Why I Discuss Baitul Maqdis When My Original Study Is About Masjidil Aqsa

Series: The Incident of Quraysh Questioning the Prophet About Baitul Maqdis

The Original Position of My Study

This is where I see one aspect that must be explained with great care. My personal research position all this time has been about Masjidil Aqsa, namely that the Masjidil Aqsa referred to in Surah al-Isra’ needs to be re-examined, including the possibility that it is located in Lembah Bujang, Kedah, Malaysia.

I have never made my main position “Baitul Maqdis is located in Lembah Bujang”. That was not the original structure of my study. My original focus was Masjidil Aqsa.

Why This Confusion of Terms Happens

However, in the general understanding of society, the terms Baitul Maqdis and Masjidil Aqsa have long been mixed together. Many people read both as though they refer to one and the same place, without distinguishing the term, the function, or the context of the narration.

That is why when I present my personal study about Masjidil Aqsa in Lembah Bujang, the questions that arise from readers often shift toward Baitul Maqdis. They ask as though I am saying that Baitul Maqdis is also located in Lembah Bujang. This is where the confusion begins. They understand my writing through the old meaning that has become deeply rooted in their minds, then they equate Masjidil Aqsa with Baitul Maqdis, and Baitul Maqdis with Masjidil Aqsa.

Why I Still Discuss Baitul Maqdis

So this small series is not written to change the original focus of my study from Masjidil Aqsa to Baitul Maqdis. This series is written to answer the confusion that arises from the mixing of these terms. When people ask about the appearance of Baitul Maqdis in the hadith of Isra’, I need to return to the narrations that do indeed mention Baitul Maqdis. Not because I want to force a new conclusion, but because that question has already arisen from readers’ misunderstanding of the term.

Although this is a challenge, I accept it positively. If Prophet Muhammad SAW himself was once tested by Quraysh about Baitul Maqdis after the event of Isra’, then the question of the appearance and features of Baitul Maqdis does indeed exist in the narrations. So this is not a new situation in the modern age. It was already a subject of questioning from the very beginning.

Of course, I am not comparing myself with the Prophet SAW. Far from it. However, in terms of the form of the question, there is a similarity in the type of question that arises. The Prophet SAW stated that he had been taken on a night journey to Baitul Maqdis, so Quraysh asked about its signs. Today, when I write a study about Masjidil Aqsa and people equate that term with Baitul Maqdis, they too ask a similar question: “If that is true, what does it look like? Where are its features? What is the evidence?”

Distinguishing the Question of Masjidil Aqsa and Baitul Maqdis

That question deserves to be answered, but the answer must be placed in its proper position. If the question is about Masjidil Aqsa, then it must be discussed through the verse of the Qur’an that mentions Masjidil Aqsa. If the question is about Baitul Maqdis in the hadith of Isra’, then it must be discussed through the narrations that mention Baitul Maqdis. These two terms cannot be easily mixed together merely because society has become accustomed to equating them.

This matter becomes even more important when we look at the setting of the incident itself. When the Prophet SAW informed Quraysh about his night journey, the mosque as an institution of the Muslim ummah after the Hijrah had not yet taken shape as it later did in Quba’ and Madinah. Masjid Quba’ had not yet been built. Masjid Nabawi had also not been built because the Hijrah had not yet occurred. Therefore, do not read Quraysh’s questioning through the framework of the Muslim mosque after the Hijrah.

This does not mean Quraysh did not know sacred places. They knew the Ka‘bah, the Sacred Land, worship, long-distance travel and honoured places. However, in the narrations of the questioning after the incident of Isra’, the wording that appears is Baitul Maqdis. That is why we must be careful. The Qur’an records the incident of Isra’ with the wording al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whereas the hadiths of Quraysh’s questioning use the wording Baitul Maqdis.

The problem is that when we return to the sahih hadiths that narrate the incident of Quraysh questioning the Prophet SAW about Baitul Maqdis, those hadiths themselves do not preserve a complete list of the features of Baitul Maqdis that he mentioned to them. The hadiths only state that he informed them about its signs, while those signs are not detailed one by one in the sahih narrations that have reached us.

My Method in Answering This Confusion

So my challenge as an independent researcher and writer is not merely to answer readers’ questions. My challenge comes even earlier than that, which is to first separate the terms that have become mixed in the understanding of many people. Only after that can we search again to see where, in other narrations, there may be a longer conversation, a witness who had seen Baitul Maqdis, a trade caravan that became a subject of verification, or additional information that may help us understand this issue in a more orderly way.

I also cannot write merely by referring to lecture videos, short clips of religious talks, or verbal claims alone. If this matter is to be built even as a personal study, then it must be searched through narrations, the wording of hadith, sanad, matan, and sources that can be checked again.

That is why this section cannot be read in haste. We are not looking for an easy answer. We are re-examining the hadiths, wording by wording, to see what information has truly reached us about Baitul Maqdis. What exists in the hadith, we take. What is not there, we cannot invent. What has not yet been found, we search for in other narrations that are longer.

That is why these writings need to be read calmly. The original focus of my study is Masjidil Aqsa. This discussion of Baitul Maqdis arises because readers often mix the two terms together. So our task in this series is to clarify that confusion, not to add a new confusion. What the hadith says about Baitul Maqdis, we examine. What the Qur’an says about Masjidil Aqsa, we place in its proper position. What is not mentioned by any text, we cannot add by assumption.