It is me who said it for the first time about Al Aqsa
We have declared in 1997, in Cairo, Egypt, that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam and that the real, genuine Farthest Mosque mentioned in the Quranic verse 17:1 is Mount Al-Tur, in Sinai, Egypt.
1- This amazing discovery is first made by our person in 1990 while we have been writing our book titled "Egypt in the Holy Quran" (found in English on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=97). In the introduction of this book, we have tackled the obstacles made by Wahabis and their agents who hated our person and desired not to have this book published in Egypt. The one who stood by our person at the time was the late senior journalist Mr. Abdel-Warith Al-Disouky who managed to surmount all obstacles to have our book published. When we have been writing this book, we researched the mention of Sinai in the Quranic text; our Quranist research findings assert that the Farthest Mosque mentioned in 17:1 is Mount Al-Tur. Significantly, the title of the Quranic Chapter 17 is "The Night-Journey". For more details about the topic of the link between the Night-Journey and Mount Al-Tur, we refer readers to our book titled "The Night-Journey Is The Night of Decree", found in English on this link (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=112). We have consulted references and seminal books of history, and we read that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was never known, and it did not even exist, at the time when Arabs conquered the Levant. In fact, this Jerusalem mosque was built by the Umayyad caliph Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan, whose caliphate capital was Damascus, the main and largest city in the Levantine region, within the circumstances and events of the political struggle between him and his rival, Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubayr, the self-proclaimed 'caliph' in Mecca, in the Hejaz region which he controlled before being defeated by the Umayyads. In fact, we were about to add a chapter, in our book titled "Egypt in the Holy Quran", about Mount Al-Tur as the Farthest Mosque, but what prevented us to do so was the piece of advice of Mr. Al-Disouky who told us not to stir any controversies within out book that may shock readers so that the book would get published by the Cairo-based, state-owned publishing house; i.e., Akhbar Al-Yom Press. Our book titled "Egypt in the Holy Quran" got published eventually, after omitting this chapter, and after so many struggles whose news have been mentioned by some newspapers at the time.
2- We felt pricks of conscience as a researcher, because we must never conceal our Quranist research findings; it is a great honor to our homeland, Egypt, to announce everywhere the fact that Mount Al-Tur of Sinai is where Muhammad was transported miraculously through the Night-Journey from the Sacred Kaaba Mosque, in Mecca, to meet with Gabriel to receive the Quran, in the same location where Moses received the Torah. Mount Al-Tur of Sinai must come to the foreground after long centuries of oblivion and obscurity.
3- We used to head and manage the Cairo-based Ibn-Khaldoun Center's weekly forum that went on every Tuesday from Jan. the 1st, 1996, to June 30th, 2000; i.e., until the Ibn Khaldoun Center closed down by the Mubarak regime. This weekly forum used to discuss new topics within (1) the Arab-Israeli conflict, (2) the conflict over power between the Mubarak regime and the terrorist MB group, (3) democratic transition, (4) minorities in Egypt, and (5) unspoken-of topics related to politics and religion. Many of the topics of this weekly forum have been introduced by ourselves; thus, we have had the chance to discuss the topic of the true location of the Farthest Mosque in a forum titled "The Farthest Mosque Is in Sinai and Not in Jerusalem". These forums in general had many attendees and drew the attention of the Egyptian media; among the attendees were journalists and cultural elite members as well as representatives of many different political trends, from the terrorist MB to Marxists and from Sunnites to Shiites. The forums whose topics were chosen by ourselves, and within which we delivered the speech that would be discussed, used to be covered by the Egyptian media and this caused the agents of Wahabism who hated us, as a Quranist thinker, to seize the chance to slander, attack, and verbally abuse our person. We used to take delight in their attacking our person in their writings, because they unwittingly helped us to spread our ideas (though with some distortions on their part) and to make people get to know about Quranism, though the Wahabis leveled many accusations against our person, such as betraying Egypt and Islam, being and apostate/heretic, and being an agent of the West who ardently seeks to undermine Islam.
