Friday was the day the Prophet Mohammed SAW ascended to Heaven from the site now covered by the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Saturday was the day that Muhammad was elevated to the status of Prophet, beginning with the Revelation of the first verse of the Qur'an. For more information about these and other important religious events during the month of Shere ul-Rajab, visit this site.
To commemorate these events, all members of my community fasted until sunset - including, I add with immense father's pride, my daughter. May Allah elevate us all in stature by virtue of our deeds.
Saturday was also the third anniversary of 9-11, but this year it didn't really register. I hope I never live to see another day like 9-11 again. I haven't forgotten it, and never will. But this year, the weekend was one of celebration of faith, and spiritual hope. There will be many anniversaries of 9-11 ahead, and I will give it it's due then. But not this year.
UPDATE: Imshin lectures those of us who did not "rend our garments." I agree with jonathan - it's been three years, and the emotion has matured over time. I don't think there's more that needs to be said, apart from, Don't presume we don't remember. We always will.
1 comment:
"At the time there is much belief that there was not a mosque on the Temple Mount..."
From who?
"...yet and there is a likelihood that the Syrian Caliphate/tribe built the 'Al Asqua' mosque with that name several decades after Mohammed's passing in order to compete with the Saudi tribes for signifigance?"
Well, "Saudi" tribes only acame into existence after al-Saud crteated the first "Saudi" "state". So we can reject this right away.
Secondly, the word 'masjid' quite literally means 'a place of prostration' (from the word 'sajdah', 'to prostrate'). To this day you will find that some masjid (pl. masajid) are nothing but clean places with the direction to Makkah marked out; no minarets, no green domes, no fancy carpetting. This view of a 'masjid' being any place of prostration is found in early Muslim legal and ethical literature, and was acknowledged by Arab grammarians. Some even took the view that, in its most general form, a 'masjid' is a place of prostration for *any religion*. With time, and the maturing of Muslim culture, a masjid has probably taken on a more definite form and shape (i.e. the architecture of a "typical" mosque; which incidentally, we can also question by loking at Arab-Hispanic and Chinese mosques, as well early Bedouin mosques).
The Temple Mount was, and still is, 'a place of prostration'.
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