque in Mecca, the Quran describes it as Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa or the Farthest Mosque in 17:1.

3/4: There is another strong link between Mount Al-Tur and the Quran; Moses received the Torah Tablets at Mount Al-Tur, and we prove here now that Muhammad received the Quranic text into his heart in the same location at Mount Al-Tur during the Night-Journey. God says the following about Moses as he met with God at Mount Al-Tur: "And We inscribed for him in the Tablets all kinds of enlightenments, and decisive explanation of all things..." (7:145). This means that Moses received the Torah Book written on Tablets. God says the following about the Quran itself: "We have given them a Book, which We detailed with knowledge - guidance and mercy for people who believe." (7:52). Many other similar verses describe the Quran as a detailed book about everything in religion; but we focus here on the fact that this Meccan verse 7:52 (i.e., revealed in Mecca and not in Yathreb) describes the Quran as a written Book and this means its entire text descended as a written book: "A Book was revealed to you..." (7:2). Thus, as Moses was given the Torah as a written Book at Mount Al-Tur of Sinai, Muhammad was given the entire Quran as a Book written inside his heart at the same location.

3/5: The link between Mount Al-Tur and the Quran is strengthened when we read the Quranic story of Moses and the 70 Israelite men who accompanied him within the event of making the covenant at Mount Al-Tur to express their repentance after worshipping the golden calf and to implore the God for forgiveness. After Mount Al-Tur was made to suspend over their heads and they were very frightened as they prostrated, Moses implored for God's pardon and mercy; God responded by granting mercy especially for those who "...follow the messenger of the gentiles, sent for all people, whom they find mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel..." (7:157). This means that the Torah given to Moses at Mount Al-Tur mentions Muhammad and the Last Message of God. God tells us that Muhammad is mentioned in the Gospel as well. Thus, Muhammad received the Quran at Mount Al-Tur just as Moses received the Torah in the same spot.

3/6: The Torah, the revelation descended on Moses, mentions the Quran and Muhammad, the messenger of the gentiles, and similarly, the Quran mentions the Torah and Moses. In fact, half of the Quranic stories of prophets/messengers are about Moses and the Israelites. The Quran engages into a dialogue with the Israelites and reminds them of the authentic Torah; verses about this topic are more than the ones addressing the Meccan disbelievers themselves. Despite the fact that there were celestial messages or Scriptures in the eras between the Torah and the Quran, God in the Quran describes the Torah in similar ways employed to describe the Quran and mentions some verses of the Torah inside the Quranic text; e.g., see 6:91-92, 6:154-155, 5:43-45, 28:43, 46:30, 87:19, and 26:192-197.

4- Between the Quranic Chapter 17 and the Quranic Chapter 53: this merging between the Quran and the Torah is manifested mostly in the Quranic Chapters 17 and 53; by the way, they are the two chapters talking about the descent/revelation of the Quran.

4/1: The Quranic Chapter 17 is significantly titled "Night-Journey", or (Al-Israa')in Arabic, and some Middle-Ages authors name this Quranic Chapter 17 as (The Israelites). Its verses begin with talking about the Night-Journey from the Sacred Kaaba Mosque to the Farthest Mosque in 17:1, and the other verses that follow this one talk about the descent/revelation of the Torah and about the history of the Israelites. By the end of the Quranic Chapter 17, we find verses again about Moses and the Israelites linked to the descent/revelation of the Quran – in the same manner we find in the verses at the beginning of the Quranic Chapter 17. One verse talks about the descent of the entirety of Quran at one point in time: "With the Truth We sent it down, and with the Truth it descended..." (17:105); the very next verse talks about gradual revelation of Quranic verses in installments within the tongue/memory of Muhammad in Arabia: "A Quran which We unfolded gradually, that you may recite to the people over time. And We revealed it in stages." (17:106). God has addressed the polytheistic Arabs here: "Say, "Believe in it, or do not believe."..." (17:107), and then, God has reminded Arabs that the learned ones among the Israelites in Arabia fell to their chins, prostrating, when they heard the Quran as they remembered the covenant with God in Sinai by Mount Al-Tur; this means they linked between the Torah descended in its entirety there and how it tells about the Quran and that they must believe in it once it is revealed as the Last Message from God, as the Quran promised by God has descended, in its turn, by Mount Al-Tur. "...Those who were given knowledge before it, when it is recited to them, they fall to their chins, prostrating. And they say, "Glory to our Lord. The promise of our Lord is fulfilled." And they fall to their chins, weeping, and it adds to their humility." (17:107-109). Thus, some of the Israelites in Arabia believed in the Quran and considered themselves lucky to witness its revelation in Arabia as per the promise or prophecy mentioned in the Torah and within God's covenant made with their ancestors in Sinai when Mount All-Tur was made to suspend over their heads.

4/2: The Quranic Chapter 53 begins with verses talking about how Gabriel met with Muhammad to convey the Quran into his heart. Within the middle of the Quranic Chapter 53, we read that God mentions scrolls/Scripture of Moses and Abraham: "Or was he not informed of what is in the Scrolls of Moses? And of Abraham, who fulfilled?" (53:36-37), and the rest of the verses (i.e., 53:38-62) contain some verses from the Torah and the scrolls of Abraham.

5- Linking Mount Al-Tur to the Kaaba: the verse 17:1 associates the Sacred Mosque (i.e., the Kaaba in Mecca) with the Farthest Mosque (i.e., Mount Al-Tur of Sinai), but one last issue remains; since the Quranic verses explain and shed light on one another, this link or association between Mount Al-Tur and the Kaaba must have been implied in other Quranic verses to assert what we have inferred from 17:1 that Mount Al-Tur of Sinai is the Farthest Mosque. In fact, finding these verses that assert this link is very easy.

