Holy Site
Ḥaram can also mean an Islamic holy site of very high sanctity. The two sites whose Islamic sanctity is unchallengeably the highest of all are Mecca and Medina in Arabia, so that the Arabic dual form الحرمان al-ḥaramān or الحرمين al-ḥaramayn refers to these two places. Since 1986, the Saudi monarchy has disclaimed all royal titles except "Custodian of the Two Holy Sanctuaries" or "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques".
In addition, the term ḥaram is commonly used to refer to certain other holy sites, such as the Haram ash-Sharif in Jerusalem — though over the protests of some, such as Ibn Taymiya, who declared that the only places which could be legitimately called "ḥaram" were Mecca, Medina, and probably also the valley of Wajj in Ta'if (but definitely not either Jerusalem or Hebron). One of the Islamic names of Jerusalem ثالث الحرمين thālith al-ḥaramayn (literally "the third of the two holy places") resolves the tension between the unchallengeable pre-eminence of Mecca and Medina vs. the desire to recognize Jerusalem as having a special status in Islam in a somewhat paradoxical manner.
A narration attributed to Qaza'a Maula reports:
| “ | Do not prepare yourself for a journey except to three Mosques, i.e. Al-Masjid-AI-Haram, the Mosque of Aqsa (Jerusalem) and my Mosque. Sahih al-Bukhari, 2:21:288 | ” |
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