Where did the ark disappear to? What was in the ark? What the heck is an ark anyway, and why would Allah need to ask the Jewish community in the ancient world to create one?
What’s the Islamic significance of the Foundation Stone apart from that supposedly Rasulullah (SAW) ascended to heaven on it.
And what’s the historical view in Islam of the Cave of the Souls? Any Quranic ayahs or hadith that pertain to these structures would be appreciated.
And I don’t get this whole Holy of the Holies - I’m reading about it, and the way I imagine it is that the ark was made of Gold and topped with a Gold slab, on which Allah would occasionally come out of Heaven and sit? And that only the chief rabbi could go in and sprinkle blood of animal saccrifice, etc on it? I don’t get it. Is this a purely jewish part of history or muslims believe this too, or Islam is just silent on this topic?
Re: Ark of the Covenant/Foundation Stone/Cave of the Souls
Peace Sister PCG
You are asking questions that proves you are going beyond the normal scope most Muslims ask. :hehe: The Indiana Jones film - Raiders of the Lost Ark is about the ark of the covenant! The ark is an object that is decorated with precious material (i.e. gold) and is designed to contain an even more precious artifact. There are said to be one, two or three tablets upon which were the inscriptions of the Mosaic Law - the original tablets that were given to Sayyiduna Musa (AS). This was kept in the Temple Mount and subsequently taken away or stolen to protect it from sacrilege from the Romans. There is a Christian/Jewish community in Ethiopia and some believe the actual Ark is somewhere there or there are other various candidates, truth is no one really knows (but there are better and worse candidates). The significance of the tablets is they were etched by the “Finger of G-d” - hence very holy. The ark as Jewish scriptures say was prescribed to be built (in a similar way to the prescription of the building of the Ka’bah). So there is no surprise there. In the ancient world and as per Jewish tradition there were a lot of rites that involved purity and cleanliness to touch or even come close to holy things. Think about the tradition of removing shoes, doing wudu, ghusl, eating halal, covering the Qur’an musHaf, washing hands before eating, etc as ways to keep ourselves pure - in a similar but stricter manner the Jews were required to do this and as a result were not allowed to come close to holy things - only high priests were allowed to go near the alter and the Temple Mount had a designated area for the Gentiles and another closer area for the Jews in concentric circles around the altar. So it is not too alien a concept to require a vessel that would carry the tablets because the same vein of pure and holy applies here.
The Sakhra (The Rock) as it is known in Arabic and by Muslims - or the Foundation Stone has no detailed explanation in Islamic tradition, but is believed to be the place that Sayyiduna Muhammad (SAW) departed from on the Ascension to Heaven. Interestingly the Jewish tradition views it as the Spiritual junction between Heaven and Earth. This whole thing reignites the difference of opinion about the nature of the Ascension. The orthodox belief of which is that it is a REAL event and not an imagined or specifically out of body experience.
The Well of Souls from my understanding has no authentic Islamic tradition, I could be mistaken, despite several people writing about it.
The Tabernacle is also known as the Holy of Holies - it was the main section in the Temple built as a room or enclosure that has the altar in it and used to house the Ark. No one used to go in there except the High Priest annually and after he cleansed himself. For a better idea of Jewish sacrifices see this link: Judaism 101: Qorbanot: Sacrifices and Offerings
There are a lot of confusing beliefs regarding Jewish rituals mostly due to a twisted Christian perspective of them, because they needed a basis to reject the sacrifice.