5/1: God says the following in the Quran: "By the fig and the olive. And by Mount Al-Tur of Sinai. And by this safe city." (95:1-3). Of course, olive and Mount Al-Tur are linked to Sinai, whose name is mentioned in 95:2, and the association with Mecca is made in 95:3 as God refers to Mecca as the (safe city), because God has made His Sacred House there as a sacred sanctuary for pilgrims. Thus, God in 95:1-3 swears by the blessed location, Mount Al-Tur of Sinai, by its two main blessed trees, the fig and the olive, and then by Mecca and its main blessing: safety and security.

5/2: The association or link occurs again when God in the Quranic Chapter 52 (which is significantly titled "Al-Tur") swears by Mount Al-Tur of Sinai, by the Quran, and then by the Kaaba: "By Mount Al-Tur. And by a Book inscribed. In a published scroll. And by the Frequented House." (52:1-4). The Quran is mentioned between Mount Al-Tur and the Kaaba, God's Sacred House, because Muhammad was transported through the Night-Journey from the Sacred Kaaba Mosque to the Farthest Mosque which is Mount Al-Tur of Sinai.

6- This means that the Night-Journey of Muhammad was to Mount Al-Tur during the Night of Decree to receive the Quran there and witness Great Signs which we have discussed earlier. Mount Al-Tur is the Farthest Mosque and never the mosque in Jerusalem built by an Umayyad caliph; Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Quran, whereas Mount Al-Tur of Sinai is mentioned many times in the Quranic text as a blessed place. The political reasons (making people perform pilgrimage to Jerusalem instead of Mecca, which was controlled by the rebel Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr for a while) that made the Umayyads keen on shifting the spiritual focus to the Levant instead of Hejaz led to subsequent writings (i.e., narratives and hadiths which were oral traditions at first) about this event that have caused people to disregard the real value of Mount Al-Tur praised many times in the Quran, which is located in Sinai, Egypt. By the way, Egypt is the only surviving country mentioned in the Quran; in fact, it is referred to in tens of Quranic verses implicitly and explicitly. For further details about Sinai and Mount Al-Tur in the Quran, we refer our dear readers to the ANNEX of our book (in English) titled "Egypt in the Holy Quran"; this ANNEX is found on this link: (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/chapter.php?main_id=834).

Thirdly: a summary:

1- The very first feature of the Night of Decree is the descent/revelation of the entirety of the Quranic text at one time, inscribed or inspired into the heart/soul of Muhammad, when he was transported miraculously from Mecca through the Night-Journey to Mount Al-Tur, and then in stages into his memory and tongue in Arabia on certain occasions. Thus, Muhammad did not remember verses inscribed into his soul/heart unless with God's permission; this is asserted by the Quranic fact that Muhammad never knew the future, and some of the revealed Quranic verses talk about future events that took place later on during his lifetime in Arabia.

2- During the Night of Decree, Muhammad was transported from Sacred Mosque through the Night-Journey to Mount Al-Tur, which is the Farthest Mosque mentioned in 17:1, and this means that the Night-Journey took place during the Night of Decree in one Ramadan. This event ordained by the Almighty Lord God combines the sanctity, purity, and blessedness of time and location; i.e., the Night of Decree is a blessed time, better than a thousand months (see 97:3) and the Farthest Mosque is blessed and so are areas around it. All this is combined with the blessedness of the Quranic revelation itself; see 6:92, 6:155, 21:50, and 38:29.

3- Muhammad during the Night-Journey that took place in the Night of Decree received the Quran when he was by Mount Al-Tur of Sinai, referred to as the Farthest Mosque in 17:1 as opposed to the sacred Mosque, which is the Kaaba in Mecca. Muhammad stood by Mount Al-Tur in the same location exactly where Moses received the Torah Tablets. It is the same location where God talked to Moses through the burning bush or tree. It is the same location where the covenant of God was made with the Israelites and Mount Al-Tur suspended over their heads miraculously. It is the same location where Moses asked to see God and his request was refused, and when God manifested Himself to the Mount Al-Tur, it turned to dust and Moses fell down unconscious, and the Mount stood again in the same shape as before. Within the Quranic story of the descent/revelation of the Torah, we are informed that the Torah mentions the glad tidings of both the prophethood or ministry of Muhammad and the descent of the Quran. This is why Mount Al-Tur, a.k.a. the Farthest Mosque, is linked directly to sanctity, blessedness, purity, and benediction and is also associated directly with Mecca and its Kaaba (a.k.a. the Sacred Mosque), as per the Quranic Chapters 17, 52, and 95.

4- Narratives and accounts of heritage books of traditions written during the Abbasid Era and political motives during the Umayyad Era are responsible for the grave error that has been going on for centuries, i.e., to assume that the Farthest Mosque mentioned in 17:1 as referring to the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem built by the caliph Al-Waleed Ibn Abdul-Malik and which never existed when Arabs conquered the Levant. Thus, historians have disregarded Mount Al-Tur. In fact, the Quran never mentions the city of Jerusalem at all; rather, it mentions the Sacred Kaaba Mosque and the Farthest Mosque (i.e., Mount Al-Tur) as blessed locations. The Quran refers also to the Yathreb mosque implicitly in 9:108-109 within the context of Quranic story of Muhammad, but NOT as a sacred site. If the Farthest Mosque mentioned in 17:1 were existing in Jerusalem and if the Night-Journey were made toward this city, this should have been mentioned in the Quran, asserted with many associations, instead of Mount Al-Tur; this is never the case as far as the Quranic text is concerned.

CHAPTER III:An Excerpt from our Book Titled "The Second Major Arab Civil War (61 – 73 A.H.)"

The true story of the so-called Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem, mentioned in our Arabic book titled "The Second Major Arab Civil War (61 – 73 A.H.)".

