Question:
O honorable Shaykh, I love you for the sake of Allah. May Allah reward you with the best of rewards on behalf of me, Islam, and the Muslims. My question is: What is the role of scholars, ‘callers to Islam’ (du’at), and preachers regarding what the Al-Aqsa Mosque is exposed to in terms of attempts of desecration, and even reaching the point of demolition?
Answer:
The obligation is immense regarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque and all mosques of the Muslims. However, the Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the three mosques to which journeys are undertaken, and it is one of the mosques of the Prophets, peace and blessings be upon them. Therefore, it is obligatory upon the Muslims to defend it with all that they have been given until they free it from the yoke of the disbelievers and the Jews.
The obligation rests upon Muslims generally, not just upon a single individual, each according to his ability and capability—even if it is through statement and clarification, or by contacting officials and rulers and urging them to work toward freeing the Al-Aqsa Mosque. A Muslim should strive, according to what he is able, to denounce this tremendous evil and to demand the liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the hands of the Jews.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque will never be liberated except by the Muslims; absolutely, it will never be liberated except by truthful Muslims, just as the Prophet ﷺ foretold regarding what will happen at the end of time—that the Muslims will triumph over the Jews and kill them in a severe killing, to the extent that if one of them were to hide behind a stone or a tree, the stone and the tree would call out: “O Muslim, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
So, relief is coming, Allah willing, and relief is near. Allah, Majestic and Exalted is He, will never abandon the Al-Aqsa Mosque; He will never abandon it. The actions of these vile people are not hidden from Him—they are not hidden from Him, but He, Glorified be He, delays them until an appointed term. Yes.