THREE RELIGIONS UNDER ONE DOME

  Three Religions under One Dome  

Dr. Yitzhak Hayut-Ma’n, cyber-architect.

 Does the Dome of the Rock belong only to Islam, as we are used to think? An exciting detective work done by Yitzhak Hayut-Ma'n reveals another possibility, which opens an optimistic window to an ancient conflict.

(Article in the Israeli monthly magazine Hayim Aherim, Rosh haShnah 9/00)

 

When the future of Jerusalem, the city that both Jews and Palestinians regard as their eternal capital, is in focus, and it seems that both parties are bound (Aqudim) to the Temple Mount and cannot separate themselves from each other, it is appropriate to pay attention to the Islamic religious symbol of the city, which Jews and Christians also highlight in the depiction of their Holy City - the Dome of the Rock (in Arabic “Kubat al Sakhara”). The Palestinians have chosen this edifice as their national symbol, and the struggle over it seems to frustrate any chance for a settlement.

Even though this is undoubtedly the most prominent edifice in Jerusalem, yet it seems that there are not even ten people in the world today who have penetrated its secrets. Most people - Moslems as well as Jews - are convinced that it is a mosque. Ask people about its name, and almost all will call it “el-Aqsa” or the “Mosque of Omar”. Many will add that it stands upon the site of the Jewish (and Israelite) Temple - a belief that is the root of the conflict over Jerusalem. 

Well, the facts are quite different: The El-Aqsa Mosque is situated south of the Dome of the Rock; The Mosque of Omar is far removed from there, opposite the Church of the Holy Sepulcher; and the Dome of the Rock is not a mosque at all - though it has been converted (rather ineptly) into a place of prayer for individuals (especially women), it was not designed for and does not include organized public prayer which is the function of a mosque. Moreover, the almost automatic assumption of most people, that the Dome is situated where the Holy of Holies stood in the Israelite Temple (Bayit Rishon) or the Jewish Temple (Bayit Sheni) is also highly doubtful. There are two alternative modern claims about the location of the old Temple. One is by Professor Asher Kauffman, who situates the Temple at “The Dome of the Spirits”, about 100 yards North-Northwest of the Dome. The second is by architect Tuvia Sagiv, who places it under the El-Kas fountain, midway between the Dome of the Rock and the El-Aqsa Mosque. Even though these two alternative theories negate each other, each is based on arguments and findings that clearly disprove the possibility that the Temple was at the site of the Dome of the Rock.

The Dome of the Rock is the first and most splendid monument of Islamic architecture, and it does not resemble any later structure of Islamic architecture. Even though Islamic architecture has developed and reached tremendous achievements, it has never again equaled the quality of the embellishments in this dome shrine. From afar, the Dome of the Rock stands out from all the buildings of the Old City, but as we draw near, it disappears. There is a great difference – one might say a contradiction – between the exterior form of the Dome and its hidden and mysterious interior.

So what, indeed, is the Dome of the Rock, why it remains so singular, who built it and for what purpose?

A Golden Riddle

Some researchers assume, based on the Moslem historian El-Muqadisi (a name with relevance to our discussion, as it means “of the Temple”), that the Dome of the Rock, built towards the end of the 7th century CE, was intended as an alternative pilgrimage site to Mecca and Medina. Damascus and the land of Israel at that time were ruled by   the Umayyad Halifs whereas Mecca was ruled by their rival, Ibn El-Zubair, who controled their pilgrimage (Haj) to Mecca.

The researchers who challenge this version assert that even if the Halif Abd El-Malik, under whose command the Dome was erected, did such a heretical act, then his successors, especially the devout Halif al-Ma’mun would have destroyed and eliminated the signs of this heresy. And if not they - then certainly the Abbasid Halifs, who had no quarrel with Mecca, would have.

A much more likely possibility is that the purpose of such a grand and imposing edifice was to make an anti-Christian declaration: “We, Moslems, are the rulers of Jerusalem”. The edifice is decorated with many texts in this vein. Over the Northern gate is engraved the following verse: "He it is who hath sent His messenger with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion, however much the idolaters may be averse” (Sura 9:33). This message is amplified in the writings within the shrine, in which appear all the sayings from the Koran that regard Jesus as a prophet and messenger of God, but deny emphatically the beliefs about his being the Son of God who was crucified and resurrected.