Firstly: an English brief overview of this book:

The title of the book: "The Second Major Arab Civil War (61 – 73 A.H.)"

The subtitle of the book: a black page from the history of the 'revered' ancestors

Authored by: Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour

About this book:

This book narrates an unspoken-of period of history filled with atrocities, from the murder of Al-Hussein Ibn Ali to the murder of Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr, and analyzes the still-remaining-until-today religious outcomes of such events.

Table of contents of the book:

Introduction

PART I:The Second Major Arab Civil War: Events and Characters

CHAPTER I: Major Events: Power and Authority within the Second Major Arab Civil War

Lamenting all these decapitated heads!

The battle of Al-Harrah and the violation of Yathreb

The siege and burning down of the Sacred Kaaba Mosque – a black page of the history of the 'revered' ancestors

Ibn Al-Zubayr was about to burn the Hashemites alive for not supporting him as a caliph!

Massacring children in the history of the 'revered' ancestors!

CHAPTER II: Major Characters who Played Roles during the Second Major Arab Civil War

Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr: the devil of both the battle of the camel and the second major Arab civil war

Who is the worst: Donald Trump or Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr?

Political satire between Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr and Abdullah Ibn Abbas

Musaab Ibn Al-Zubayr: the savage youth of Qorayish

Marwan Ibn Al-Hakam: the man behind the first and second major Arab civil wars

Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan

Obaydillah Ibn Ziyad: the criminal of Karbala

Al-Mukhtar Ibn Obayd: the villain, mean adventurer

Shabbath Ibn Rabei: ISIS terrorists have not come out of nothing!

CHAPTER III: Al-Khawarij

Al-Khawarij during the second major Arab civil war: their beginning and how they ended the first major Arab civil war by assassinating Ali

Revolts of Al-Khawarij during the caliphate of Mu'aweiya

Al-Khawarij role during the second major Arab civil war

PART II: The Outcomes of the Second Major Arab Civil War

CHAPTER I: From Bloodshed to Promiscuity

Love during the second major Arab civil war: Khaled Ibn Yazeed Ibn Mu'aweiya

Aisha daughter of Talha: a great beauty during the second major Arab civil war

Al-Arji the poet during the era of promiscuity and the second major Arab civil

Promiscuity of some Umayyad caliphs

CHAPTER II: From Bloodshed to Establishing Earthly Religions during the Second Major Arab Civil War

An overview

The influence of Al-Mukhtar Ibn Obayd on the Shiite religion: M. Ibn Ali (Ibn Al-Hanafiyya)

Myths of Al-Mukhtar Ibn Obayd

The wronged Ibn Al-Hanafiyya and contradictory statements ascribed to him

The Kaysanites and atheism

Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan established Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem as an alternative to the Kaaba in Mecca

Prayers of polytheists incite them to sinning, promiscuity, and aggression

Conclusion

Lastly: an excerpt of the book:

Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan Established Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as an Alternative to the Kaaba in Mecca

Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan and establishing the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque:

The Kaaba was desecrated as the Qorayish troops burned it down (i.e., the Umayyad troops and the Ibn Al-Zubayr troops which fought one another in Mecca). In fact, Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr took advantage of the pilgrimage season in Mecca, in the Hejaz region, to engage into anti-Umayyad political propaganda. The activities of Ibn Al-Zubayr influenced some Levantine people who performed pilgrimage and returned to the Levant (where the Umayyad capital, Damascus, is situated) and talked about how the Umayyads were undermined, satirized, slandered, and vilified. The Umayyad caliph, Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan feared that the Levantine people might turn against him by joining the troops of the rebel Ibn Al-Zubayr who proclaimed himself as a caliph. Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan thought about establishing a grand mosque in Jerusalem to make the Levantine people perform pilgrimage to it instead of the Kaaba in Mecca (center of rebels who joined Ibn Al-Zubayr in Hejaz). The Umayyad caliph decided to name this grand mosque as Al-Aqsa, an appellation mentioned in the Quranic verse 17:1 to refer to the Farthest Mosque, the location to which Muhammad was miraculously transported during the Night-Journey or the Night of Decree to receive the Quran from Gabriel. The Umayyad caliph made his propaganda men (orators, clergymen, etc.) call people to sanctify this Jerusalem mosque. Most of the Levantine people admired such calls, especially new converts to 'Islam' who still carry within their minds remnants of their former religions that urged them to sanctify the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the site of the demolished Temple of Solomon. The Umayyad caliph chose the site of this demolished Jewish temple to build his so-called Al-Aqsa mosque. We have proven (using Quranic verses) in our book, published on our website, titled "The Night-Journey Is The Night of Decree" that the Farthest Mosque mentioned in 17:1 is, without a shadow of doubt, Mount Al-Tur in Sinai, Egypt, where Moses received the Torah as well. The so-called Al-Aqsa mosque (and also the dome of the rock mosque) in Jerusalem NEVER existed during Muhammad's lifetime nor during the reign of the caliph Omar who conquered the Levant and visited Palestine and Jerusalem and performed prayers outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher after receiving the keys of the city, because there were no mosques there in Jerusalem at the time at all.

Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is falsehood and myth invented by Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan:

1- The Levantine historian Ibn Katheer, in his seminal many-volume book titled "Al-Bidaya wi Al-Nihaya" (i.e., literally, the beginning and the end), mentions, among the events of 66 A.H., that the caliph Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan began to build Al-Aqsa mosque and the mosque of the dome of the rock in Jerusalem and the building process ended in 73 A.H. Ibn Katheer mentions that the reason behind building such edifices in Jerusalem was that Ibn Al-Zubayr dominated and controlled Hejaz (esp. Yathreb and Mecca, of course), and he preached and delivered sermons to people during the pilgrimage season while aspersing, satirizing, and slandering the Umayyads, especially the Ibn Marwan family, and he incited people to revolt against the Umayyad rule and to swear fealty to him as the new caliph. Ibn Al-Zubayr claimed that Muhammad had cursed the Umayyad man named Al-Hakam Ibn Marwan and his progeny! Ibn Al-Zubayr was an eloquent orator, and the Levantine people who performed pilgrimage in Mecca admired him and spread news of his call upon their return home. Ibn Katheer asserts further that Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan in Damascus felt so furious and prevented the Levantine people from ever traveling to Hejaz to perform pilgrimage. People felt restless and grew angry, and the caliph felt anxious lest they revolt against him; he decided to make his orators an preachers convince people to perform pilgrimage instead to Jerusalem to the two magnificent mosques he built there. The caliph made his orators appeal to the emotional side of the Levantine people by inventing hadiths that this site in Jerusalem is allegedly where Muhammad was transported through the Night-Journey mentioned in 17:1. The Levantine people circumambulated around the so-called dome of the rock instead of the Kaaba and they worshipped at such mosque and the other one, and they slaughtered sacrificial animals there and shaved their head, as if they were performing pilgrimage! This made Ibn Al-Zubayr in Mecca ridicule the caliph further by asserting that he became as tyrannical as the emperors of Persia like his forefather, the caliph Mu'aweiya, as such emperors built magnificent edifices and made people sanctify them.

2- Ibn Katheer mentions about the building process of the two mosques of Jerusalem that this Umayyad caliph mobilized a great number of builders and workers from many cities into Jerusalem and he dedicated huge amounts of money to this project, the two supervisors of the projects asked for more money and the caliph spared nothing as he gave them generously and willingly more than the sums they demanded. The finest and richest items and types of ceramics, mosaïque, gold, silver, tapestries, curtains, colorful carpets, amber, musk, rosewater, saffron, etc., and other expensive building materials were used in the building process and men were employed as servants and official clergymen of the two sanctified edifices, and upon inauguration, huge quantities of the most expensive incense (myrrh and frankincense, etc.) were burned and people smelled them for days on end from distant locations.

3- Ibn Katheer mentions that the Levantine people were infatuated too much by the two edifices in Jerusalem and regarded them as 'holy' mosques built in a 'holy' site. Bodies of builders who returned to their home cities smelled of incense, musk, etc. and other sweet perfumes, and other people would talk about how such builders came back from the 'holy' city. People talked a lot about the magnificence of the two edifices and how 'holy' the dome and the rock are! People forget all about Mecca and pilgrimage to the Kaaba, as they focused on performing pilgrimage to Jerusalem instead, and the Levantine people reached the city from every corner of the Levant. The clergymen, preachers, and orators of the Umayyads would narrate many times hadiths about how 'holy' this site is and about the events witnessed there by Muhammad, and likened this site and monuments and landmarks in it to Paradise Gates and to led people to believe that the rock is 'holy' and showed scenes from Paradise and valleys of Hell, and as if a footprint of Muhammad is on, made before his alleged ascension into heaven! People had worshipped reverently in awe at such locations for centuries until now, as per this account by Ibn Katheer the historian, who authored his book during the 8th century A.H. Sadly, this myth continues until now in the 20th and 21st centuries A.D., though Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Quran at all.

4- Ibn Katheer mentions the unprecedented extravagance and sums of money lavished on builders and the building process, as the 'holy' rock had an appearance appealing to thousands of people at the time as it was encrusted with gold, jewels, precious stones, and rare mosaïque of the finest types, and this has cost 600 thousand bags of gold paid by the Umayyad caliph, and the entire dome was covered with gold, and people could not stare at as it reflected in the sunlight into their eyes.

5- Ibn Katheer mentions that the Abbasid caliph Abou Jaffer Al-Mansour visited Jerusalem in 140 A.H., to find the two mosques as deserted and empty ruins, and he commanded his troops to gather all gold pieces that were encrusted on the walls, gates, and the dome to sell them and to use the money to save and rejuvenate the two mosques and to restore them to their glory as much as possible; this Abbasid caliph ordered them to rebuilt Al-Aqsa mosque so that its width would increase and its length would decrease, unlike the case before as its length was too much and the width too small to his taste.

6- Sadly, it is a shame that such edifices are still deemed by the gullible Muhammadans as 'sanctified' or 'holy' and a third 'holy' sanctuary after the real one in Mecca (i.e., the sacred Kaaba Mosque sanctified by God) and the fake one in Yathreb (i.e., the Yathreb mosque that is allegedly housing a 'holy' mausoleum ascribed to Muhammad as his tomb, at which the polytheistic Muhammadans still worship until now).

PART II: Our Later Writings about the Falsehood of Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem

CHAPTER I: The Genuine Farthest Mosque Is in the Land of Egypt

Firstly: Egypt is the Land in the Quranic story of Joseph:

1- Egypt, as the most ancient civilization on earth, has preceded the whole world in forming a State that has been continuous, prosperous, and thriving within stability in its land since the dawn of human history. This fact made its ancient rulers describe Egypt as (the Land), as the other areas around them contained Bedouins, nomads, and desert-tribes who had no State and, therefore, cannot be described as (the Land), as we infer from the words of Joseph to his father Jacob/Israel in this verse: "And he elevated his parents on the throne, and they fell prostrate before him. He said, "Father, this is the fulfillment of my vision of long ago. My Lord has made it come true. He has blessed me, when he released me from prison, and brought you out of the Bedouin desert, after the Devil had sown conflict between me and my brothers..." (12:100). Hence, from the Quranic Chapter 12, we infer that the only State at the time (with a king, prisons, civilization, pomp, splendor, etc.) was Egypt, and other peoples at the time around the Egyptian borders were desert-tribes, nomads, and Bedouins with no State. This is why at the Egyptians borders at the time, there were strong, powerful military guards feared by the Bedouins who desired to enter into the Land of Egypt. In light of this, we understand why Jacob had advised his sons against crossing the Egyptian borders from one gate, so as not to stir any suspicions: "...."O my sons, do not enter by one gate, but enter by different gates..." (12:67). Other elements of the Egyptian State during Joseph's lifetime were the palaces, sumptuous residences, pomp, splendor, luxurious lifestyle, parties of affluent men and women, etc. as witnessed by Joseph when he was raised and brought up in the palace of the Potiphar (i.e., Treasurer or grand vizier) of Egypt.

