Status Quo? The Dome of the Rock was Built for Jews

In final installment of 3-part series on the Temple Mount, we take a look at a lesser-known aspect of the history of the Dome of the Rock.

This article is the third and final installment in a series exploring the "status quo" on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. For Part One click here; for Part Two click here.

Parts I and II of this series have shown that the "status quo" on the Temple Mount is not quite all it's been hyped up to be. It certainly is not an all-out ban on Jewish prayer on the holiest site to the Jewish People – because for hundreds of years, up until possibly 300 years ago, it was frequently used for just that purpose. Jews visited the Mount often and prayed there regularly.

On the other hand, if the "status quo" refers to the arrangements put in place after the Six Day War in 1967, they have long been changed – and to the detriment of Jewish rights there. It is ostensibly illogical to demand retaining the "status quo" to forbid Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, while changing the "status quo" in order to much more severely restrict Jewish visitation rights.

In any event, latest research regarding the construction of the Dome of the Rock – the magnificent structure that stands atop the site of the Holy of Holies – shows that it was originally built not for Muslims at all. Rather, it was built for the Jewish People!

We herewith present the sources for this novel concept. The late Rabbi Shlomo Goren, a Temple Mount expert and Chief Rabbi of the IDF and later of Israel, wrote in his classic work "The Temple Mount" (Ha'Idra Rabba Publications, Jerusalem, 2005, 2nd ed., p. 327) as follows:

the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, In both its construction style and layout, corresponds to a Byzantine-Syrian church with Romanstyle pillars and a cupola, the latter of which represents an element that is typical of Roman-Byzantine stately buildings.

The innermost area is largely preserved in its original state, especially the 240-meterlong inscription band that wraps twice around the Octagon. The script band in the Dome of the Rock with the Kufic inscription of Abd al-Malik. The mosaics are of typical Roman-Byzantine style, but they are arranged forming Persian motifs Transcript of the script-band (excerpt). The script is older than any know Qur’an. According to modern sciences the content is that of an Arab - Christian monotheistic faith

Traditionally, these inscriptions, attributed to Malik, the builder of the dome, are read in a way that echoes basic Islamic ideas, despite the fact that even just a quick-but-unbiased look at them would have to raise red flags about this approach. Apparently, for the longest time, nobody bothered to take an unbiased look—until linguist Christoph Luxenberg came along. He translated the inscriptions by reading them in the language that was used at that time—and triggered off a tsunami in the field of Islamic research. By applying the language of Syro-Aramaic that was used by the writer of the inscription, he brought to light interpretations of key messages that differed from the traditional Islamic translations.

The traditional translation of the inscriptions is:

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. There is no god but God alone, He has no associate. Unto Him alone belongs the sovereignty and unto Him belongs the praise. He quickens and He gives death. He has power over all things. Muhamad the son of Abd Allah, is his messenger. God and his angels shower blessings on the Prophet. You believers, ask for blessings on him and salute him worthily. Blessings and peace may be upon him and may God have mercy with him. You people of the Book, do not exaggerate in your beliefs and speak only the truth about God. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was only a messenger of
God and his word which he conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from him. So believe in God and His messenger, and say not “Three.” Cease it. It is better for you. God is only One God. His transcendent majesty needs no son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth, and God is sufficient as protector. The Messiah is not too proud to be a servant of God, nor are the devoted angels. The one who is in high spirits and too proud, He will rally round Him. God, bless Your messenger and Your servant Jesus, son of Mary. May peace be on him the day he was born, the day he dies, and the day of his resurrection. Such is Jesus, the son of Mary, that is the truth which you doubt. It befitted not the Majesty of God to spawn a son, Praise Him. When He decrees a thing He says to Him only: Be. And it is. God is my Lord and your Lord. So serve Him. That is the rightful path. God witnessed that there is no God but God. And the angels and the learned ones are witnesses to that, too. He provides justice. He is the only almighty and wise God. See, the religion of Allah is Islam. And the ones who have received the Book became disunited by disobedience after knowledge had come to them. And those who deny the signs of God, God is swift at reckoning

In great detail, Luxenberg provides evidence that muhamad is a gerund and could, under no circumstance, be understood as a name—it would be a grammatical impossibility. Historians of other fields have also supported the idea that the name “Muhamad” would be a semantic impracticality, as this name has been shown to have never existed at any time before the birth of Islam. Numerous findings on coins corroborate that this term represented a title but not a name. (Again, the same applies to the expression abd Allah—“God’s servant.” It was an attribute, but it was no name at that time.)

Luxenberg: “The Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, is the messenger of God.” Here, according to Luxenberg, the traditional Islamic translation of the inscription contains something else—an intentional error. The reading of sentence, “The Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, was only a messenger of God” cannot be explained merely as the result of the interpreter having read it incorrectly. It is an obvious and unjustifiable manipulation. And the following passage in the inscription is of particular interest: So believe in God and His messenger, and say not “Three”…God is only One God. His transcendent majesty needs no son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth… Here, the builder of the Dome of the Rock and the author of the inscription, Malik, states that he opposes the idea of the Holy Trinity (“Three”), which is why he considers Jesus as the messenger of God but not as God’s son. The second key passage in the Dome of the Rock’s inscription is represented by the following remark which, in its original form, says: “in(na) d-din(a) llah(i) l-islam…” Traditional translation: “See, the religion of Allah is Islam…”

Din is interpreted as the term “religion,” and “Islam” is referred to as the name of this religion. To Luxenberg and many others, this is a typical misinterpretation that was produced during later centuries. By both its form and meaning, the Arabic din is derived from the Persian den. The meaning of the term den/din at that time corresponded to “the truthful, the rightful” but does not relate to the Latin religio, the religion. While the term religio denotes a formal relationship with God, the term din refers to the spiritual component which enables one to do the right thing, including recognizing the rightful religion. Hence, the relationship of the words is not that the term din means the word religion but rather that religion represents the consequence of the din.

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The dome of the rock was NOT built for what we today call "Islam" nor was it built for what we know as rabbinical Judaism. It was built for a particular religious group that was between Rabbinical Judaism and Jewish Judaism.

Namely that it considered Jesus a great prophet - or even an "adopted son" and that's noted in the text

"Muhammed" i.e. the one to be praised was a term like Chrestos/Christ - and meant for Jesus

In my opinion what happened was:

The 130 year war between the Sassanids and the Romans collapsed their economies in 630 AD
The Romans retreated to the northern border of Syria as they could not maintain the forces in the south while fighting off the Avars in the Balkans
The Sassanid Persians collapsed after Heraclius crushed them and burnt their capital
The Arabs who were vassals of the two superpowers (the Ghassanid and Lakhmid tribes) just moved in and took over
Their belief was mainly Jewish, but with Jesus as a prophet
But then these were replaced by the Marwanid branch of the Ummayads in the 680s AD, they took the term "Muhammad" and made it into a "person" based on mythology and stories of Arab warlords
This expanded under the Abbasids who merged this with Zoroastrian strict dualism - most likely with Zurvanism
This mish-mash became the religion of Islam around the 10th century

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