4- Within the forum held in 1997 about the Farthest Mosque, we have proven, using the Quran, that Mount Al-Tur of Sinai is the Farthest Mosque mentioned in 17:1. We have proven, using history books, that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is indeed a harmful mosque; this is because its very existence and the myths narrated about it are undermining Islam and are very insulting to it. We have asserted that the so-called Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is indeed a mere fraud used by rulers and politicians who mix politics with religion – or rather with religious mythology – and that it is built on the site of the ruins of the temple ascribed to Solomon, and this means that this mosque is related to the Israelites and not to Muslims. Some of the attendees of the forum remained flabbergasted and speechless; we have assumed that they remained for a longer while as such, even after the forum ended! Others tried to 'refute' our Quranist findings in an angry, emotional manner, away from knowledge and reason, as their religious sensibilities were offended. The prevalent view of such furious men was that they must consult Al-Azhar sheikhs and clergymen regarding this topic. Some other men mentioned the fact that our person is more knowledgeable than anyone among the Azharite scholars, who typically declare any reformers and thinkers as apostates/heretics and enlist the help of the Egyptian State Security Apparatus men to persecute thinkers so that those Azharite ignoramuses would hide their inability to think and their lack of knowledge.
5- As expected by us, many newspapers at the time included articles attacking, slandering, and verbally abusing our person, written by journalists bribed by the Saudi embassy in Cairo. Among these newspapers is the state-owned newspaper "Aqidaty" (literally in Arabic, my faith), whose journalists were agents of Wahabism and the terrorist MB group, though the publishing house that issues such a newspaper was state-owned and it issues other newspapers and publications, chief among them is Al-Gomhouriya newspaper.
6- We quote below one page of a reportage published by "Aqidaty" to level accusations against our person, such as: being an agent of Israel, an enemy who betrayed Egypt, and an agent who ardently seeks to undermine Islam. Thus, the Wahabi agents sought to make the Mubarak regime persecute and intimidate us.
7- This one-page extract from the newspaper is from the issue dated Tuesday, 17th of Shawwal, 1417 A.H., Feb. the 25th, 1997 A.D.
The Headlines: (Casting Doubt on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Serves the Purposes of Who?!/ A Suspicious Center Holds A Forum Headed by A Former Professor Fired from Al-Azhar University to Serve Israel and Zionism/ Dr. Saad Zallam: These Agents Are Devils to Be Rejected/ Dr. Ahmad Shalaby: Jerusalem Is An Arab City And Al-Aqsa Mosque Was Built by Early Muslims/ Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League: Casting Doubt on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Is Deemed High Treason/ Ambassador M. Subeih: No Reasonable Person Would Announce Such Myths and Illusions/ A Reportage by Moussa Hal and Tariq Abdullah).
The Reportage: ( A third column is lurking inside Egypt and working diligently day and night to undermine religious and historical fundamental notions of our Arab and Muslim nation, and such agents are paid and bribed by the foreign powers to negatively influence political stances of the State and to undermine Islam itself. At this time in particular, when the Egyptian State fully supports the rights of Palestinians to have their own state with Jerusalem as its capital and stands against the Judaization/Judaification of Jerusalem by its Israeli occupiers, a suspicious center in Cairo, the Ibn Khaldoun Center, has held a forum headed by a suspicious ex-professor who was fired from Al-Azhar University, Ahmed Subhy Mansour, to justify the Israeli practices in Jerusalem and to claim that the Farthest Mosque is Mount Al-Tur of Sinai and not the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Scholars of history and political sciences as well as Palestinians have asserted that what Mansour has tackled is nothing but nonsensical myths and groundless falsehoods based on suspicious motives. Meticulous studies of history that delve deeper into certain issues show that Al-Aqsa Mosque existed before the advent of Islam, and its site has been regarded as a holy spot by Arab Jebusites and Canaanites who lived in ancient Palestine. The king named Maliki Sadif was regarded by his subjects in the Levantine region as a pious monotheist who used to worship God in this holy site in Jerusalem. This site remained a holy place for worship by many generations until Jerusalem was destroyed by the conqueror Nebuchadnezzar, who stole jewels, gold, and silver of this holy site of worship in Jerusalem and moved such spoils to Babylon. Yet, this location remained blessed and holy by other generations as well, and the holy rock there witnessed Prophet Muhammad who stood on it before his ascension to heaven. A known hadith of the Holy Prophet is about never to travel to perform pilgrimage except to three locations deemed as holy sites: the Sacred Kaaba Mosque, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Yathreb Mosque. At the time when the Holy Prophet said so, there was no mosque built in Jerusalem, but the holy site remained the same as early Muslims prostrated to its direction instead of the Kaaba that was surrounded by pagan idols. Hence, how come that there are those imposters who emerge to claim that Al-Aqsa Mosque is not located in the Holy City of