2- In light of the above, we understand why Egypt, within the Quranic story of Joseph, is regarded as (the Land) by Joseph and by all people at the time as per their vision, worldview, and dominant culture, and also by Almighty God Who comments on the events that took place in Egypt. Let us provide some examples from the Quranic Chapter 12.

2/1: When the Potiphar of Egypt bought Joseph as an adolescent and decided to treat him as though he were his own son, he told his wife to care for Joseph: "The Egyptian who bought him said to his wife, "Take good care of him; he may be useful to us, or we may adopt him as a son."..." (12:21). The comment from God about this event is that this had been the commencement of establishing Joseph in the Land: "...We thus established Joseph in the land..." (12:21). This means that establishing Joseph in Egypt was establishing him in the Land (or on earth) in the political sense as Joseph later on would have political influence and authority, which implies a deeply rooted State with power and stability.

2/2: After Joseph was declared innocent and the Hyksos king admired his character, Joseph requested from this king to make him in charge of the storehouses of the Land; i.e., storehouses of Egypt: "He said, "Put me in charge of the storehouses of the land; I am honest and knowledgeable."" (12:55). This means that since the storehouses of the Land (or on earth) were in Egypt, there were not any known storehouses elsewhere at the time; this is understood from describing storehouses of Egypt, the mother of the whole world and cradle of civilization, as the storehouses of the Land.

2/3: The comment of God comes in the very next verse: "And thus We established Joseph in the land, to live therein wherever he wished. We touch with Our mercy whomever We will, and We never waste the reward of the righteous." (12:56). We are informed thus in 12:56 that Joseph was given political authority and influence in the Land; i.e., in Egypt, as Egypt at the time is the Land, and whoever controlled Egypt controlled the whole known world (or the earth) at the time.

2/4: When the brothers of Joseph were accused of theft, they denied this false accusation in amazement by saying: "They said, "By God, you know we did not come to cause trouble in the land, and we are not thieves."" (12:73). Thus, the term (the Land) here refers only to Egypt, as per the culture/mentality of those Bedouin brothers (the sons of Israel/Jacob) after their coming to Egypt.

2/5: The brothers of Joseph discussed what to do after the Egyptian authorities arrested their youngest brother; God says in the Quran: "And when they despaired of him, they conferred privately. Their eldest said, "Don't you know that your father received a pledge from you before God, and in the past you failed with regard to Joseph? I will not leave this land until my father permits me, or God decides for me; for He is the Best of Deciders."" (12:80). Again, the term (the Land) here refers only to Egypt.

Secondly: Egypt is the Land in the Pharaonic Era of the Ramses dynasty:

During the lifetime of Joseph when he became the Potiphar of Egypt and brought his father Jacob/Israel and his brothers to dwell in Egypt (and thus, the 12 sons of Jacob/Israel founded the 12 Israelite tribes), the Hyksos were the rulers of Egypt, but they were defeated and chased away by the Pharaoh Ahmose I, the founder of the 18th Pharaonic dynasty, and later on, the Ramses dynasty ruled Egypt within chauvinism (i.e., extreme patriotism and a belief in national superiority and glory) and extreme bias for the Egyptian nationalism and xenophobic bias against non-Egyptians (this was one of the reasons of the persecution inflicted on the Israelites by Moses' Pharaoh). The Ramses dynasty ruled Egypt within a military, feudal regime that control all villages, cities, and megacities (i.e., metropolises) throughout the Egyptian soil, and this is why Egypt, within the dominant culture at the time, has been described by most people as (the Land). Let us provide some examples from the Quranic story of Moses.

1- The term (the Land) was adopted by Moses' Pharaoh and his people to exclusively describe Egypt.

1/1: "The retinue members of Pharaoh's people said, "Will you let Moses and his people cause trouble in the land..." (7:127).

1/2: "They said, "Did you come to us to divert us from what we found our ancestors following, and so that you become superior in the land?..." (10:78).

1/3: "Pharaoh said, "Leave me to kill Moses, and let him appeal to his Lord. I fear he may change your religion, or spread corruption in the land."" (40:26).

1/4: "O my people! Yours is the sovereignty today, superior in the land..." (40:29).

2- Moses' Pharaoh and his people assumed that Egypt (the Land) was their private property:

2/1: "He said, "Did you come to us to drive us out of our land with your magic, O Moses?" (20:57).

2/2: "They said, "These two are magicians who want to drive you out of your land with their magic..." (20:63).

2/3: "He intends to drive you out of your land with his magic..." (26:35).

3- Likewise, Moses and his people, the Israelites, and the rest of the Egyptians considered Egypt as (the Land).

3/1: The Egyptian man, against whom Moses was about to fight to save an Israelite man from his hands, said the following to Moses: "...You only want to be a bully in the land..." (28:19).

3/2: Moses said the following to his people: "..."Seek help in God, and be patient. The land belongs to God. He gives it in inheritance to whomever He wills of His servants..." (7:128).

3/3: Moses said the following to his people: "...Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy, and make you successors in the land..." (7:129).

3/4: The pious Israelite men advised the sinful, affluent Quaroon by saying the following to him: "But seek, with what God has given you, the Home of the Hereafter, and do not neglect your share of this world. And be charitable, as God has been charitable to you. And do not seek corruption in the land..." (28:77).

