section_path: Religious significance/Islam
section_name: Islam
paragraph_text: Islam
  
  Jerusalem is the third-holiest city in Sunni Islam. Islamic tradition holds that for approximately a year, before it was permanently switched to the Kaaba in Mecca, the qibla (direction of prayer) for Muslims was Jerusalem. The city's lasting place in Islam, however, is primarily due to Muhammad 's Night Journey (c. 620 CE). Muslims believe that Muhammad was miraculously transported one night from the Great Mosque of Mecca to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, whereupon he ascended to Heaven to meet previous prophets of Islam. The first verse in the Qur'an 's Surat al-Isra notes the destination of Muhammad's journey as al-masjid al-aqṣā ("the farthest place of prayer"). In the earliest days of Islam, this was understood as a reference to a site in the heavens, however, Post- Rashidun Islamic scholars understood it as relating to Jerusalem, and particularly to the site of the former Jewish Temple. The hadith, a collection of the sayings of Muhammad, mentions that the location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is in Jerusalem. The Al-Aqsa Mosque, originally named after the wider compound it sits within, was built on the Temple Mount under the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid several decades after Muhammad's death to commemorate the place from which Muslims believe he had ascended to Heaven.