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Asst. Prof. Ahmet Hüsrev Çelik
The city Al-Quds is ours because of the verse “Exalted is He Who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing.” (The Qur’an, Isra, 17:1)
Al-Quds is ours because of the hadith “Do not set out on a journey (for religious devotion) but for the three mosques: for this mosque of mine (at Medina) the Sacred Mosque (at Mecca), and the Mosque al-Aqsa (Bait al-Maqdis).” 1
Al-Quds was the first qibla of Muslims until the verse below was revealed:
“We have certainly seen the turning of your face, [O Muhammad], toward the heaven, and We will surely turn you to a qiblah with which you will be pleased. So turn your face toward al-Masjid al-Haram. And wherever you [believers] are, turn your faces toward it [in prayer]. Indeed, those who have been given the Scripture well know that it is the truth from their Lord. And Allah is not unaware of what they do.” (The Qur’an, Baqarah, 2:144)
The city of Al-Quds is ours, because “half of our heart is Makka, the other half is Madina, and Al-Quds is like a veil over them.”
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“In 638, the Caliph Umar (ra) went to Al-Quds. Umar was given a tour of the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. When the time for prayer came, he asked for a place to pray. Patrick Sophronius invited Umar to pray inside the Church, but Umar preferred praying outside the Church. The people of Al-Quds asked for an assurance signed by Caliph Umar himself.” 2
Al-Quds is ours. And our Quds has the warrant of Caliph Umar (ra):
“In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is the assurance of safety which the servant of Allah, Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, has given to the people of Iliya [Al-Quds]. He has given them an assurance of safety for themselves for their property, their churches, their crosses, the sick and healthy of the city and for all the rituals which belong to their religion.
Their churches will not be inhabited by Muslims and will not be destroyed. Neither they, nor the land, on which they stand, nor their cross, nor their property will be damaged.
They will not be forcibly converted. (…)” 3
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Umayyads, Abbasids, Tulunids, Abbasids, Ikhshidid, Fatimids, Seljuks, Fatimids.
Al-Quds has been ours until the year 1099.
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In 1095, Pope Urban II invited all Christians to fight against Muslims in the council gathered in the city of Clermont, France. He said that the sins of those who join the war would be forgiven. Priest Lermit travelled around Europe and achieved the recruitment of a crusader army of one hundred thousand troops. This campaign against the Muslims was stopped by commander Davud, the brother of the Seljuk Sultan Kılıç Arslan I. 4
Anatolia is the wall of Al-Quds.
Al-Quds is ours.
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In 1096, a large crusader army of six hundred thousand troops of German, English, Norman and Belgian troops gathered in and mobilized from Constantinople (Istanbul). Despite the resistance of Kılıç Arslan I and the people of Anatolia, they were able to continue marching towards Al-Quds due to the huge number of troops. However, as a result of Muslim resistance they were only fifty thousand when they arrived at Al-Quds. 5
They finally captured the city on July 15th 1099 after Antakya.
Al-Quds does not fall unless Anatolia (Turkey) falls!
Al-Quds is ours.
***
The residents of Al-Quds had trusted Caliph Umar and took refuge in the warrant and justice he provided. They had been given an assurance of safety for themselves, for their property and their churches. Despite this, crusaders interfered with everyone, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, after they captured the city.
They killed all Muslims; slaughtered seventy thousand people, children and old men and women. They did not spare the life of anyone they caught. It was nothing but a blood bath everywhere. The streets overflowed with severed heads, arms, and legs; they murdered everyone in Al-Quds to capture the city.
Despite all this, until the last Muslim on earth draws his last breath Al-Quds is ours.
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The most beloved sultan of the East, Salahuddin Ayyubi set off declaring “I am going to either die for this cause or save Al-Quds from the crusaders”. He surrounded the city on September 20th 1187 and called for surrender: “I strongly believe Al-Quds is one of the cities Allah has blessed. I do not want to attack this city – which you also accept as blessed – in the way the siege and war necessitate.” 6 In this way he achieved the surrender of the city. He opened Masjid al-Aqsa to worship again.
Al-Quds is ours.
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Khwarezm, Umayyads.
Al-Quds is ours.
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On December 28th 1516 the Ottomans entered Al-Quds at the command of Sinan Pasha during the Egypt campaign of Yavuz Sultan Selim. On December 31st Yavuz Sultan Selim arrived at the city. He changed its name to Quds-u Sharif. He stated that he would perform the evening prayer at Masjid al-Aqsa. The masjid was illuminated with twelve thousand oil-lamps. The sultan performed the evening and night prayers there on that day. The next morning, thousands of camels and sheep were sacrificed and offered to the people. The sultan left Al-Quds on January 1st 1517. 7
In the following 400 years until 1917,
Al-Quds is ours.