4- The far more important point than the abovementioned points is the fact that Almighty God acknowledges and endorses the idea that Egypt is (the Land).

4/1: God says in the Quran: "Pharaoh exalted himself in the land..." (28:4), and since the arrogant Pharaoh became superior and exalted himself in the Land (i.e., in Egypt), this means that he made himself as such worldwide (or on earth) at the time, as Egypt is the Land.

4/2: "...Pharaoh was high and mighty in the land..." (10:83).

4/3: "He and his troops acted arrogantly in the land, with no justification..." (28:39).

4/4: "And Quaroon, and Pharaoh, and Haman - Moses went to them with clear arguments, but they acted arrogantly in the land..." (29:39).

4/5: "But We desired to favor those who were oppressed in the land, and to make them leaders, and to make them the inheritors." (28:5).

4/6: "And to establish them in the land..." (28:6).

4/7: "And We made the oppressed people inherit the eastern and western parts of the land, which We had blessed...." (7:137). We notice here an indication that Egypt (the Land) and eastern and western areas around it were ruled by Pharaoh and fell within his sovereignty, dominion, and control before he drowned, and such areas alongside with Egypt (i.e., the Land) were inherited temporarily by the Israelites.

4/8: When the Israelites were in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula, God has told them the following: "And recall when Moses prayed for water for his people. We said, "Strike the rock with your staff." Thereupon twelve springs gushed out from it, and each tribe recognized its drinking-place. "Eat and drink from God's provision, and do not corrupt the land with disobedience."" (2:60). This means that God has prohibited their spreading corruption in Egypt (the Land), as the term (the Land), in this context and other contexts quoted above, refers only to Egypt.

5- It is noteworthy that the term (the Land) is mentioned within the context of God's establishing the political authority of David and Solomon: "O David, We made you a ruler in the land, so judge between the people with justice..." (38:26); "And to Solomon the stormy wind, blowing at His command towards the land that We have blessed..." (21:81).

6- The term (the Land) is also mentioned within the context of God's establishing the political authority of the people of Aad: "As for Aad, they turned arrogant in the land, and opposed justice, and said, "Who is more powerful than us?" Have they not considered that God, who created them, is more powerful than they? And they went on denying Our Verses." (41:15).

7- The term (the Land) is also mentioned within the context of God's establishing the political authority of the people of Thamood; their prophet, Saleh, said the following to them: ""And remember how He made you successors after Aad, and settled you in the land. You make for yourselves mansions on its plains, and carve out dwellings in the mountains. So remember God's bounties, and do not spread corruption in the land."" (7:74); "And to Thamood, their brother Saleh. He said, "O my people, worship God, you have no god other than Him. He initiated you from the land, and settled you in it. So seek His forgiveness, and repent to Him. My Lord is Near and Responsive."" (11:61).

Thirdly: in light of the above, we understand the contexts of the Quranic Chapters 5 and 17 about the Israelites:

Moses passed the Red Sea and Sinai with his people to lead them to the Promised Land, where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel had lived earlier, but they refused to obey God's command. Moses said to them: ""O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned for you, and do not turn back, lest you return as losers."" (5:21). "They said, "O Moses, we will not enter it, ever, as long as they are in it. So go ahead, you and your Lord, and fight. We are staying right here." He said, "My Lord! I have control only over myself and my brother, so separate between us and between the wicked people. He said, "It is forbidden for them for forty years. They will wander aimlessly in the land. So do not grieve over the defiant people."" (5:24-26). We, thus, conclude the following points.

1- Those disobedient sinners among the Israelites have tired Moses very much because of their defiance against the commands of the Lord God, despite the miracles, signs, and bounties they had witnessed, and they forgot God's command about not to spread corruption in Egypt (i.e., in the Land) as per 2:60.

2- Those wicked sinners among the Israelites adamantly refused to enter into Palestine and remained in Egypt, "...We are staying right here." (5:24), and Moses, Aaron, and the good, pious people among the Israelites left them and moved away.

3- God has decreed that the disobedient sinners among the Israelites would remain wandering aimlessly in the Land of Egypt for forty years.

4- We tend to think that during this wandering in the Land of Egypt, the sinners among the Israelites returned to the Egyptian River Nile Valley that had no ruler(s) at the time, and this made Egypt weak and open for any possible invaders, where they dominated and spread corruption everywhere.

5- This is the first among the two times of corruption committed by the Israelites mentioned in this verse: "And We conveyed to the Israelites in the Book: You will commit corruption in the Land twice, and you will rise to a great height." (17:4). This corruption was their looting and confiscating possessions etc. from a passive, helpless, submissive nation (i.e., the Egyptians at the time). This is why these sinners among the Israelites could not face the powerful military troops that invaded Egypt and fought and defeated them: "When the first of the two promises came true, We sent against you servants of Ours, possessing great might, and they ransacked your homes. It was a promise fulfilled." (17:5).

6- We tend to think that this corrupt generation of the Israelites ended by this defeat and by the passage of forty years, and another generation of the Israelites who were pious and had might/power managed to defeat these foreign military troops that invaded Egypt: "Then We gave you back your turn against them, and supplied you with wealth and progeny, and made you more numerous." (17:6).

7- When the second corruption, committed by the sinners among the Israelites of another generation, occurred again, the same invading military troops were sent by God to punish these Israelites, and such troops entered into the Masjid Al-Aqsa (the Farthest Mosque) at Mount Al-Tur in Sinai, for the second time, as this occurred earlier in the first time of corruption when the Israelites were defeated by these military troops. We read these verses about this second corruption and its consequences: "If you work righteousness, you work righteousness for yourselves; and if you commit evil, you do so against yourselves. Then, when the second promise comes true, they will make your faces filled with sorrow, and enter the Masjid as they entered it the first time, and utterly destroy all that falls into their power. Perhaps your Lord will have mercy on you. But if you revert, We will revert. We have made Hell a prison for the disbelievers." (17:7-8).

