Editing Holy Land (section)

==Islam==<!-- This section is linked from [[Muslim history]] -->
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{{See also|Jerusalem in Islam|Syria (region)}}

In the [[Quran]], the term {{transliteration|ar|Al-Ard Al-Muqaddasah}} ({{langx|ar|الأرض المقدسة}}, {{langx|en|'Holy Land'}}) is used in a passage about [[Moses in Islam|Musa]] ([[Moses]]) proclaiming to the [[Children of Israel]]: "O my people! Enter the Holy Land which [[Allah]] has destined for you ˹to enter˺. And do not turn back or else you will become losers."{{qref|5|21|b=y|s=y}} The Quran also refers to the land as being 'Blessed'.<ref name="qref|17|1-16|b=y">{{qref|17|1–16|b=y}}</ref><ref name="qref|21|51-82|b=y">{{qref|21|51–82|b=y}}</ref><ref name="qref|34|10-18|b=y">{{qref|34|10–18|b=y}}</ref>

[[Jerusalem]] (referred to as {{transliteration|ar|Al-Quds}}, {{langx|ar|الـقُـدس}}, 'The Holy') has particular significance in Islam. The Quran refers to [[Muhammad]]'s experiencing the [[Isra and Mi'raj]] as "Glory be to the One Who took His servant ˹Muḥammad˺ by night from the [[Masjid al-Haram|Sacred Mosque]] to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him some of Our signs".{{qref|17|1|b=y|s=y}} {{transliteration|ar|[[Ahadith]]}} infer that the "Farthest Masjid" is in Al-Quds; for example, as narrated by [[Abu Huraira]]h: "On the night journey of the Apostle of Allah, two cups, one containing wine and the other containing milk, were presented to him at Al-Quds (Jerusalem). He looked at them and took the cup of milk. Angel Gabriel said, 'Praise be to Allah, who guided you to Al-Fitrah (the right path); if you had taken (the cup of) wine, your {{transliteration|ar|[[Ummah]]}} would have gone astray'." [[Jerusalem]] was Islam's first {{transliteration|ar|Qiblah}} (direction of prayer) in Muhammad's lifetime, however, this was later changed to the [[Kaaba]] in the [[Hijaz]]i city of [[Mecca]], following a revelation to Muhammad by the Archangel [[Jibril]].<ref name="qref|2|142-177|b=y">{{qref|2|142–177|b=y}}</ref> The current construction of the [[Qibli Mosque|Al-Aqsa mosque]], which lies on the [[Temple Mount]] in Jerusalem, is dated to the early Umayyad period of rule in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]. Architectural historian [[K. A. C. Creswell]], referring to a testimony by [[Arculf]], a [[Gaul|Gallic]] monk, during his pilgrimage to Palestine in 679–82, notes the possibility that the second [[caliph]] of the [[Rashidun Caliphate]], [[Umar ibn al-Khattab]], erected a primitive quadrangular building for a capacity of 3,000 worshipers somewhere on the Haram ash-Sharif. However, Arculf visited Palestine during the reign of [[Mu'awiyah I]], and it is possible that Mu'awiyah ordered the construction, not Umar. This latter claim is explicitly supported by the early Muslim scholar al-Muthahhar bin Tahir.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Elad, Amikam.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/30399668|title=Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic worship : holy places, ceremonies, pilgrimage|date=1995|publisher=E.J. Brill|isbn=978-90-04-10010-7|location=Leiden|pages=29–43|oclc=30399668}}</ref> According to the Quran and Islamic traditions, Al-Aqsa Mosque is the place from which Muhammad went on a [[Isra and Mi'raj|night journey]] ({{transliteration|ar|al-isra}}) during which he rode on [[Buraq]], who took him from Mecca to al-Aqsa.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52178942|title=Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world|date=2004|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|others=Martin, Richard C.|isbn=978-0-02-865603-8|location=New York|pages=482|oclc=52178942}}</ref> Muhammad tethered Buraq to the [[Western Wall]] and prayed at al-Aqsa Mosque and after he finished his prayers, the angel [[Jibril]] ([[Gabriel]]) traveled with him to heaven, where he met several other [[Prophets in Islam|prophets]] and led them in prayer.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vuckovic, Brooke Olson.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/61428375|title=Heavenly journeys, earthly concerns: the legacy of the mi'raj in the formation of Islam|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-48747-1|location=New York|oclc=61428375}}</ref> The historical significance of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Islam is further emphasized by the fact that Muslims turned towards al-Aqsa when they prayed for a period of 16 or 17 months after [[Hijra (Islam)|migration]] to [[Medina]] in 624; it thus became the {{transliteration|ar|[[qibla]]}} ('direction') that Muslims faced for prayer.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/252506070|title=States, nations, and borders: the ethics of making boundaries|date=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|editor-last=Buchanan|editor-first=Allen E.|editor-last2=Moore|editor-first2=Margaret|isbn=978-0-511-06159-2|location=Cambridge|oclc=252506070}}</ref>

The exact region referred to as being 'blessed' in the Quran, in verses like {{qref|17|1}}, {{qref|21|71}} and {{qref|34|18}},<ref name="qref|17|1-16|b=y"/><ref name="qref|21|51-82|b=y"/><ref name="qref|34|10-18|b=y"/> has been interpreted differently by various scholars. [[Abdullah Yusuf Ali]] likens it to a wide land-range including [[Syria]] and [[Lebanon]], especially the cities of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] and [[Sidon]]; Az-Zujaj describes it as "[[Damascus]], Palestine, and a bit of [[Jordan]]"; [[Muadh ibn Jabal]] as "the area between [[al-Arish]] and the [[Euphrates]]"; and [[Ibn Abbas]] as "the land of [[Jericho]]".<ref>Ali (1991), p. 934</ref> This overall region is referred to as "[[Ash-Shām]]" ({{langx|ar|الـشَّـام}}).<ref name=Bosworth>{{cite encyclopedia |last= Bosworth |first= C.E. |author-link= Clifford Edmund Bosworth |title= Al-Shām |page= 261 |encyclopedia= Encyclopaedia of Islam |volume= 9 |year= 1997}}</ref><ref name=Salibi2003>{{cite book|last=Salibi|first=Kamal S.|author-link=Kamal Salibi|title=A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t_amYLJq4SQC|year=2003|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-912-7|pages=61–62|quote=To the Arabs, this same territory, which the Romans considered Arabian, formed part of what they called Bilad al-Sham, which was their own name for Syria.}}</ref>