Jerusalem has been the center of world affairs since antiquity. By default, at any time in history, this city remained under the rule of the righteous people. However, there were short times when unlawful people ruled this town. Soon rightful owners would rage historical battles to reclaim this beautiful city, like a hero getting back his hijacked beautiful bride.

Moses and the Amalekites

Since the time of Jacob and his son Joseph, the Israelites left Jerusalem and went to settle in Egypt. Unlawful Amalekites became inhabitants of the city for some time.

Fast forward many years, and we reach the time of Moses. Israelites who were with him saw these giants inside the city and got afraid and refused to take the city back by force albeit Allah’s promise to open the city for them once they march forward.

It has been a divine decree -then and now- that Jerusalem should return to lawful owners who are not afraid of giants and that this recapturing involves struggle and fighting.

Moses could not enter Jerusalem because his followers did not deserve to be the owners of Jerusalem yet. He passed away before enjoying the moment. However, his servant Joshua led a new and better generation of Israelites into the city and successfully opened its gates before the sunset of a Friday after fighting the Amalekites fiercely.

David and Goliath

Fast forward another thousand years. By these times, the Israelites got corrupted, and idol worshiping became widespread and because of that eventually lost the city. At the time of prophet Samuel, Allah sent Saul as a king and savior to lead Israelites to Jerusalem. Again the scenario of Joshua repeats, and only the pious and righteous soldiers with Saul (e.g., David) deserved the honor to get the badge of the opener of this city. Many years later, Solomon renovated Masjid al-Aqsa and employed jinn to this task.

Nebuchadnezzar to Omar

After Solomon, the kingdom of Israelites dismantled and fell under foreign invasion. Notable among them is the siege of Jerusalem in the year 587 BC by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. He plundered the city, destroyed the al-Aqsa and expelled Jews to Babylon. After that, Jerusalem continued to be under the rule of polytheistic religions namely the Greco-Roman system. Christianity was born, and Jesus was there in the city but could not do much as he had no military power as Joshua or David had before. Indeed, Roman emperor Titus plundered the city again in the year 70 AD. Later, around 310 AD, emperor Constantine converted to a new religion that was a hybrid between Greco-Roman polytheism and pure Christianity that Jesus brought.

Sun of Islam rises

The time was ripe for this city to be presented as a beautiful bride to Islam. Bible did mention this wedding ceremony and gave a detailed description of the military leader who would win this bride. It was Caliph Omar. He entered the city without a single bloodshed. Before him, Muhammad - the prophet of Islam- made a miraculous night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, met with the earlier prophet, led them in a prayer in al-Aqsa mosque, went to heaven and returned to Mecca, all in one night.

Omar created from Jerusalem an international Islamic city and well defined the rights of adherents of other faiths. Since then this city entered the best part of its life until Crusaders plundered this city in 1099 AD. In apparent contrast with the way Omar entered the city, the Crusaders committed a kind of massacre that was unheard of at that time.

The road to Hattin

Studying the 88 years between Crusaders entering Jerusalem in 1099 to the year 1187 when Saladin regaining control of the city is a significant undertaking. First to understand why the city fell, and second to realize what made Saladin reclaim it. History repeats itself. The problems of Muslims in 1099 when Crusaders were able to enter Jerusalem must be very similar to their problems in 1948 when Zionists were ready to declare their state in Palestine. Similarly, the type of awakening activities Muslims went through in those 88 years till regaining Jerusalem need to be studied carefully so that it could inspire our current events and inform a roadmap to restore Palestine. Let us not forget that Jerusalem was compromised for 88 years then, more than our current 70 years since 1948.

To make it super short, the critical cause of the decline of Muslims then was the division among themselves. A bunch of hypocrite leaders among the Shiite so-called Fatimid caliphate paved the way for Crusaders to enter Jerusalem. It was the Sunni uprising starting from mosques joined by just rulers like the house of Zinki and later Ayyoubi that brought back glory through the door of Jihad. Our contemporary time is no exception under the consistent patterns of history.

They would say ‘When?’, reply: ‘It could be very near’

Today the Zionists in Palestine achieved whatever they achieved in the past 70 years because of the internal divisions among the Muslims. Add to that: the dismantling of Ottoman caliphate after World War I, and the emergence of hypocrite leaders calling to all sorts of banners (like Arab Nationalism) except the banner of Islam. However, early signs of victory is showing up in the horizon. The popular uprising of Sunni Muslims in the land of Palestine is very encouraging. Mosques there started to get filled up in during Fajr (i.e., early morning) prayers, and the majority are young. I am sure these are panic signals to Tel Aviv. No matter how much the Arab hypocrite Zionists among state leaders do to kill these uprisings, Allah’s plot will win and very soon the oppressors would see themselves the subject of curse and hatred by citizens of their own countries.