8- After these verses, God says the following about the Quran, also in the first verses of the Quranic Chapter 17, significantly titled (Al-Israa) or (Night-Journey): "This Quran guides to what is most upright; and it gives good news to the believers who do good deeds, that they will have a great reward. And those who do not believe in the Hereafter-We have prepared for them a painful torment." (17:9-10).

9- Within the end of the Quranic Chapter 17, God mentions more details about the story of Moses and Pharaoh and how Pharaoh drowned, and then, we read this verse: "After him, We said to the Israelites, "Inhabit the land, and when the promise of the last time arrives, We will bring you all together."" (17:104). This verse indicates that the Israelites were made successors in the Land (i.e., Egypt) after the drowning of Pharaoh and his retinue embers and troops, and thus, the Israelites settled temporarily in Egypt. The phrase (when the promise of the last time arrives, We will bring you all together) refers to the gathering of all the Israelites in one place, but they committed corruption for the second and last time in Egypt, before being defeated once again by the foreign military troops of invaders, and this is echoed in this verse in the same Quranic Chapter 17: "Then We gave you back your turn against them, and supplied you with wealth and progeny, and made you more numerous." (17:6).

10- Within the context of the verse 17:104, we read the following verses about the Quran itself: " With the Truth We sent it down, and with the Truth it descended. We sent you only as a bearer of good news and a warner. A Quran which We unfolded gradually, that you may recite to the people over time. And We revealed it in stages." (17:105-106). In the very next two verses, God warns the disbelieving Arabs at the time and reminds them of the Israelites in Arabia who believed in the Quran and prostrated humbly as they remembered the covenant and the appointment of 70 men with Moses at Mount Al-Tur that was made to suspend over their heads and how the Torah contains glad tidings of the descent/revelation of the Quran and of the coming of Muhammad as the seal of all prophets and the last one of them: "Say, "Believe in it, or do not believe." Those who were given knowledge before it, when it is recited to them, they fall to their chins, prostrating. And they say, "Glory to our Lord. The promise of our Lord is fulfilled." And they fall to their chins, weeping, and it adds to their humility." (17:107-109).

11- In fact, the verse 17:1 talks about how the entirety of the Quran was revealed to Muhammad's heart/soul at one night, during the Night-Journey as Muhammad was miraculously transported from the Sacred Kaaba Mosque in Mecca to the Farthest Mosque (at Mount Al-Tur in Sinai) during the Night of Decree to meet with archangel Gabriel who drew nearer to Muhammad to inscribe the Quranic text into his heart/soul. This is expressed in 17:1, whereas 17:2 talks about Moses who received Torah Tablets at the same location at Mount Al-Tur in Sinai: "Glory to Him who journeyed His servant by night, from the Sacred Mosque, to the Farthest Mosque, whose areas We have blessed, in order to show him of Our Signs. He is the Listener, the Beholder. And We gave Moses the Book, and made it a guide for the Israelites: Take none for protector other than Me." (17:1-2).

12- The Israelites had built a house of worship and prostration (i.e., masjid/mosque/temple) at Mount Al-Tur in Sinai, Egypt, and God refers to it as the military troops of foreigners who invaded Egypt and defeated the Israelites entered this mosque for the second time after the sinners among the Israelites committed corruption for the second time: "...Then, when the second promise comes true, they will make your faces filled with sorrow, and enter the Masjid as they entered it the first time..." (17:7). This Al-Aqsa/Farthest Mosque at Mount Al-Tur in Sinai is named as such because it is located far away from Arabs of Arabia, in relation to the location of the Sacred Kaaba Mosque in Mecca.

CHAPTER II: The So-called Al-Aqsa of Jerusalem Is A Harmful Mosque, and Palestinians Will Never Be Successful as long as they Cling to It

Firstly:

1- The city of Jerusalem is never mentioned at all in the Quran; therefore, it is NEVER part of Quranic facts of Islam. Hence, to perform 'pilgrimage' to the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem has nothing to do with Islam. The only pilgrimage mentioned in the Quran is to the Sacred Kaaba Mosque in Mecca, and this is part of the monotheistic Islamic religion of Abraham, after God has commanded him, and his son Ishmael, to build the Kaaba in this location, to purify its surroundings, and to call all people to perform pilgrimage there.

2- The so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem was built by the Umayyad caliph Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan, who chose its name from the Quranic verse 17:1, in order to distract and divert the people of the Levant region away from performing pilgrimage to Mecca when the Hejaz region was controlled by the rebel Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr who proclaimed himself as a caliph. Hence, we assert here that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem is a harmful mosque since day one of its erection during the Umayyad Era; this edifice has been aimed at repelling people away from the Sacred Kaaba Mosque. All real monotheistic believers in God and in His Word must avoid this harmful mosque and to distance themselves from it.