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On August 28th 1897, the First Zionist Congress gathered in Basel city in Switzerland. They declared their political aim to the world: “Zionism aims at founding a county in Palestine for the Jews under the guarantee of public law.” However, that geography was under the rule of the Ottomans. 8
From 1896 until his death in 1904, Theodor Herzl attempted [to get land in Palestine] many times in various ways including offering the Sultan the paying of the debts of the Ottoman Empire, but he could not get anything from Sultan Abdulhamid II. 9
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The commander of English troops General Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby came to the grave of Salahuddin Ayyubi and said by hitting the grave “Get up oh Salahuddin! We are back again!” on December 11th 1917 when the English entered Al-Quds 400 years later.
Despite this, Al-Quds is ours.
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In April 1920, Jordan and Palestine were left to the English mandate government in the Conference of San Remo. The first English commissary of the region Sir Herbert Samuel took the implementation of the Balfour Declaration as his most important duty. Therefore he caused the decision of emigration of 16,500 Jews to Palestine in September 1920 to be taken. 11 Immediately after this the rebellions of Arabs broke out.
The League of Nations took the decision to give Palestine to the mandate government of Britain; Britain clearly expressed her intention to establish a Jewish state and 250,000 Jews migrated to Palestine from 1929 to 1939. 12
Despite all of this, Al-Quds is ours.
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On May 14th 1948 Israel declared its independence.
Israel occupied West Quds on July 26th, declared it as its capital in 1949, moved its parliament (Knesset) from Tel Aviv to Al-Quds and made its first session on February 14th 1949, 13 900,000 Palestinians were forced to leave the regions they lived in, and the United Nations described Al-Quds as the region that belongs no country. 14
Despite this, Al-Quds is ours.
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On August 21st 1969 Australian fanatic Michael Dennis Rohan set fire to Masjid al-Aqsa; in April 1980 the infamous Zionist terrorist Meir Kahane tried to blow up a large amount of explosives which he piled up in a corner in Masjid al-Aqsa; on April 8th 1982 a large amount of explosives were placed at the main entrance of Masjid al-Aqsa in an attempt to destroy the mosque. Further, there were attacks that martyred 30 Muslims and wounded 800 Muslims on October 8th 1990 and there were many other attacks that Masjid al-Aqsa faced.
Despite all this, Al-Quds is ours.
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Saudi Arabia King Faisal ibn Abdulaziz started the oil embargo with his words “We come from the desert, and we have been living on camel milk and dates and we can easily go back and live in the desert again.” Henry Kissinger, the minister of foreign affairs of the USA, who visited King Faisal, said in his memoirs: King Faisal was quite angry. So I made a joke and told King Faisal ‘My plane ran out of oil so will your majesty order it to get supplied with oil and we are ready to pay at international rates?’ King Faisal didn’t laugh and raised his head and looked at me and said, ‘And I’m an old man who wishes to pray in Al-Aqsa before I die; so will you help me in my wish?’ 16
King Faisal was assassinated on March 25th 1975 in his palace.
Despite that, Al-Quds is ours.
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On September 8th 2000, former prime minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, raided Masjid al-Aqsa and walked around its garden and said “This area will always be a part of Israel”. This alarmed the Palestinians in the masjid at the time. In the conflict on that day between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, 7 Muslims became martyrs and 250 people were wounded. 17
This event caused the Second Intifada to start. An eleven-year-old boy Muhammed Durra who hid behind his father at the conflict was killed. This was seen by entire world through the media.
In the Second Intifada 4,412 Muslims became martyrs and more than 48,000 Palestinians were injured.
Despite this, Al-Quds is ours.
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It was 10 pm on May 30th 2010. Civil ships were carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in international waters and they were surrounded.
At around 5.30 am the civilians were attacked with bullets from zodiac boats and helicopters and soldiers boarded on the ships.
They became martyrs and veterans of Mavi Marmara.
Al-Quds is ours.
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From July 8th to July 22nd 2014, in the attacks of Israel on Gaza, 154 children (one of them was an 8-month-old baby), 58 women, 28 old people became martyrs; 2800 targets including hospitals were bombed. 18
And they used white phosphorus bombs as well.
Despite this, Al-Quds is ours.
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On July 14th 2017, Friday prayed could not be performed for the first time since 1969 in Masjid al-Aqsa.
Although they put barriers to the entrance of Masjid al-Aqsa,
Al-Quds is ours.
