World War III and the Dome of the Rock

They had a vision. They were actively planning to shake the world, by a single act perpetrated in the holy city, Jerusalem Israel. Their goal was to prepare the way for the Messiah to come, by bringing down the third holiest site in Islam – the Dome of the Rock. We’ll talk about their plot in due course, but first we need to lay out some background. 

Everybody who’s seen a photo of Jerusalem immediately recognizes this most magnificent landmark, the gleaming golden copula that dominates the great plateau known as the Temple Mount. Its sanctity for Muslims is summed up by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Shekh Muhammad Hussein: “We consider this the spot where the Prophet Muhammad began his ascent to heaven.” His reference is to the Qur'an, which, in the chapter titled “Al-Isra” (“Night Journey”), relates that in a single night, when Muhammad was living in Mecca, twelve years after his divine call, a mythological winged steed known as Al-Buraq took the prophet on a mystical ride to the “farthest mosque.” It’s location isn’t identified, but it was later assumed to be Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Muslims today believe that the rocky outcropping on which the Dome stands is the place where, as the Quranic sura (“chapter”) 17 continues, Muhammad dismounted his steed, prior to ascending (again on Al-Burqa) into the various heavens. He received an audience with the prophets of old, and finally with Allah, who instructed the Muslims to pray fifty times a day, though relenting and reducing the number to five. Afterwards, Al-Buraq returned the prophet to Mecca in the same night. 

The story, fantastic as it is, is taken seriously to this day, though many Muslims consider it to have been merely a vision, emphasizing the purity of Muhammad’s heart. Moreover, the identification of this story with Jerusalem is tenuous at best. “The Farthest Mosque” (Al-Aqsa in Arabic) is the name of the other great structure on the Temple Mount, decorated with a blackish dome, and still used for prayer. The Dome of the Rock by contrast, is a holy shrine, but not a proper “mosque.” Critics rightly point out that the Quran’s “farthest mosque” could really be anywhere, and early commentators thought of it simply as a designation of heaven. Early Muslims warriors, however, may well have reasoned that if Jerusalem is important to Jews and to Christians, there needs to be an Islamic claim on the city as well, and this may have been motive enough for linking it with Muhammad’s Isra. In any case, the Quranic account was enough to establish Jerusalem as the third holiest site in Islam (after Mecca and Medina). But for Jews the “holy hill” on which the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque stand always was and will forever remain the world’s “number one” religious locale, bar none. Stay tuned for more...