The Al Aqsa Files - Week 1
Al Aqsa Files · Part 1 of 4
The most documented sacred site in human scripture. The world shows you the wrong building.
The Torah named it. The Psalms sang about it. A prophet declared it God's house for all nations. The Quran named it as the destination of the Night Journey. This is what they all agree on.
Start here. This is Al Aqsa.
02 / 08
Al Aqsa is not one building. It is the entire sacred compound.
Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa is the full Quranic meaning: the entire 144,000 square metre Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem. Al-Haram Al-Sharif. Every building within its walls. Every stone of the compound. This is what the Quran named in Surah 17:1 and what scholars have documented for over a thousand years.
Masjid Qibli is the silver-domed congregational mosque at the south end of the compound. This is where the five daily prayers and Friday prayer take place. Where all prophets prayed together. The third holiest site in Islam confirmed in Sahih Bukhari 1189.
The Dome of the Rock is also within the compound. The golden dome at the centre is a sacred shrine marking the Noble Rock from which the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him ascended to the heavens. Built 691 CE. Sacred. But not the congregational mosque. And not what was named before it existed.
Source: Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmu'at al-Rasail al-Kubra Vol.2 p.61 · Al-Mawsu'ah al-Filastiniyyah Vol.4 p.203 · Sahih Bukhari 1189
The mosque. The one the world never shows.
03 / 08
Silver dome. South end. This is where the prophets prayed.
Masjid Qibli is the functioning congregational mosque within the compound. Up to 200,000 worshippers pray here on Fridays. This is the building Sahih Bukhari 1189 refers to when it names the third holiest site in Islam.
The Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him arrived here on the Night Journey. He entered this mosque and led all the prophets - Abraham, Moses, Jesus peace be upon him and others - in congregational prayer. Documented in authenticated hadith narrated by Ibn Kathir.
Jesus peace be upon him will return and pray in this mosque at the end of times. Confirmed in Sahih Muslim. The silver-domed mosque. Not the golden one. This is almost never the image used in global media.
Source: Sahih Bukhari 1189 · Ibn Kathir, Night Journey narration · Sahih Muslim, Jesus peace be upon him descent hadith · Al-Mawsu'ah al-Filastiniyyah Vol.3 p.23
Sacred. But not Al Aqsa mosque. And not what scripture named.
04 / 08
Golden dome. Centre of the compound. Built 691 CE. By a caliph.
The Dome of the Rock was built by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan in 691 CE. It marks the Noble Rock from which the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him ascended to the heavens. Sacred. Individual prayer is permitted inside it.
But it is not the congregational mosque. Friday prayers do not take place there. It was built by a caliph, not under divine instruction recorded in any scripture.
And it did not exist when the Quran named this place. It did not exist when the Torah named it. It did not exist when Jesus peace be upon him walked on this ground. The timeline shows exactly how wide that gap is.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Dome of the Rock · Al-Mawsu'ah al-Filastiniyyah Vol.4 p.203 · Islam QA fatwa 20903
Every entry below is a documented primary source. One line. One fact.
05 / 08
957 BCE to 691 CE. The ground was named long before the image the world now uses.
957 BCE. God declares this ground hallowed forever. Prophet Solomon peace be upon him builds the House of God here under divine instruction. Old Testament. Source: 1 Kings 9:3 · 2 Chron 3:1.
Around 950 BCE. The Psalms are written as pilgrimage songs to this ground: "I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord." Old Testament, Psalms of Ascent. Source: Psalm 122:1 · Psalm 24:3.
Around 33 CE. Jesus peace be upon him declares this God's house for all nations. A prophet delivering God's word. Quoting Isaiah peace be upon him: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Gospel. Source: Matthew 21:13 · Luke 19:41.
621 CE. The Quran names Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. The Night Journey. No buildings on the compound. The name refers to the entire sacred ground. The Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him leads all prophets in prayer here. Source: Quran 17:1 · Sahih Bukhari 1189.
70 years pass. The compound sits with no golden dome. The scriptures have already named it.
691 CE. The Dome of the Rock is built by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. 70 years after the Quran named this place. 1,648 years after the Old Testament. This is the building the world now shows when it says Al Aqsa.
Sources: 1 Kings 9:3 · Psalm 122:1 · Matthew 21:13 · Quran 17:1 · Sahih Bukhari 1189 · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Dome of the Rock
The image the world uses. Every time.
06 / 08
Every headline. Every broadcast. A building that did not exist when three scriptures named this ground.
The Old Testament named this ground in 957 BCE. The Psalms were written as pilgrimage songs to it. Jesus peace be upon him declared it God's house for all nations in his name. The Quran named it in 621 CE when there were no buildings here.
The golden dome was built in 691 CE. Every time a headline uses the words Al Aqsa, the image that appears is a building built 70 years after the last scripture named this place. 1,648 years after the first.
Could that have a consequence for a site three scriptures agree is sacred to all humanity?
Source: Quran 17:1 · 1 Kings 9:3 · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Dome of the Rock 691 CE · Al-Mawsu'ah al-Filastiniyyah Vol.4 p.203
We are not making a claim. We are asking a question.
07 / 08
Three scriptures. One compound. Named since 957 BCE. The world shows a building from 691 CE and calls it Al Aqsa. Will it notice when the real one is being taken?
These are not contested facts. They are primary documents. The question of why the world consistently shows a building built 1,648 years after the first scripture named this place is one we leave with you. Next Wednesday we show you what is happening to this ground right now.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Next Wednesday · Part 2 of 4
The Ground Is Being Taken. What is happening underneath the most documented sacred site in human scripture while the world looks at the wrong building.