The significance of Jerusalem to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - Essay Example

The Significance of Jerusalem to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Introduction Each religion marked its existence via an event that takes place in some parts of the globe. A pattern for most religion is its origins in a particular place, followed by an extension to other nearby regions through missionaries or enforced efforts of invasions. This entails that a religion, in a particular place, was susceptible to other religions; thus, security in its own origin was not guaranteed. A religion’s existence or extinction from its origin always depends on the strength of its carriers -- political, socio-cultural, or economical.

The one armed can defend the physical territory which cradled a religion, yet so as the one favored or preferred by people with the authority (thus making it political). One such city, undergoing fierce territorial pursuits in lieu of its three cradled religion -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, is the holy city of Israel, the Jerusalem. Significance Jerusalem is central to the religion, Judaism. Geographically and historically, this city bore the city of David and its main Temple, of which existed the Ark of the Covenant (Prior 71).

Inherent to almost all religions, the Judaism’s hold for Jerusalem as its holy city is primarily rooted by its being the place of origin and the existence of an important relic, the Ark of the Covenant. Symbolically, the Temple’s destruction and the Jew’s oppression have become events that were to be endured and triumphed over to be able to accomplish the “return of the Jews to Zion” (Hoppe 22). Indeed, the world had been witnessed to the Jew’s sufferings. Consequently, they view the return to their holy city, Jerusalem, of which they were repeatedly ousted, as the ultimate reward for refusing to give up in this religious-territorial battle.

For the Christians, Jerusalem, as its holy city, lies on the fact that the place is the event for Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, as well as the ‘descension of the Holy Spirit on the early Church’ (Prior 71). The Jerusalem City, cradling these important events, naturally marked its place in the Christian history and piety. However, what strengthened the city’s position in the Christian norm is the discovery of Jesus’ tomb in the city (Hoppe 22). The tomb’s existence in Jerusalem sealed its place in the Christian norm that even if pilgrimage was not considered the religion’s tradition, it was nevertheless encouraged.

The Muslims consider Jerusalem to be one of its three holiest places, apart from Mecca and Medina (Prior 71). Jerusalem’s holiness in the Muslim context is based on the prophet Muhammed’s “night journey to the farthest mosque” (Hoppe 22). This suggests that the city was not necessarily its city of origin but its direction of worship (as to the purpose of going to the ‘farthest mosque’). Indeed of the three religion, Islam had the firmest hold of the city as understandable by its neighboring countries (i.e. Syria, Jordan, Egypt) bearing the Islamic religion too.

To further assert Islam’s dominance in Jerusalem, the Muslims built the Dome of the Rock -- the symbol of Islam’s triumph over Judaism and Christianity (Hoppe 22). Works CitedHoppe, Leslie J. The Holy City: Jerusalem in the Theology of the Old Testament.Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2000. Print. Prior, Michael. “The Scramble for Jerusalem.” My Jerusalem: Essays, Reminiscences,and Poems. Eds. Salma Khadra Jayyusi and Zafar Ishaq Ansari. Massachusetts: Interlink Books, 2005. Print.