Wailing wall (Western wall)

Remnant of the ancient wall of the Temple courtyard, a sacred site of Jewish prayer & pilgrimage. Formerly referred to as the ‘Wailing Wall’ and now more commonly known as the ‘Western Wall’ is the most sacred place for Jews who believe it to be the only surviving structure of the Herodian temple. Some historians said the Wailing Wall truly is just a remnant a Roman fortress and not the second temple. For Muslims it is known as the Buraq Wall, for on the other side is where the Prophet Muhammed (ﷺ) tied the Buraq, the riding animal upon which he rode during the Night of Ascension (Mi’raj). The circle shows approximately where this happened. Buraq Wall (Ha’it Al-Buraq). During the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ miraculous Night Journey (Al-Isra' wal-Mi'raj), he rode a celestial steed named Al-Buraq from Mecca to Jerusalem. Tradition holds that he tied Al-Buraq to this exact western wall before entering the compound to lead all previous prophets in prayer and ascending to the heavens. Therefore, Islam considers the entire plaza and its walls to be an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (Al-Haram al-Sharif), making it an entirely Islamic Waqf (endowment) Islamic perspective on the destruction of the Jewish Temples is explicitly detailed in Chapter 17 of the Quran (Surah Al-Isra). The text states that the Children of Israel were decreed to cause corruption on the earth twice, and would be punished twice: "So when the promise came for the first of the two, We sent against you servants of Ours - those of great military might, and they probed [even] into the homes, and it was a promise fulfilled." (Quran 17:5) — Classically interpreted by commentators like Ibn Kathir as the Babylonian destruction. "Then, when the second promise came to pass, [We permitted your enemies] to make your faces sorrowful and to enter the mosque [the sacred site] as they had entered it before, and to destroy with utter destruction what they overtook." (Quran 17:7) — Classically interpreted as the Roman destruction in 70 CE. The Succession of Prophethood: Islam teaches that prophets like David (Dawud) and Solomon (Sulayman) built the initial holy sanctuary to worship the one true God. From an Islamic theological standpoint, when the later generations repeated transgressions and rejected subsequent prophets (such as John the Baptist and Jesus), the spiritual custodianship of the holy site was transferred from the Israelites to the followers of the final prophet, Muhammad ﷺ. the conditional promise of exclusive holy land custody given to the line of Israel was severed due to the continuous rejection and killing of later prophets (such as John the Baptist and Jesus).Therefore, Islamic theology does not anticipate a divinely sanctioned restoration of a Jewish Temple or an end to that specific theological exile. Instead: A Shift in Authority: Islam teaches that when the Jewish nation rejected their final prophets, the inheritance of the holy sites was permanently transferred to the followers of the final prophet, Muhammad. The True "Return": The return of monotheistic worship to the site was fulfilled in the Islamic view when Caliph Omar cleared the ruined Temple Mount in 637 CE and built the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound The Concept of Mipnei Chata'einu (Because of Our Sins): A central theme in Jewish liturgy states, "Because of our sins, we were exiled from our land." In the Torah, God explicitly warns the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28 that while obedience brings blessings, systemic violation of the commandments (Mitzvot) will result in the loss of the land and the scattering of the people.The Cause of the Second Destruction: According to the Talmud (Yoma 9b), the First Temple was destroyed due to three cardinal sins: idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed. However, the Second Temple was destroyed during a period when Jews studied the Torah and performed good deeds. The Talmud attributes its fall to Sinat Chinam—baseless hatred and bitter factional infighting among the Jewish people themselves.The Shechinah (Divine Presence): Jewish mystics teach that when the Temple was destroyed and the people were exiled, the Shechinah (the indwelling presence of God) did not abandon them. Instead, it went into exile with them. Midrashic texts state that the Divine Presence specifically chose never to depart from the Western Wall, making it a permanent spiritual beacon of hope and eventual redemption.The Ban as a Spiritual Boundary: For centuries, rabbinic law placed an internal restriction on entering the Temple Mount. Because the precise location of the Holy of Holies (the innermost sacred chamber) was lost, and the ritual purification required to enter it could no longer be performed, major rabbinic authorities declared it a transgression for Jews to step onto the mount itself. The outer wall therefore became the boundary where they could safely pray without violating this sacred spac