Jerusalem and is located in Sinai instead?! History tells us that the Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab conquered Jerusalem to restore the holy site to Arabs, as its rightful owners, and he found that this holy spot was a garbage dumb, and he made his men clean and purify this holy spot so that he would perform prayers inside it. Later on, the Caliph Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan commissioned builders to build the Al-Aqsa Mosque on this holy site and the edifice was completed by his son and successor Al-Waleed Ibn Abdul-Malik. The false claims that Jerusalem has nothing to do with Islam have created angry reactions from all the Palestinian political, religious, and intellectual figures. The Ambassador M. Subeih who represent Palestine in the Arab League and is the Secretary of the Palestinian National Council asserts that there is no reasonable person who would announce such myths and illusions; no real scholar would deny serious academic studies, as Al-Aqsa Mosque is mentioned in the Quran and the Sunna hadiths as well as geography and history books. History of Al-Aqsa Mosque, he adds, is known for many centuries, and the sanctity of it and of Jerusalem is undeniable an irrefutable. The claims of making Al-Aqsa in Sinai negate and disregard real facts of history, religion, and all fields and braches of human knowledge, he adds, and no one must take heed of such nonsensical claims at all, as they serve the purposes of Zionists who aim to Judaize Jerusalem and to disrupt the Islamic Umma and to divide its public opinion. Such claims, he adds, are hostile to both Islam and Christianity and seek to undermine Islam in particular and to cause political unrest inside Palestine. This is very insulting to all Arab nations, and the imposters who spread such claims about Al-Aqsa must be tried in court and punished as they have betrayed their country, their religion, and the Arab nationalist cause. As for the Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League for Palestinian affairs, the Ambassador Saeed Kamal Ameen, he asserts that those imposters who spread such lies are serving their own purposes and seek only their own financial interests, as they are paid and bribed by enemies of Arabs to betray their countries and their religion; at this time in particular when Israel builds many settlements in Jerusalem to Judaize it, he adds, we are hardly surprised to witness the emergence of such inveterate liars who seek to undermine the vital importance of Jerusalem in Islam, thus serving Zionism, and to cast doubt on the unified Arab stance toward the Holy City in order to make Arabs disregard crimes committed by the Israeli occupiers in Jerusalem. No tangible proofs, he adds, could be obtained to support the claim that Al-Aqsa is in Sinai; besides, this claim denies the Quran and Sunna hadiths of the Holy Prophet Muhammad; this is a flagrant crime of apostasy. Samira Abou Ghazala, head of the Cairo-based Palestinian Women's League, asserts that there are those bribed fame-seeking professors who spread lies and falsehoods to distort historical facts to serve the purposes of the Israeli occupiers, and this is hardly regarded as a new phenomenon, as agents of Israel help to convince people of the ongoing Judaization process of Jerusalem and to make Arabs accept the fait accompli later on. This has been done within the times of crusaders when they captured Jerusalem, she adds, as anti-Arab propaganda of the Europeans tried to divest the Holy City of its Arab identity. All claims that undermine the stature of Jerusalem in Islam are to be condemned, she adds, as some cultural elite members are, in fact, bribed to cast doubt on Al-Aqsa Mosque; we must never forget that there are many tombs of Muslim leaders in Jerusalem and that the holy rock inside the Dome of the Rock Mosque is where Muhammad came to ascend to heaven after the Night-Journey. Such facts of Islam are undeniable; yet, some thinkers cast doubt on these facts to gain money by our enemies who pay much money to seek to distort our history and our identity. Those who deny these facts of Islam and of history are acting against their countries and their religion, she adds, and they are traitors who have betrayed Islam; was it not enough that Israel has confiscated a wall of the Holy Aqsa Mosque under the pretext that it is supposedly a part of a former Jewish temple?! She adds finally that those who deny Al-Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem and its stature in Islam are like Satanists and atheists. Dr. Saad Zallam, dean of the Arabic Language Department, Al-Azhar University, asserts that centuries-old facts of history and Islam cannot be refuted or undermined by claims of agents of the West who are bribed to spread lies, falsehoods, and groundless claims to serve political purposes of the enemies of Egypt. Those with dark souls and ulterior motives who lack insight and reasonable mind must not be allowed to express their destructive views that undermine Islam, he adds, because it is a known fact that Al-Aqsa Mosque mentioned in the Quran is in Jerusalem, to which Prophet Muhammad was transported during the Night-Journey, where he prayed and stood on the holy rock before his ascension to heaven.......).
Finally:
We feel sorry that we have only one page from this reportage, which we have found accidentally among our stored documents; yet, this one page is more than enough to show to readers how agents of Wahabism and the agents of the Mubarak regime slandered our person to serve their own purposes.
Signature: Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour
Translated by: Ahmed Fathy