But if the chief message was anti-Christian, then we touch a new mystery: why, when the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem, did they not destroy the edifice that was such an affront to Christianity? Even if we assume that the texts were added only after the Moslem re-conquest of Salah ad-Din (some of the texts that extol him must have been added in his time), yet the very edifice itself, its splendor and height, would constitute an affront to the main sacred Christian site, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is the theory of al-Muqadisi. Yet the fact is that not only was The Dome of the Rock not destroyed by the Christian conquerors, it was glorified by them. The Templar, “The Knights of the Temple of Solomon” called it “Templo Domini”, namely “The Temple of our Lord” and used it as their place of worship.

A no less annoying question is, if the whole objective behind the Dome of the Rock was to erect a monument to counter the Holy Sepulcher, why was there a need to invest in the magnificent and complex interior? Even the most sacred site of Islam – the Ka’aba in Mecca – though it contains a small interior, its interior is not used for any ritual purpose. Moreover, the Ka'aba is covered by a cloth that covers the entrance. .

My claim is that the Dome of the Rock contains a clear message that contradicts the basis of Islamic orthodoxy - as well as those of Judaism and Christianity - and aims to change and mend these three religions. One half of the message is conveyed in the secret language of sacred geometry known to Pythagorian-Sufi-Kabbalist esotericists, embedded in the plan of the shrine and its decorations, and identifies the Dome of the Rock as a temple for the Wisdom-Goddess and Her Son.

The second half of the message is hidden inside the Rock itself and in the foundations of the edifice, and only in our generation has there begun an unveiling of its secrets: architect Tuviah Sagiv has shown, from the analysis if infra-red aerial photographs, that the Rock of the Dome of the Rock is only the projecting tip of a large pentagonal rock, which constitutes a characteristic ancient Pagan shrine of a god, whose tip-phalus is generally inside temples dedicated to the cult of the Great Goddess. From the comparison of the bases of the outer circle of pillars within the Dome of the Rock to those of the dome of the Pantheon built by Hadrian in Rome, and comparing the set of the El-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock with the temples of Jupiter at Baa'bek, which were also built by Hadrian, Sagiv reached the conclusion that the Dome of the Rock is based over the remnants of the temple of the goddess in the temple complex of Aelia Capitolina built by Hadrian over the ruins of the Second Temple.

 

The Center of the World

The central motif is the Rock, and the design of the structure issues directly from it. Jewish and Moslem traditions regard this rock as the Foundation Rock (Even haShetiyah), the basis of the world and the place of formation of the first Adam. Islamic exegesis also relates to a verse in the Koran that mentions “the Night Journey” of the prophet Mohammed: “Glorified be He Who carried His servant by night from the Inviolable Place of Worship to the Far Distant Place of Worship, the circle of which We have blessed..” (Sura 17:1). According to tradition, Mohammed was transported at night to Jerusalem, and ascended from this rock to heaven. Other sources (from the Hadith) report that the footprint of the prophet can be found on the rock.

The Rock is surrounded by a circle of 12 decorative pillars and four massive piers that support the Dome over them. This is the Dome whose golden exterior we know so well. The octagonal structure is formed by the intersections of two pairs of rectangles, whose width is that of the inner circle, and which make a sort of cross around the circle, and these pairs are in 450 degrees to each other.

The geometry of this shrine thus forms a symbolic "Mandala", with the sacred center inside. Four identical entrances lead to the center, representing the four cardinal directions. Unlike mosques that are directed towards Mecca, churches that are generally oriented to the East and synagogues that turn towards the Temple Mount, the structure of the Dome of the Rock is orientated inside itself, towards the Rock.

Inside the shrine there is an additional circle, wider, in which there are 16 pillars and 8 piers. Precise investigation shows that, even though the structure is measured and built in a very precise way, the two circles do not fit but are off by a few degrees. Moreover, the whole weight of the dome is supported on the inner circle, and the outer circle is not required at all for structural reasons. Its role is mainly ritualistic: the two circles mark the inner space for circumambulating (walking around in a circle - a form of ritual known well both in Judaism and Islam).

The windows are relatively small and this creates inside the shrine a pleasantly dark atmosphere of mystery. In the outer envelope of the building there are 36 splendid stained glass windows which illuminate the low space, and sixteen windows are pierced above, in the drum that supports the Dome, and illuminate the tall inner space between the Dome and the Rock.

