THERE’S A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF ISLAM – King Abdullah II of Jordan

THERE’S A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF ISLAM

King Abdullah II of Jordan

Jordan King

“Asked about President Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric – namely “Islam hates us” and “there’s a tremendous hatred there” – King Abdullah II of Jordan says “there’s a lack of understanding of Islam,” not only in the White House but in Congress.

To all Americans, whether I’m in Washington, in the Congress, or with the administration, I think, maybe, there’s a lack of understanding of Islam,” the Jordan leader told CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month. “Islam is built on moral virtues that you see in Christianity and Judaism and other religions. It is not a religion of hate.”

NOTE BY NANCY:  While our seminary group was in Jerusalem, we visited the The Dome of the Rock Mosque.   The atmosphere here is one of devotion and reverence.   We left our shoes outside and entered the Mosque in silence.  Worshipers knelt in prayer.   5 times daily, in accordance with the Sun’s movement, Muslims stop what they are doing and pray.  It is no accident that Rumi, a Muslim Sufi, ranks among the top most popular poets on the planet.  Sufism is the “mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God.”  (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sufism)

Dome of the Rock – Located on Mount Moriah

Moslem tradition states that Mohammed ascended from the Temple Mound, hundreds of years after the Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E. by the Romans.  King Hussein (1935 – 1999), considered the Father of Modern Jordan, donated enough gold to cover the Dome of the Mosque.   The Dome of the Rock Mosque rivals Mecca as one of the most sacred shrines for Muslims.

Inside this mosque is the rock thought to be where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Issac and where Jacob had his “ladder into heaven” dream.  The wrought iron fence circles a washing fountain where each Moslem must wash his face, hands, and feet before entering the mosque.

The Arabic writing around the top of the Mosque is from the Koran.

The upper walls of the Mosque are inlaid tile mosaic.  The gold, white, and blue tiles create a beautiful sight below the sparkling gold dome.  In the above photo, the gold donated by King Hussein of Jordan is being mounted on the Dome—1993.

Mosaic tiles around the upper walls of the Mosque

The craftsmanship required to create this mosque is mind-boggling.  As Rumi wrote:  “Let the beauty we love be what we do.”

 

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