The Excellence of Jerusalem

References (29)

1. Not 'quintessential' in that Jerusalem, for the early Church, was in measure displaced by Antioch as the springboard of mission westward. Its centrality was a matter of deep association, not of utter necessity. The essence of early Christianity was its 'being scattered abroad', having no sacred territory, no 'chosen' people and no indispensable language. See below:-
2. On the Fada'il see, e.g.: LI.Levine ed. The Jerusalem Cathedra, No.I, 'Muslim Literature in Praise of Jerusalem', Isaac Hasson, pp.168-84. Also S.D.Goitein: Studies in Islamic History and Institutions, Leiden, 1966, pp.135-48.
3. His shift of the capital from Madina to Damascus was a new departure. Since Madina was being forsaken, Jerusalem may have been a prudent and auspicious choice, or - in Qur'anic terms - a preference for 'the olive' over 'the fig', these in Surah 95.1 understood by many to symbolise Syria and Palestine, or Damascus and Jerusalem.
4. Sophronius received Umar in full patriarchal robes, whereas Umar presented himself in 'the clouts of battle'. The contrast was eloquent of much else in the event.
5. See, for example, Walter E. Kaegi: Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests, Cambri.dge, 1992. 6 There would certainly be disaster were Jewish Zealots ever to succeed in plotting re-possession of Temple Mount with a viewto Temple re-building. Secularism in Israel would never accede to such defiance of the fates.
6. See George Adam Smith: Jerusalem from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70, London, 1907, Vol. 1, p.3.
7. Seeing that the verses chosen from the Qur'an for its decoration come, in the main, from Surahs 3 and 19 - the long; nativity narratives of Isa, Ibn Maryam al-Masih, the 'style' by which the Jesus of the Christian / Gospels is known in the Qur'an. ·
8. Such widespread, north-south commerce - 'the caravans of the Quraish' (106.1) is a strong tradition, though recent research has thrown doubt on its extent and volume. Certainly Makkan prestige seems to have undergone development under the Prophet's great grandfather in the later decades of the 6th century.
9. On this reading of ummi, see my The Event of the Qur'an, London, 1971, Chaps. 2 and 3.
10. The hunafa (s. hanif) were seekers, or worshippers, of One God in the antecedents of original Islam, apparently cherishing millat-lbrahim, 'the community of Abraham'. Scholars are uncertain about the provenance of the hunafa but they were clearly a formative influence in the sense of mission of Muhammad prior to his 'night of power' in Qur'an-experience.
11. Despite David's being associated with the Zabur (Psalms) named, with Torah, lnjil and Qur'an as the four principal 'books' of Allah. David has the distinction of being the only individual to have the title khalifah in the Qur'an (38.26) in any political sense, it being normally applied to humans at large in their creaturehood, ruling Allah's creation as His 'deputies'.
12. Martin Buber: The Prophetic Faith, trans. C.Witton-Davies, London, 1949, p.207.
13. See the study of Arab options around the tum of the 20th century in Hassan Saab: The Arab.Federalists of the Ottoman Empire, Amsterdam, 1958.
14. The point was neatly captured by K wame Nkrumah, leader of the nationalists in Ghana and architect of its independence from the British, as the first African 'free state' in modem times. He paraphrased the words of Jesus, according to Matthew 6.33, to read: 'Seek ye first the political kingdom and all other things will be added to you'. It might be said to phrase also the logic behind the Hijrah to Madina in 622. See K.Nkrumah: An Autobiography, London, 1957, p.164.
15. Many translated from Greek and Latin by John Mason Neale, and perhaps most notable of all: 'Truly Jerusalem name we that shore, Vision of peace and of joy evermore' 0 Quanta quales.
16. Sadly as its contours are now marred by building, roads and the ugly screes these create on its flanks.
17. This truth is not to overlook that, in Muslim lore, how Makkah is held to be 'the navel of the earth', as is Jerusalem according to Jewish piety. The fact that Makkah is the abode of the Ka'bah and that the Ka'bah has 'the black stone'. fallen from heaven - and 'black' by human sin - does not diminish the fact that the city is also birthplace of the Prophet and Mount Hira the 'cave' of early wahy.
18. See discussion of Tasliyah in C.E.Padwick: Muslim Devotions, Prayer Manuals in Common Use, London, 1961, Oxford, 1995.
19. It is also explicit- in the Christmas Song about 'men of goodwill', meaning: 'Those in whose wills the pleasure is what pleases God', i.e. a harmony of direction and obedience, the crux of 'peace on earth'.
20. On the 'personal', as distinct from the 'tribal', element in the decision oftheMuhajirun, see: M.A.Lahbabi: Le Personalisme Musulmane, Paris, 1964. A Moroccan writer, he sees the Hijrah as a watershed' in religious experience.
21. T.S.Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral, London, 1968 ed. p.48.
22. 1989, Chap. iv, Aqdul Aziz Duri: 'Jerusalem in the Early Islamic Period, 7th-llth Centuries', pp 105-29.
23. K.J.Asali: Jerusalem in History, p. 109.
24. And using the term 'the holy land'. See Surahs 20.12 and 79.16 re the valley where Moses was told to shed his sandals. The term al-qudus is used only for the 'the Holy Spirit'.
25. Louis Massignon (1883-1962) See: L'Herne: Massignon, Paris, n.d. and Youakim Mubarak: L'lslam et Le Dialogue Islam, and -L'oeuvre de Louis Massignon, both 1972, Beirut, and G.Bassett-Sani: Louis Massignon: Christian Ecumenist, ed. & trans. AH.Cutler, Chiq.go, 1974.
26. We often forget Keturah by whom Abraham had other progeny who do not figure in 'holy seedings'. See Genesis 25. lf. and 1 Chronicles l.32f.
27. An honoured (maybe we could even say a 'chosen') quality belongs · to all identity. The question is - on what does it tum? Jewishness hinges on the ethnic factor of Jewish motherhood. The Christian criterion is - that of 'faith in Christ' incorporating 'community' open to all. We might say that Islamic identity (albeit Millat Ibrahim) is heart-confession of the defining Shahadah which is also open to all who will to make it. These 'chosennesses', with their archaeological and spiritual stakes in the one city have somehow to relativise the communal expression (not the 'theology') of their distinctiveness. Maybe the divine question, so gently phrased: 'Am I not your Lord?' can inspire them to do so.
28. See the study of Arab options around the tum of the 20th century in Hassan Saab: The Arab.Federalists of the Ottoman Empire, Amsterdam, 1958.
29. This truth is not to overlook that, in Muslim lore, how Makkah is held to be 'the navel of the earth', as is Jerusalem according to Jewish piety. The fact that Makkah is the abode of the Ka'bah and that the Ka'bah has 'the black stone'. fallen from heaven - and 'black' by human sin - does not diminish the fact that the city is also birthplace of the Prophet and Mount Hira the 'cave' of early wahy.