Today’s The World Around Us will be presented in Arabic and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai and Spanish.

Faithful viewers, welcome to The World Around Us on Supreme Master Television. Jerusalem is the holy city for three of the world’s religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Noble Sanctuary or the Haram esh-Sharif in Arabic, which is also well known as the Temple Mount, is one of most sacred sites in the city.

To Jews, it is the holiest place where the great Temple of Jerusalem stood; to Christians, it was blessed by the presence of Lord Jesus. For Muslims, the Noble Sanctuary was the destination of Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, during the Night Journey and the place of His Ascension to Heaven.

There are about 40 historic structures on the Noble Sanctuary. The Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque are perhaps the two most famous and significant landmarks. Standing at the heart of the Noble Sanctuary, the Dome of the Rock, the holy shrine of pilgrimage, probably is the most famous Islamic site in Jerusalem, as well as one of the oldest Muslim monuments of the world. The golden colored dome appears as a shining crown of Jerusalem and is visible from everywhere in the city.

Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ordered the construction of the dome, which was completed in 691 AD. The colorful tiles and white marbles adore the exterior walls. Inside the building is the sacred rock. Besides being seen as the location that the Prophet ascended to Heaven, it is respected by Muslims and Jews for being assumed as the original location of Solomon’s temple.

Some years after the Dome of the Rock was built, Abd al-Malik started to build the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The construction was continued by his son Al-Walid, who completed the work around 705. Throughout its history, the mosque has been rebuilt and restored many times. The present structure of the mosque is mainly formed by the reconstruction by Caliph Al-Dhahir in 1033. It is believed that Al-Dhahir’s construction followed the previous plan except to narrow it.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque stands on the south end of the Noble Sanctuary. Its north side is directly facing the Dome of the Rock. The mosque is oriented in north and south alignment. Compared to the colorful and glorious appearance of the Dome of Rock, The mosque’s exterior is rather plain than being elaborately decorated. To do this, its construction emphasizes more on its spiritual purpose, which is to pray, meditate and study the enlightening Islamic teachings within the building.

Inside the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque, the spacious main hall is separated into seven parts by parallel columns. Extra smaller pray halls are located at the southern section of the building. Unusual to most mosques, Al-Aqsa doesn’t have a courtyard; instead, the whole platform of the Noble Sanctuary is often seen as its courtyard.

The halls of the mosque accommodate 5,000 worshippers. On a feast day, such as the celebration of Ramadan, the mosque will be overflowing with more than 400,000 faithful pious Muslims, so most of them will gather around the mosque on the platform.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a center of worship and learning for many hundreds of years. In history, Many Muslims had traveled far to visit this sacred site to worship, and stayed for study, teaching and retreat. In the late 11th century, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, the distinguished theologian, mystic, and scholar, came to the Noble Sanctuary, retreated here, and started his great work “Ihaya” or “Revival of Religious Sciences.”

In the Muslim world, for many hundreds of years, this famous spiritual work has been one of the most often read after the holy Qur’an. His profound influence on medieval philosophy crossed the boundaries between religions and nations.

The place where Abu Hamid al-Ghazali exactly lived when he taught at the Al-Aqsa Mosque is believed to be above the Golden Gate or Bab al-Dhahabi. The gate includes two portals, Bab al-Tawba, or the Gate of Repentance on the north side, and Bab al-Rahma, or the Gate of Mercy, on the right side. The Golden Gate has been a significant place for Jews, Christian, and Muslims.

Some of them believe Jesus Christ will return by coming through this gate. Considered the most important and the oldest gate of the holy city of Jerusalem, it is the only visible entrance to the city from the east. Some of the stones in its wall date to the sixth century BC.

Next we’ll travel to another part of Palestine to visit the sacred Shrine of Moses, Maqam Al-Nabi Musa, when we return. Please stay tuned with Supreme Master Television.

Thank you for joining us again on The World Around Us. Now, let’s visit Maqam Al-Nabi Musa. This site is the holy shrine of the great prophet named Moses.

The city of Jericho is located 30 kilometers east of Jerusalem. Archeological findings show that Jericho’s history can be traced back to 10,000 years ago. As one of the oldest city on Earth, it has been called the Garden of God. There are a great number of historical sites within the city’s territory, such as the River Jordan, baptism place of Jesus Christ, the Mount of Temptation, and the sacred Maqam Al- Nabi Musa.

