Did you know?

1. That Masjid Al Aqsa was the second Masjid on earth.

2. That it was built 40 years after the Ka’ba in Makkah.

3. That most scholars are of the opinion that Masjid Al Aqsa was first built by Prophet Adam [as].

4. That Ibrahim [as] rebuilt the Masjid Al Aqsa in Jerusalem with his son Ishaq [as] as he and Ismail [as] rebuilt the Ka’ba in Makkah.

5. That Prophet Daud [as] began the rebuilding of Masjid Al Aqsa.

6. That it was Prophet Sulayman [as] who finally completed the building of Masjid Al Aqsa.

7. That the Masjid Al Aqsa built by Sulayman [as] was destroyed in 587 BC by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon.

8. That the Jewish people call this same Masjid Al Aqsa built by Sulayman [as] their Temple.

9. That the Jewish people re-built their Temple on the same site in 167 BC but this was destroyed in 70 AD and Jews were banished from Jerusalem at the same time.

10. That the site of Masjid Al Aqsa remained barren and was used as a rubbish tip for nearly 600 years until the Great Khalifah Umar bin al-Khattab liberated Jerusalem in 637/8 AD.

11. That the caliph Umar bin Khattab ordered the foundations of Masjid Al Aqsa to be laid and a timber mosque was built on the site.

12. That the Umayyad caliph, Abd’ al Malik ibn Marwan in 691/2 [72/73 AH] began the construction of the Dome of the Rock (the Golden Domed Mosque).

13. That the al Buraq wall or Western Wall where Prophet Muhammad [saas] tied al-Buraq on the night journey of al Isra is what the Jewish people call the wailing wall.

14. That Muslims consider the land or the Haram Sharif area to be sacred and holy, not the Masjid buildings that exist there -although these do have historical significances.

15. That the land of the Masjid Al Aqsa contains tow main buildings called Al-Aqsa [Black Domed Mosque] and the Dome of the Rock [the Golden Domed Mosque].

16. That Israel occupied Masjid Al Aqsa in 1967.

17. That fundamentalist Jews have made 100’s of attempts to destroy Al Aqsa since 1967 when they occupied it. A fire in 1967 destroyed the 900 year old Mimbar installed by Salah'ideen Ayubi, the Great Muslim Hero.

18. That many fundamentalist Jews want to re-build their Temple within Masjid Al Aqsa and destroy what exists there now.