The little novel of al-Quds: Jerusalem in Islam, by 'Issâ Meyer

Blessed from heaven and honored by the presence of so many beloved men of the One, al-Quds is fundamental to the history, geography and dogma of Islâm , inseparable from the soul of the Ummah and of Muslim identity, inscribed in letters of gold in the hearts and minds of believers. And what about the sacredness, the virtues and the merits of its sublime esplanade of al-Aqsâ, the first qibla of Muslims, second house of Allah on Earth, third holy mosque towards which the believer is invited to travel?

Land of the Prophets, the pious, the truthful and the martyrs, a place of pilgrimage, adoration and closeness to the Divine for all peoples, this sacred metropolis of humanity has almost always occupied a place of choice on the world stage. so much its religious and geopolitical importance made it the ambition of the greatest kings and conquerors of all times. Subject to all the vicissitudes of time, its history has also been inseparable , since time immemorial, from a supreme ideal built on a double foundation that is both spiritual – absolute monotheism – and earthly – justice. It is these fundamental values of piety and righteousness that personified and materialized the greatest rulers known to al-Quds, and which made it, during its golden ages, one of the beacons of the most beautiful virtues, from the era of the prophet-kings of the sons of Israel to that of the rightly guided caliphs, and beyond.

It is therefore an epic of four thousand years of history that this little novel by al-Quds proposes to narrate: from the family of Ibrâhîm to the present day, an extraordinary gallery where, at the bend of the alleys of Jerusalem , Dâwud and Suleymân , Babylon and the Pharaohs, ' Issâ and Rome, ' Umar ibn al-Khattâb and Byzantium, Salâh ad-Dîn and the Crusaders, Ottomans and Mamluks, and many more…