All the walls of the building, both inside and out are covered with decorations. The lower parts of the inner walls are covered with marble, and the parts above as well as the soffits of the pillars are covered with colored mosaics of rich vegetal motifs, considered the most magnificent mosaics in the world.

But it is the picture or pattern upon the inner surface of the Dome that is the jewel of the crown. It would seem evident that the Dome of the Rock was built the way it was in order to provide a proper place for this pattern, and that if it carries a message, it would be encoded in this pattern. It is therefore necessary to lift one's eyes to the inside of the Dome, in order to behold how the Dome of the Rock fits in with the universal mystical teachings.

 

The Image of the Soul (Nefesh) and its Likeness (Tselem)

What does one see in it? At the center of the Dome are connected and tied together all the forms that we shall examine separately below. These forms may be likened to what is called in the late Lurianic Kabbalah Olam ha’Aqudim, the world of all those bound-together. Around this center there is a ring of Arabesques-text of verse 226 of the Sura of the Cow: “There is no God but Allah, the Living…  His throne fills the heavens and the earth...“ Namely – the principle of unity and a visual description of the divine Throne of Glory.

The ceiling of the Dome is also decorated by seemingly vegetal motifs, as it is well known that there is a ban on figurative art in Islam, even stronger than in Judaism. All the same, it is possible to use the word “figures” for these abstract forms. They are characterized by a 32-fold radial symmetry that creates distinctive forms of "head, chest and belly", which are almost unique in Islamic architecture. There is something anthropomorphic about them, but if so, these are not figures of the body but sort of a diagram of the soul.

These “figures” have geometrical distinction. They are derived from a repetitive grid of waves. The modern awareness of the whole universe being an interweaving of waves has already found expression in the pattern of the Dome of the Rock. Were it a flat surface there would have derived a grid of infinite parallel waves, but when this grid is fitted to the curving dome it shows that all these waves derive from one center, from which evolves all the plurality and diversity in the world.

No less distinctive from the figures themselves is the relationship between the figures and the spaces between them. The spaces between the figures have exactly the same form as the central section of the figures. The spherical surface of the dome ceiling forms a circle of the figures, where their “head” is smaller than the “chest” or the “belly”, which amplifies the anthropomorphic effect. The 32 figures of three units each plus the two units between each two figures form together 160 units, which is the gematrical value of the Hebrew word Tselem "Likeness" (Gen. 1:26-27).

Detail - the Leaf

The basic form is leaf-shaped. We shall regard it as the “Leaf of the Tree of Life”. This leaf form is found both in the central circle of the Figures and in (the intermediary) spaces between the figures. Those who are familiar with the Kabbalah will have no difficulty in identifying in the Leaf-shape the form of the letter Y’ud, which is - according to the Kabbalah (e.g. in the Idra Zuta of the Zohar) - the starting-point for every thing that is. The Y’ud is the beginning of the four-lettered Holy Name (YHWH, the Tetragramaton), the other letters of which are extensions of the Y’ud in width and height. As our sages said - the World To Come is created in Y’ud (Talmud Bavly, Tractate Menahot 29, 10).

Christian Art often employs a different leaf-form – the “Vesica Piscis” in which two circles intersect each other at their centers – which is used as a frame for the figure of the Virgin and of Jesus. We may also note that these two “Leaf-shapes”, and especially the one at the Dome of the Rock, can be seen as a symbol for the female sexual organ, a claim relevant for the context of the cult of the goddess .

The same Leaf-shape of the Dome of the Rock appears also as a frame for the figure of the Buddha in the sacred art of the Far East. My first teacher of sacred geometry was Keith Critchlow, the author of several basic books in this area and director of the School of Traditional Islamic Arts in the Prince of Wales School of Architecture. He told me of a conversation he had with a Buddhist monk as they were viewing such a painting. The true Buddha, the Buddhist sage explained to him, is not the painted image but the empty space within this leaf-shape. (There are also 32 marks of the Buddha mentioned in Mahayana Buddhist literature[1]).

The fact that it is difficult to distinguish between the figures and the background, or rather the spaces between them, teaches that Space is not a neutral thing but has qualities and consciousness. Compared with the separate figures, Space is the intermediary – The Maqifim (surrounding lights) in the language of the Kabbalah, which issue from the One and is connected to the One in all its myriad forms. The pattern of the Dome of the Rock is a visual essay on the spiritual-religious issue of “The One and the Many”, and the contemplation of it can serve as a powerful spiritual exercise.

