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While rida argues forcefully against Zionism, he, like al- Khalidi,
does not cast doubt on the fundamental Jewish historical claim that,
in antiquity, a Jewish state existed in palestine. even in the course of
polemicizing against the Jews, rida consistently accepts this histori-
cal assertion. For instance, in September 1907 rida’s Qurʾanic com-
mentary confronted “the two great specious arguments that the Jews
used against Islam.” The first concerns the Jews’ alleged accusation
that Muhammad could not possibly be part of the prophetic tradition
of abraham, given that Muhammad sanctioned the consumption of
foods— such as camel meat— prohibited in this tradition. The second
“specious argument” relates to Muhammad’s privileging of Mecca over
Jerusalem. “God promised abraham that his blessing would come in
the progeny of his son Isaac,” claimed the Jews, “and all of the prophets
from Isaac’s seed privileged Jerusalem and prayed toward it.” Jews are
thus alleged to have reasoned that if Muhammad were truly part of this
tradition, he too would have favored Jerusalem; by selecting Mecca
as his qibla (direction of prayer), “he contradicted all of them.”^114 the
answer rida cites to the latter accusation is that
the Sacred house,^115 to which we direct our prayers, was the first
building that was made a temple for man. It was built by abra-
ham and his son Ishmael, peace be upon them, exclusively for
worship. Then, the al- Aqsa Mosque [al- masjid al- aqṣā^116 ] was
built in Jerusalem [bayt al- muqaddas^117 ] centuries later by Solo-
mon the son of David. . . . It is thus correct that Muhammad was
[part] of the religious community [al- milla] of abraham and in
his worship he faced [the same place] where abraham and his
son Ishmael had faced.^118In this passage, rida exhibits no interest in denying the Israelite link
to Jerusalem. Like al- Khalidi and other Muslim intellectuals of his day,
rida freely acknowledges that the temple was built by the Israelite
king Solomon, as recounted in the Bible and in Islamic tradition, even
if rida chooses to refer to the Temple as al- masjid al- aqṣā, the distinc-
tively Qurʾanic name for Jerusalem’s central sanctuary.^119 rida opposed
(^114) al-Manār 10:7 (September 1907), 482.
(^115) This title is used to refer to the Kaʿba in Mecca.
(^116) Literally: “the furthest place of worship.”
(^117) Literally: “the holy temple.”
(^118) al-Manār 10:8 (September 1907), 485.
(^119) rida often identified the Temple of Solomon with the al- Aqsa Mosque. In 1903,
in his discussion of the secret Masonic associations, rida explained that the founders
included Jews and Christians, and, as a result, its symbols are taken from their “shared
book called the holy Bible” and the founders “traced these [symbols] back to the