Holiest Sites in Islam (Sunni) - Al-Aqsa Mosque

See also: Jerusalem in Islam

Al-Aqsa Mosque (English: The Farthest mosque) is the general and oldest name for the compound of Islamic religious buildings in Jerusalem that includes al-Aqsa congregation mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is considered by Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam. The term Al-Aqsa Mosque was coined in the Quran:

Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things). —Quran, Sura 17 (Al-Isra) ayah 1

Al-Aqsa Mosque is sacred because the first of the two Qiblas (Arabic: اولى القبلتين) was Jerusalem. In Islamic tradition, Al-Aqsa is said to be the second Masjid (Arabic: ثاني المسجدين). The mosque is also the third of the two holy Sanctuaries (Arabic: ثالث الحرمين), under Islamic Law.

The term used for mosque, "masjid", literally means "place of prostration", and includes monotheistic places of worship but does not exclusively lend itself to physical structures but a location, as Prophet Muhammad stated "The earth has been made for me (and for my followers) a place for praying...". When Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem after Prophet Muhammad's wafat, a prayer house was built on the site. The structure was expanded by the Ummayad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and finished by his son al-Walid in 705 CE. The building was repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt, until the reconstruction in 1033 by the Fatimid caliph Ali az-Zahir, and that version of the structure is what can be seen in the present day. This same area was called at later Islamic periods as the Noble Sanctuary. It is believed by many to be the area from where Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven, although other theories claim it had been from a mosque in Medina, Jir'ana or Kufa.

Although most political references to the Al Aqsa Mosque (due to the fact that the Al Aqsa mosque as we know it today was built by date from the 12th century or later due to its occupation by the Crusades, others claim that the mosque's position in Islam is firmly grounded in a number of hadith dating from the birth of Islam.

In terms of the virtue of a religious site, and the value of prayers performed within it, Muslims believe that the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is the third most virtuous mosque based on a Hadith narrated by the companion Abu Darda. Abu Darda records him saying "the Prophet of Allah Muhammad said a prayer in the Sacred Mosque (in Mecca) is worth 100,000 prayers; a prayer in my mosque (in Medina) is worth 10,000 prayers; and a prayer in al-Masjid al-Aqsa sanctuary (in Jerusalem) is worth 1,000 prayers more than in any other mosque.