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Despite the indifferent and unconcerned leaders of other Muslims countries, who do not respond the strong calls of the President of Turkish Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
Al-Quds is ours.
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Al-Quds is ours.
Al-Quds belongs to each and every Turk.
Al-Quds belongs to each and every Muslim.
Until every Muslim draws his last breath, until the doomsday,
Al-Quds is ours.
And we belong to Al-Quds.
Because ‘half of our heart is Makka, other half is Madina, and Al-Quds is like a veil over them.’ 19
Al-Quds is ours!
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1) Müslim, Hac, 15/ 415,511.512. Buhari, Mescid-i Mekke,1. Savm 67, Ebu Davut, Menasik 94; Tirmizi, Salat 126; Nesai, Mesacit,10 http://bayburt.diyanet.gov.tr/Sayfalar/contentdetail.aspx?MenuCategory=Kurumsal&contentid=267 Access date 01.08.2017
2) Muammer GÜL, Müslümanların Kudüs’ü Fethi, Harran Üniversitesi ilahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, year: 2001, issue: II, p.50-51
3) Ibid. p.50-51
4) Haçlı seferleri ve Anadolu’da Haçlı devletleri, http://www.kulturportali.gov.tr/portal/hacli-seferleri-ve-anadolu-da-hacli-devletleri Access date 01.08.2017
5) Haçlı seferleri ve Anadolu’da Haçlı devletleri, http://www.kulturportali.gov.tr/portal/hacli-seferleri-ve-anadolu-da-hacli-devletleri
6) Ahmet AĞIRAKÇA, Selahaddin el-Eyyubi, http://ahmetagirakca.com.tr/uploads/default/articles/6-Salahaddin_el-Eyyubi.pdf Access date 01.08.2017
7) Kudüs Tarihi, http://mirasimiz.org.tr/sayfa/Kudus-Tarihi/24 Access date 01.08.2017
8) Sultan II. Abdülhamit ve Theodor Herzl, 03.05.2017, Şalom Gazetesi, http://www.salom.com.tr/haber-102963-sultan_ii_abdulhamit_ve__theodor_herzl.html Access date 01.08.2017
9) Sultan II. Abdülhamit ve Theodor Herzl Tarihi gerçekler, http://arsiv.salom.com.tr/news/print/11894-Sultan-II-Abdulhamit-ve-Theodor-Herzl-Tarihi-gercekler.aspx Access date 01.08.2017
10) Selahaddin Eyyubi Kudüs’ü 899 yıl önce fethetmişti, 02.10.2016 http://www.milligazete.com.tr/selahaddin_eyyubi_kudusu_899_yil_once_fethetmisti/427152 Access date 01.08.2017
11) Ortadoğu’da Diriliş: Arap Milliyetçiliği, TASAM, 14.12.2006 http://www.tasam.org/tr-TR/Icerik/240/ortadoguda_dirilis_arap_milliyetciligi Access date 01.08.2017
12) Kronoloji: 1915’ten günümüze Filistin, http://www.aljazeera.com.tr/kronoloji/kronoloji-1915ten-gunumuze-filistin Access date 01.08.2017
13) İsrail’in Kudüs işgali, 22.01.2017, http://www.star.com.tr/dunya/misir-israili-ve-kudusteki-hakimiyetini-kabul-eden-ilk-arap-ulke-oldu-haber-1178857/ Access date 01.08.2017
14) Trump Kudüs’ü İsrail’in başkenti ilan ederse ne olur?, 22 Ocak 2017 http://www.yeniakit.com.tr/haber/turkiye-balkanlara-elini-uzatti-264512.html Access date 01.08.2017
15) Mescid-i Aksa 45 yıl önce bugün kundaklanmıştı, 21 Ağustos 2014, http://www.dunyabulteni.net/haber/306984/mescid-i-aksa-45-yil-once-bugun-kundaklanmisti
16) Ömer Aymalı, Kral Faysal’ın Amerika’ya petrol resti, 04 Eylül 2012 http://www.dunyabulteni.net/tarih-dosyasi/225166/kral-faysalin-amerikaya-petrol-resti Access date 01.08.2017
17) İSRAİL – FİLİSTİN SORUNU İkinci İntifada’nın 15. Yıldönümü 28 Eyl 2015 http://www.aljazeera.com.tr/haber/ikinci-intifadanin-15-yildonumu Access date 01.08.2017
18) İsrail yine çocuk öldürdü 22 Tem 2014 http://www.aljazeera.com.tr/haber/israil-yine-cocuk-oldurdu Access date 01.08.2017
19) Nuri Pakdil