 

The Heart (LeV) of the Matter

The plurality, as we have shown above, is represented by 32 symmetrical figures. Why 32 of all numbers?

Again we may turn to the Jewish Kabbalah, which also attaches much importance to the 32 (represented also as LaV, while "heart" is in Hebrew Lev) as the number that represents Wisdom. “The 32 Paths of Wonder” are mentioned at the opening of the sefer Yetsirah (the oldest Kabbalah book), and the term “The 32 Paths of Wisdom” is common in the Kabbalah (such as in the Idra Zuta in the Zohar. The significance of the number is that the name “Elohim” (God) is mentioned 32 times in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis). Can the designers of the Dome of the Rock be counted among the Mequbalim (Kabbalists)? Sefer Yetsirah was written before this shrine was built, and was known to the sages (such as Rabbi Se’adiah Ga’on) of the early Moslem period, and it is possible that also the Moslem mystic sages were aware of it.

We can thus continue deciphering the message of the Dome of the Rock, whose decoration employ a number of elements that represent in the Kabbalah the 32 Paths of Wisdom, pointing that it is possible to associate it with Symbols of Wisdom. The best domes of the Byzantine architecture of that period, crowned by the dome of the church of Hagia Sophia (“the Holy Wisdom”) in the capital Constantinople, were dedicated to Wisdom as a feminine figure. It follows that the Dome of the Rock may also be defined as a Temple of Wisdom - a shrine for the adherents of the three monotheistic religions (that mystics of all three have seen Wisdom, or Understanding, as their goddess). Thus it is strewn with verses from the scriptures about the Oneness of God and the importance of His prophets of all the generations on one hand, as well as and with symbolic decorations in the language of the mystics on the other hand, and those who can understand, would.

 

The Peak of Psychology

Idris Shah, the author "The Sufis" and other books about the Sufis (we may note the similarity of "Sufi" and "Sophia", namely Wisdom) has no doubt that the designers of the Dome of the Rock were members of a mystical brotherhood of what he calls “Sufi Freemasons”, who dwelled in Mecca at the time of Mohammed and who moved to Jerusalem as soon as it was liberated from Byzantine Christianity. The Sufis were familiar with teachings of Pythagoras and the early Kabbalah, and they, like the Mequbalim, adopted Platonic and Neo-Platonist views according to which the soul has three distinct centers (called in the Kabbalah Nefesh, Ru’ah and Neshamah[3]). They embedded in the decorations of the Dome their metaphysical descriptions of human psychology, along with secrets of cosmology, legacy of the esoteric wisdom kernel kept from ancient times.

This knowledge brings us to a further partial answer to the riddle why did the Templars adopt the Dome of the Rock. According to various literary sources (we may mention here Arkon Daraul’s book “Secret Societies”[3]), the Templars received many of their secret teachings from their contemporaries the Assassins. The founder of the Isma'ili Sect of the Assassins was a student of Omar Khayyam, one of the major Sufi teachers.

The Assassins cultivated a model of the Moslem paradise in their stronghold in Alamut Castle in Iran, almost grotesque in its earthiness. Those drafted into the sect experienced there all the delights of the earthly paradise - including women and Hashish (that's the origin of their name) - until they were ready to do just anything, including assassination and suicide, in order to return there after their death.

 

Paradise for Everybody

The Koranic paradise, even though designed for life after death, is very material: [use an accepted translation] “This is the garden that was set for the…” (Mohammed Sura, 16-17).

But the paradise depicted in the Dome of the Rock is the Heavenly Paradise. The ascent of Mohammad through the seven heavens opened the way for others who desire to follow him. The decorations in the Dome of the Rock give a map for the seven heavens.

Professor Oleg Grabbar, in his book "The Dome of the Rock"[4], questions the meaning of the shrine and interprets the decorations as a representation of the Garden of Eden, with motifs from the Temple of Solomon. The symbolic geometry of the Garden of Eden (as well as the Vision of the Heavenly Chariot of the prophet Ezekiel) is fourfold: “and the Tree of Life is also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge (of) Good and Evil…. And a river issues out of Eden to water the Garden, and from thence it would part and becomes four streams” (literally “heads”. Gen. 2:9-10). It follows that the return to Eden would mean the coming together of the four streams (or “heads”) that got separated. These are described by the Alchemists as the combination of the “four elements” that comprise all matter in this world. The Dome of the Rock has a clear four-fold symmetry: four entrances in the four cardinal directions and the Dome itself, supported by four massive piers, as well as twelve decorative pillars that look onto 36 stained glass windows. This apparently combines the image of the four-fold earthly paradise and the heavenly paradise represented by the zodiac of the twelve Signs.

