Al-Azhar Document on Al-Quds al-Shareef (Jerusalem)

  • | Wednesday, 10 January, 2018
Al-Azhar Document on Al-Quds al-Shareef (Jerusalem)

     As the pace of Zionist Judaization of Jerusalem accelerates; Zionist attacks on Islamic sanctities, including the blessed mosque of al-Aqsa in Al-Haram Al-Sharif (Temple Mount) are increasing. Additionally, Zionist construction projects are also threatening the landmarks of Al-Haram Al-Sharif including the recent Jerusalem railway project. Hence, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the beacon of knowledge for all Muslims, guardian of the nation, and advocate for its just causes declares the following:

First: The Arabic identity of Jerusalem runs deep into its history since over sixty centuries. Jerusalem was built by the Arab Jebusites in the fourth millennium BC, twenty-one centuries before the time of Ibrahim (Peace be upon him), father of the prophets, and twenty-seven centuries before the advent of Judaism and the Law of Moses (Peace be upon him).

Second: Both the law and the Torah of Moses (peace be upon him) appeared in Egypt, where the ancient hieroglyphic Egyptian language was spoken. They appeared before the entry of the Israelites as invaders to the land of Canaan and more than a hundred years before the crystallization of Hebrew. Thus, both Judaism and Hebrew language have nothing to do with Jerusalem and Palestine.

Third: The Hebrew presence in Jerusalem did not exceed 415 years thereafter. Their presence was temporary and extraneous; during the times of David and Solomon (may peace be upon them). It occurred 30 centuries after the Arabic Jerusalem was established.

Fourth: The history of Jerusalem had witnessed many invasions and invaders who worked to monopolize the city for their own benefit and claimed the city as their own. Invaders like the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and Crusaders, thus the Zionists of today are no different in this respect as they attempt to Judaize and monopolize the city and put an end to the Arabic presence in Jerusalem.

Contrary to the behaviors of these invading forces, when Islam came to Jerusalem it recognized all religions and sects. It maintained respect for all of Jerusalem's sanctuaries and it confirmed its holiness. Henceforth, the Arabic authority over Jerusalem is in the best interest of all and under the watch of the Arabs, Jerusalem’s doors are always kept open to all of Allah's creation and His servants.

Fifth: Monopolization and Judaization of Jerusalem during this contemporary attack is considered a crime and a complete violation of international human rights and laws. Laws which prohibit and criminalize any alteration of the land, people, and identity in these occupied territories. Therefore, Judaization of Jerusalem lacks legal legitimacy and its justifications are in contradiction with the historical facts that confirm Jerusalem's Arabic identity, being built by the Jebusite Arabs over 60 centuries ago.

Sixth: Rejecting and condemning these projects, Al-Azhar, supported by all Muslims in the East and West, warns the Zionist entity and the powers that support it against the implications of their behavior that threaten regional and global peace. Al-Azhar reminds the Zionist entity and those who support it, that the progression of time once saved Jerusalem from occupying Crusaders who had controlled a larger territory than the Zionists do today and for a longer period of time and it reminds them that the nature of history is that it always brings all occupations to an end and it eliminates all effects of aggression of those who violate rights and holy sanctuaries.

In their attempt to judaize Jerusalem, the Zionists, in reliance on the brute Western imperialist powers, are risking the future of the Jews themselves by overstepping the limits of the Muslim nation whose population is about a quarter of humanity, who are able to, one day soon, restore their usurped rights by force.

Jerusalem is not just an ordinary occupied land. Rather, it is an Islamic and Christian sanctuary. Its cause is not only a Palestinian or Arab national cause but above all an Islamic ideological one. When Muslims struggle to liberate it from Zionist usurpation, they only aim to confirm its sanctity. As such, people of all faiths should be encouraged to share the notion that it must be freed from the Israeli monopoly and Zionist Judaization.

Al-Azhar Al-Sharif urges all free peoples worldwide to support the Arab right to free Jerusalem and Palestine. It urges all rational Jews to take lessons from history, which bears witness that throughout time the Jewish peoples suffered persecution from all, but never in Muslim territories.

Al-Azhar reiterates that judaization of Jerusalem and aggression on the characters of Al-Haram Al-Sharif, form a red line. It is the introduction to the end of the Zionist entity in the Palestinian territories. The key to free Jerusalem has already been identified by Saladin in a letter he wrote to the Crusader King Richard the Lionheart: "Do not think that we will ever give up on Jerusalem. As a Muslim people, we cannot abandon our rights there. Allah will not enable you to erect a single stone on this land as long as Jihad persists."

History proved Saladin's words to be true and all rational people acknowledge that history repeats itself."Allah always prevails in whatever be His purpose: but most people know it not" (the Quran, 12:21). "Those who have oppressed are going to know what (kind of) return they will face" (the Quran 26:227)

Mashyakhat Al-Azhar
Dhu al-Hijjah 24, 1432 AH/November 20, 2011

Ahmad Al-Tayyeb
The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar

 

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