Is Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem? By Rayhan Al-Safawi

28-March-2017

Masjid al-Aqsa’s location in Jerusalem is far from being normative in the Twelver Shia tradition. A number of Shia scholars and hadiths indicate that Masjid al-Aqsa is actually in heaven and not on earth.

Masjid al-Aqsa has an important place in Muslim thought. The Mosque is where the Prophet Muhammad (s) prayed in his Night Journey (Isrā’). The Qur’an makes mention of it when it says:

Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing (Chapter 17, verse 1 of the Holy Qur’an).

The Masjid is obviously holy in Islam. However, where is it located? Popular Muslim thought holds that the Mosque is located in Jerusalem. Historically speaking, many Imāmī (Twelver) Shīʿī scholars did not hold this view nor did the tradition’s source-texts, namely the hadiths. For example, the famous Qur’an commentator, traditionist and jurist Al-Fayḍ Al-Kāshānī (d. 1090/1680) wrote the following:

سُبْحانَ الَّذِي أَسْرى‏ بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى الَّذِي بارَكْنا حَوْلَهُ‏ أي إلى‏ ملكوت المسجد الأقصى‏ الذي هو في السّماءِ كما يظهر من الأخبار الآتِيَةِ

Translation: Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings, that is, towards the celestial Masjid al-Aqṣā that is in the Heavens as the following traditions make apparent…

Source: Muḥammad Al-Fayḍ Al-Kāshānī, Tafsīr al-Ṣāfī, 5 vols., ed. Ḥusayn Aʿlamī (Tehran: Maktabat al-Ṣadr, 1415/1995), III, 166.

Al-Kāshānī quotes a number of sources, the most interesting of which comes from Tafsīr al-Qummī by the famous ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-Qummī (d. ca. 307/919).

قَالَ فَإِنَّهُ حَدَّثَنِي خَالِدٌ عَنِ الْحَسَنِ بْنِ مَحْبُوبٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ يَسَارٍ [سَيَّارٍ] عَنْ مَالِكٍ الْأَسَدِيِّ عَنْ إِسْمَاعِيلَ الْجُعْفِيِّ: قَالَ كُنْتُ فِي الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ قَاعِداً وَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ ع فِي نَاحِيَةٍ فَرَفَعَ رَأْسَهُ فَنَظَرَ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ مَرَّةً وَ إِلَى الْكَعْبَةِ مَرَّةً ثُمَّ قَالَ: «سُبْحانَ الَّذِي أَسْرى‏ بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى» وَ كَرَّرَ ذَلِكَ ثَلَاثَ مَرَّاتٍ ثُمَّ الْتَفَتَ إِلَيَّ فَقَالَ:أَيَّ شَيْ‏ءٍ يَقُولُونَ أَهْلُ الْعِرَاقِ فِي هَذِهِ الْآيَةِ يَا عِرَاقِيُّ قُلْتُ يَقُولُونَ أَسْرَى بِهِ مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْبَيْتِ الْمُقَدَّسِ فَقَالَ: لَا لَيْسَ كَمَا يَقُولُونَ، وَ لَكِنَّهُ أَسْرَى بِهِ مِنْ هَذِهِ إِلَى هَذِهِ وَ أَشَارَ بِيَدِهِ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ وَ قَالَ مَا بَيْنَهُمَا حَرَم‏

Translation: Ismāʿīl al-Juʿfī said: I was sitting at Masjid al-Harām (Sacred Mosque/Kaʿba) and Imām al-Baqir (as) was at [my] side and he raised his head towards the sky once and towards the Kaʿba once, he then said [quoting from the Qur’an]: Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa and he repeated this three times and then he turned towards me and said: “What do the people of Iraq say about this verse O Iraqi?” I said: “they say that he [The Prophet (s)] was taken at night from the Sacred Mosque towards Jerusalem. Imām al-Bāqir (as) replied: “it is not as they say. Instead, he was taken at night from here [the Sacred Mosque] towards here and he pointed to the sky with his hand and said “and everything between them is sacred” [i.e. between the Masjid al-Aqsa in heavens and Kaʿba in a straight vertical line].

Source: ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-Qummī, Tafsīr al-Qummī, 2 vols., ed. Tayyib al-Mūsawī al-Jazāʾirī (Qum: Dār al-Kitāb, 1404/[1983-1984]), II, 243.

Yours Faithfully