The designers of the Dome of the Rock built thus a visual-architectural Midrash of paradise and the return to it, while achieving a more explicit goal – a visual Midrash of “The Night Journey” of the Prophet Mohammed from Jerusalem to Heaven.

The heavenly ascent of the prophet Mohammed and of the Sufi mystics after him was apparently through the secret methods of the Jewish sages, in which the “elevator” to the heavenly paradise was at the Temple of Jerusalem, and entry into paradise (haKenisah la’Pardes) was by ecstatic contemplation, as was done by Rabbi Akivah and his colleagues[5].

It is written “And the Tree of Life is also in the midst of the garden”. As I understand it, this does not refer to a specific tree, but to the essence of the whole garden. “The midst of the garden” is "the Tree of Life”. By rearranging the letters of “GaN EdeN” (Hebrew for “Garden of Eden”) we get “DNA GeNe”, which is the secret of life. Likewise the decorations in the shrine of the Dome - which in terms of current geometry we might term “fractal” - is all vegetal and contains innumerable variants of vegetation. There is no form that resembles another.

So how does this “map” guide us to the worlds of the seven heavens? Let us then re-examine the pattern in the dome. At the base is a bounded stripe of calligraphy. That is the first firmament, above the physical world. From here upward there are delineated five more levels of steps, represented by the border of each of the “figures” and the spaces between them. “belly”, lower background, “chest”, higher background and “head”[6]. Over the heads of these figures there is a seventh calligraphic “firmament” strip before the top of the Dome as the seventh heaven, the transpersonal, all-inclusive divine world (which we called Olam ha’Aqudim).

Further meditations would show us how these Sufi patterns also give rise to the Tree of the Sephirot of the Kabbalah and the Christian Descent from the Cross. In other words, the Dome of the Rock could serve all true believers of the inner teachings of the three religions and gives them means for deep mystical rituals and perhaps a stage for a joint redemptive spectacle.

At bottom, the desire is to return the Shekhinah (God's feminine Presence) to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The high space of the Dome of the Rock allows a representation of the womb of the goddess of Wisdom - the Sefira of Binah or "the Mother" of the Kabbalah, the Higher Shekhinah - from whence there may emerge the Daughter, the Lower Shekhinah (in Arabic Sakina - Peace of reassurance). May there, from the Shrine of Wisdom, flow enough wisdom that may allow us to unravel the joint binding that fetters all the Children of Abraham so badly.

 

Comments and References

[1] George Feurstein: “Spirituality by the Numbers”, Putnam, NY, 1994.

[2] Today also there are prevalent tripartite descriptions of the psyche. For example, Freud distinguishes the “Id”, "Ego” and “Superego”; Eric Berne’s “Transactional Analysis” (TA) describes “Child, Adult and Parent”, and Gordon Pask's cybernetic "Conversation Theory" characterises the psyche to 3 levels of "Concepts", "Memories" and "Psychological Individual" (a coherent system of Beliefs). The figures in the Dome of the Rock thus allow us to graphically visualize and analyze the majority of the psychological processes, personal and interpersonal, to depict an “Ecology of Souls”, in contemporary psychological terms.

[3] Arkon Daraul (1989): “A History of Secret Societies” Citadel Press, NY 1995.

[4] Oleg Grabar and Sa’id Nuseibe: "The Dome of the Rock". Thames and Hudson, 1997.

[5] Ohad Ezrahi: “Two Cherubs – about the Song of Songs and the Holy of Holies”, article in Hayut-Ma’n and Ezrahi: haYashan yithadesh vehaHadash Yitkadesh” (in Hebrew). High-Or Ltd, POBox 8115, Jerusalem 91080, Israel. 1997.

[6] In our composite scheme, the “belly” symbolizes the Nefesh-natural Soul; the lower background marks agreements, the social conventions and norms between people; the “chest” symbolizes the Ruah-Spirit;, the higher background marks understandings between people, and the “head” symbolizes the Neshamah­-Immortal Soul.