50 Virtues of Masjid al-Aqsa Every Muslim Should Know

All praise is for Allāh, and salutations and peace be upon the Messenger of Allāh, upon his family, companions, and whoever follows his guidance.

Al-Masjid al-Aqsa is one of the most significant sites of Islām on the face of this Earth with some of its merits unique to it alone. The Qur’ān and Ḥadīth are replete with its virtues; scholars have dedicated their lives to expounding on its virtues in thousands of collections and works in particular during times of besiegement when evil occupiers and tyrants clutch its precincts. It is in times such as these that the need for al-Aqsa’s liberation becomes paramount. However, it must be known that liberation requires sacrifice and sacrifice can only be given through internalisation of a thing’s worth. Below are 50 such virtues derived from the Qur’ān and authentic Sunnah.

Read them, internalise them, be creative and disseminate them, etching them into hearts and minds.

1. Masjid al-Aqsa was so named due to its great distance from Masjid al-Harām. There existed no masjid before Masjid al-Harām.[1]
2. Masjid al-Aqsa is the Blessed House (Muqaddas), just as Masjid al-Harām is the Old House (ʿAtīq).
3. Masjid al-Aqsa was the second masjid placed on Earth.[2]
4. Masjid al-Aqsa was founded on the place where many Prophets lived.
5. Masjid al-Aqsa was built by Ādam (ʿalayhi al-Salām) or his sons or the angels,[3] and according to some by Yaʿqūb (ʿalayhi al-Salām).[4]
6. Masjid al-Aqsa is where Ibrahīm (ʿalayhi al-Salām) migrated to.[5]
7. Masjid al-Aqsa was renovated by Dāwūd and Sulaymān (ʿalayhimā al-Salām).[6]
8. Masjid al-Aqsa is where all the Prophets of Allāh gathered and were led in prayer by the Prophet Muḥammad (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam).[7]
9. Masjid al-Aqsa is the first of the two prayer directions (Qibla) the Muslims faced towards, until 16 months after the prophetic hijra.[8]
10. The only occasion the sun’s course was halted was when Yūshaʿ (Joshua), son of Nūn (ʿalayhi al-Salām), liberated Jerusalem and opened Masjid al-Aqsa.[9]
11. Masjid al-Aqsa is where the majority of the Prophets (ʿalayhim al-Salām) resided, and from where they will be resurrected.
12. Masjid al-Aqsa is from where many of the Prophets and Messengers (ʿalayhim al-Salām) called towards the Oneness of Allāh.
13. Masjid al-Aqsa is where the Prophets longed to be buried.[10]
14. Masjid al-Aqsa is to where the Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) travelled from Masjid Al-Haram during the Night Journey.[11]
15. Masjid al-Aqsa is from where the Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) ascended to the heavens.[12]
16. Masjid al-Aqsa is tied to Makkah both by the theological link of the night journey and by holding the status of Qibla of Islām at one time or another.
17. The liberation of Masjid al-Aqsa was prophesied by the Messenger (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam).[13]
18. Masjid al-Aqsa was a place of importance for the Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) to which he would order people to ‘go and pray’.
19. Masjid al-Aqsa is where a single prayer is multiplied in reward.
20. Masjid al-Aqsa is the third Masjid that great effort should be exerted to travel to.
21. The hope exists that a prayer in Masjid al-Aqsa will wipe away all of a person’s sins, leaving them like the day they were born.[14]
22. Masjid al-Aqsa and its surrounding land has been blessed by Allāh.[15]
23. Masjid al-Aqsa was opened to Islām by ʿUmar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhu) 15 years after Hijrah.[16]
24. Masjid al-Aqsa was rebuilt by the Ummayad Caliph ʿAbdul Malik b. Marwān and his sons almost 70 years after Hijrah.
25. Masjid al-Aqsa was liberated from the crusaders by Salāh al-Dīn al-Ayūbi 583 after Hijrah.
26. Masjid al-Aqsa is a Muslim outpost (a place of Ribāt) from amongst other outposts of Islām.[17]
27. Masjid al-Aqsa and the wellbeing of its people are indicative of the wellbeing of the Ummah.[18]
28. Masjid al-Aqsa is where the victorious group of Muslims are located.[19][20]
29. Masjid al-Aqsa is the place where believers gather at the onset of trials.[21]
30. Masjid al-Aqsa hosts those through whom Allāh punishes whomsoever He Wills.[22]
31. Masjid al-Aqsa is where the rightly guided Caliph will appear at the end of times.[23]
32. Masjid al-Aqsa contains the rock upon which the angel will blow the trumpet, signalling the Day of Judgement.[24]
33. Masjid al-Aqsa is the land people will gather on and emerge from on the Day of Judgement.[25]
34. Masjid al-Aqsa is the site by which Allāh took an oath in the Qur’ān.[26]
35. Masjid al-Aqsa is the finest of the lands that Allāh in which He allows the finest of His servants to settle.[27]
36. Masjid al-Aqsa is to where the Sunnah encouraged people to migrate and settle.[28]
37. Masjid al-Aqsa hosts those who will remain firm in faith when the trials of the end of times occur.[29]
38. Masjid al-Aqsa is the place Allāh promised to protect along with its people.[30]
39. Masjid al-Aqsa is one of the three Masājid that one can seclude oneself in worship (I’tikāf).[31]
40. Masjid al-Aqsa will not be entered by the false Messiah (al-Masīḥ al-Dajjāl).[32]
41. Masjid al-Aqsa is where ʿĪsā (ʿalayhi al-Salām) and the believers will take refuge at the end of times.[33]
42. Masjid al-Aqsa and its mere sight at the end of times will be better than the world and all that is in it.[34]
43. The wings of Allāh’s angels are spread over Masjid al-Aqsa.[35]
44. Masjid al-Aqsa is where the pillar of the Qur’ān resides (its carriers and those who act in its accordance).[36]
45. Masjid al-Aqsa is a beacon of knowledge and scholars.[37]
46. Masjid al-Aqsa is the land that will remain built when other lands are destroyed at the end of times.[38]
47. Masjid al-Aqsa has an area of 144,000 square meters and it includes everything surrounded by its outer wall.
48. Every hand span of Masjid al-Aqsa has either had a Prophet pray or an angel stand on it.[39]
49. Masjid al-Aqsa is blessed but is not considered a ‘Haram‘, meaning hunting and cutting trees there is not prohibited unlike the other two Harams in Makkah and Madīnah.
50. Masjid al-Aqsa is from where the blessing of the Shām (the Levant) emanates. The virtue of Shām only comes from its tie to al-Aqsa. Any virtue of Shām is by necessity also a virtue of Jerusalem.

Is Masjid al-Aqsa, then, not worth our care and attention? Masjid al-Aqsa will be liberated by those whose hearts are full of Īmān in the Oneness of Allāh; those who worship the Lord of Slaves – depending and fearing not on another soul or being. It will be liberated by those who kneel and prostrate to the Mighty and Praised One; a united body of Muslims under the Word of Allāh who seek to make it the highest Word. The creedal virtue of Masjid al-Aqsa means it transcends borders and nationalities, thus it will not be liberated by slogans, nationalism, partisanship, or disunity.

“…help comes from no one but Allāh, the Almighty, the All-Wise.”[40]

Source: https://www.islam21c.com