Al-Quds: The Place of Jerusalem in Classical Judaic and Islamic Traditions

by Mohammed Abdul Hameed Al-Khateeb

This book is a comparative study of the place of al-Quds (Jerusalem) in the classic Judaic and Islamic traditions. Al-Quds functions as an important holy place and as a central religious symbol within three great religious traditions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the western world the Christian and Jewish sacred histories of Jerusalem are well known but the Islamic sacred history is less well known. By studying al-Quds comparatively with respect to the Judaic and Islamic traditions, the author brings to light the Islamic traditions perspective.

He concludes that only the Muslims have acted as guardians of al-Quds for all mankind irrespective creed, and that only the Muslims are capable of assuming that role again, so that it will be again, as it is meant to be, a City of Peace.

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 1998

Reviews

[Hamza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty good book, though it's not without its flaws. First, the good: the author actually knows his stuff in terms of researching Jewish texts. He clearly points out whether they come from the Bible, Apocrypha, Talmud, etc. instead of simply listing quotes without any background information. All in all, it doesn't come off as a polemic against "The Jews", though it is as critical of them as a religious group as both the Bible and Islamic literature are. The author is quite fair, and he cites a number of texts from both Judeo-Christian sources to make his argument. As far as Muslim authors writing about such a topic go, he actually comes off as intelligent and relatively fair, the latter point being important despite his obvious bias towards Islam.

The problems with this book were not enough to take away from all of the enjoyment of reading it, just some. Firstly, it often deviates from the actual topic of Jerusalem to discuss other topics in more detail than needed. For example, Jerusalem plays a big part in the Isra' the first part of the Prophet's (SAWS) Night Journey, but not the Mi'raj wherein Gabriel (AS) takes him (SAWS) up through the heavens. Despite this obvious fact, the author chooses to reproduce an entire hadith and several more truncated variants about the Mi'raj and which prophets are in each heaven. Yes, it's true that most of them were Hebrew prophets, but this has little to do with Jerusalem. This concept is repeated when the author brings up eschatology: it makes sense for him to discuss things that actually include Jerusalem, but not to compare Jewish, Christian, and Islamic eschatology as a whole! That topic could be kept to its own book!

One other feature that annoyed me was the editor's - not the author's - small asides within the text. There are only about five of these all together, but they often include him recommending the book The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and its Heritage by Arthur Koestler as proof that Ashkenazi Jews are really "Khazars" and therefore undeserving of a claim to Israel. Not only does this citation miss the point, it causes the editor to come off as bigoted and accepting of dubious scholarship in an attempt to legitimize the Palestinian struggle against Israel. This view is completely unneeded not only to make that point but also within the context of this book. It made me cringe each time it came up.

Despite my devoting so much space to the flaws, this book was really well-done for what it is. I would have liked to see less digressions from the stated topic of Jerusalem, and perhaps a longer concluding chapter, but it's still definitely worth a read.

[Zulkifli Khair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep comparative study between Islam and Jewish perspective on al-Quds or Jerusalem.