According to the local Palestinian folklore, the site of Maqam Al-Nabi Musa, or the shrine of Prophet Moses, is the burial place of Moses.

This holy site is in the Judean Desert and located eight kilometers south west of Jericho City, and 28 kilometers to the east of Jerusalem. The complex of tall buildings and giant domes is a famous splendid example of Islamic architecture. It includes the mosque, minaret, and more than 120 rooms for pilgrims. Mamluk Sultan Al Thaher Baybars built the shrine in 1269 AD. Later it went through some extension and restoration.

In this place we will see the shrine and the mosque and some chambers. Now this is the main entrance. This is the main entrance to the shrine. Now, we come here to the main yard.

In this yard we have two wells. The first one is here, we can see, and they have constructed it. And the second one is here.

As you see the shrine here, the place consists of many rooms. These ones are very old. They have not yet restored it. We can see the old stones and the bricks. Here also we have another room.

We can see also here this room, we can see like arc, all of these room have semicircular walls.

The mosque with a mihrab (niche) pointing in the direction of Mecca is standing on the western end of the courtyard. Inside, two separated prayer halls are for men and women respectively.

They have resurrected it and decorated for tourists to enjoy it. And by the way, there are many tourists. Now here we have another room, the Mahrab. As you see here, we have the Mahrab and two semicircular windows. This place was used they used to pray here. The five prayers during the day and the imam prayed in front of them.

For many years, during the week of Easter, Palestinian Muslims celebrated a seven-day festival at Maqam Al Nabi Musa. In the 12th century, to show his goodwill, Sultan Saladin approved of pilgrims visiting the Christian holy places during Easter time. Since then, over the 19th century, Muslims would travel to participate in the gathering in Jerusalem on Good Friday. They would pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque, then join in a procession of thousands of Muslims, and walk towards the holy Maqam Al Nabi Musa.

We are now in the second part of the shrine. Here is the eastern gate of the shrine. We see how it is very old with its wall. The wall also very old.

Now we are on the other part of the shrine. This is the first room we want to see. It is very old.

This room, as other many rooms in the shrine were used by Muslims for religious purposes and learning here. They were reciting the Qur'an and the al Hadith al Nabawi and even religious poems here in these rooms. And we can see how it is constructed and is very nice. It, in the summer, is very cold. We can see here the arch.

Here in this room, it's very old. It is used as a store for seeds and for food. Its walls are very thick as you see. And we have above the door, a window, a small window. They were very artistic in the creating and building rooms.

Okay, we are now in the yard of the mosque. Here is a school. Here is the school, two floors. It is believed that children were taking lessons about religion and other things in the school. Many people nowadays come here and celebrate. We have festivals. We have lights, we see the lights here. We see the lights especially during Ramadan. They come here and celebrate because you know, it's one of the traditional and of the ritual Islamic periods. We have also a well here.

On the wall of the shrine of Prophet Moses, there is an inscription that reads: “The construction of this Maqam over the burial site of the Prophet who spoke to God, Moses, is ordered by His Majesty Sultan Sultan Al Thaher Baybars, in year 668 Hijri (1269-1270).” The Prophet Moses’ tomb is in a small chamber with a green cloth laid over it.

This is considered one of the most holy and important mosques in Palestine. A lot of people come here. They pray here and see the holiness of the place. Inside the mosque, there is a shrine of the prophet. We can see it from the window. This is the shrine of the Prophet Moses. It's very holy. When you enter, you have to take off your shoes and to behave in a modest way and in a polite way.

This is the shrine from here also. On the shrine there are some writings from the Qur'an and the Hadith talking about Moses and his special religious position, because it is believed in the Qur'an that Moses, this [was] the only Prophet who talked with God, when he was in Sinai desert in Egypt. Okay, now we can [enter].

This concludes our visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Shrine of Moses, two sacred sites of Palestine. May they inspire the piety of hearts for generations to come.

Thank you for joining us on The World Around Us. Now, please stay tuned for Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News, here on Supreme Master Television. May your life be graced with divine blessings.

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