3- Within the earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans, the authors Al-Bokhary and Moslem have fabricated this hadith (... No one is to travel for pilgrimage unless to three mosques: The Sacred Kaaba Mosque in Mecca, my Mosque here in Yathreb, and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem ...). It is quite impossible that Muhammad would have uttered this silly false hadith; he would not ascribe a mosque to himself; otherwise, this would contradict his words recorded in the Quran when he faced his Meccan people by saying: "The places of worship are for God. So do not call, besides God, upon anyone else." (72:18). Hence, Muhammad would not say the phrase (my mosque in Yathreb), because mosques in Islam are dedicated only to God and never to mortals. Besides, in the rest of the Al-Bokhary false hadith, we find words ascribed to Muhammad talking about his burial place inside the Yathreb mosque and likened it to a garden of Paradise! This is mere nonsense and balderdash of the Sunnite earthly religion. Such myths are found in various versions that differ, and their authors used to argue for and against their fabrications for a long time. This silly hadith about performing pilgrimage to both Yathreb and Jerusalem is NEVER mentioned in the first and oldest Hadiths-book titled (Al-Mowata') by Malik nor in the book titled (Al-Um) by Al-Shafei. Thus, this means that this nonsensical hadith was never known before Al-Bokhary has fabricated it (by the way, Al-Bokhary died in 256 A.H.). Of course, the Shiites reject this hadith merely because it excludes travelling to perform pilgrimage to the 'holy' Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala, among others!

4- Hence, to perform pilgrimage to any location, deemed 'holy', and to worship at it (other than the Sacred Kaaba Mosque) is sheer polytheism and disbelief. This applies to those who worship at the Yathreb abomination; i.e., the mausoleum at the Yathreb mosque ascribed falsely to Muhammad, the abomination of the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem, the abominations of Karbala and Najaf dedicated to Hussein and other household members of Ali and any imams, and the abominations of mausoleums in all other cities dedicated to imams/sheikhs/'saints'. All such abominations are the works of Satan and must be avoided by real Quranists who are monotheistic believers, as per this verse: "O you who believe! wine, gambling, mausoleums, and divination are abominations of Satan's doing. Avoid them, so that you may prosper." (5:90). Within our Quranist viewpoint, the Palestinians will never be successful in their struggle to have their own Palestinian State as long as they sanctify the abomination called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem. "And wait; we too are waiting." (11:122).

Secondly: the outright false claim and the flagrant lie that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem is the first of two Qiblas and the third of two sacred mosques:

The Muhammadans, in their sanctification and worship of the abomination called Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem, have fabricated many hadiths making it the first of two Qiblas. This is flagrant ignorance, especially that those ignoramuses quote 2:142-150 to 'prove' their scandalous falsehood. We refute such nonsensical view in the points below.

1- Pilgrimage, zakat, prayers, and fasting are the main rituals of Islam inherited from the religion of Abraham. Pilgrimage ordained by God is ONLY to Kaaba House in Mecca, and prayers are performed in the direction of the Kaaba as the Qibla. When pilgrims circle or circumambulate the Kaaba, it is prohibited to touch it so as not to turn it into a pagan idol. For further information about pilgrimage in the Quran, we refer readers to our book (in English) titled "Pilgrimage between Islam and the Muhammadans", found on this link (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=90). Before the descent/revelation of the Quran, the Kaaba was turned into a pagan idol within polytheistic rituals and practices; some companions of Muhammad, after settling in Yathreb, harbored in their hearts the polytheistic feelings of sanctification of the Kaaba as an edifice, and this ascribing sanctity or holiness to things/items/buildings is sheer polytheism. God has tested the angels by commanding them to prostrate before Adam; this command apparently seems strange, but all of the angels obeyed the divine command of Almighty God, except Iblis/Satan, and thus, the angels passed the test while Satan failed it. Likewise, real monotheistic believers obey God's commands without arguing about them; they would not, for instance, pose questions like: why are we to circle the Kaaba seven times?! Why are we commanded to consume food and then to fast?!

2- The Kaaba is merely a building made of stone and other building materials like the ones trodden with our feet; the Kaaba is not 'holy' or 'sanctified', because in real Islam, sanctification is dedicated only to God, and never to mortals or items/things. By the way, the Kaaba is a building that has been erected, demolished, and rebuilt several times in history; it is an edifice that defines a certain site and location on Planet Earth, mentioned by God in this verse: "We showed Abraham the location of the House..." (22:26), so that we perform pilgrimage there and perform prayers toward its direction as Qibla.

3- Hence, when God wanted the early believers who settled in Yathreb to remove the polytheistic feelings of sanctification toward the Kaaba, as they felt nostalgia to their homeland (i.e., Mecca) as well and focused such feelings on sanctifying the Kaaba as the Qibla direction of their daily prayers, He tested them by changing the Qibla direction temporarily to somewhere else, which is never mentioned by God in the Quran. After passing this test, God commanded them once more to return to the original Qibla: the Kaaba in Mecca.

4- God in the Quran never mentions the location of this temporary Qibla in this test for Muhammad and those believers with him in Yathreb. The focus of the Quranic text is on the reactions of others toward this divine command: "The ignorant among the people will say, "What has turned them away from the direction of prayer they once followed?" Say, "To God belong the East and the West. He guides whoever is willing to be guided to a Straight Path."" (2:142). The Qibla they were following was, of course, the Kaaba itself, and then, God commanded them to change the Qibla to another direction never mentioned in the Quran, because it is not important to be known by Quran-believing people; it is a temporary event anyway for the purpose of this test imposed on the early believers in Yathreb. After they passed this test, they returned to the original Qibla of the Kaaba as per God's command. Thus, the first Qibla they once followed is the Kaaba, the second, temporary one is unknown to us, and the third, last one is the first, original one, the Kaaba, as God commanded them later on to perform prayers toward its direction once more.

5- The aim of this test of changing the Qibla has been to distinguish those who obey God's holy command and those who disobeyed. God is the Owner of the Kaaba and Qibla, and He has the right to change the Qibla; the real believers obeyed God without questioning the divine command, so as not to be among the ignorant once who said: "...What has turned them away from the direction of prayer they once followed?...". God has refuted them in the same verse by commanding Muhammad to say the following to them: "...Say, "To God belong the East and the West. He guides whoever is willing to be guided to a Straight Path."" (2:142).

6- God asserts in the Quran that changing the Qibla (to a new location which we do not know, since it is never mentioned in the Quran)