In one of the earliest posts on this blog I mentioned a few of the different names of Al Quds (Jerusalem). There are in fact many more names for this blessed city. This page will give a more comprehensive summary of some of these names. JazakAllahu khayran to brother The_Middle_Road, whose blog I took the information for this page from.
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Why does it matter if Al Quds has multiple names?
Well, ‘So what?’ you might be thinking. The answer is that the great number of names indicates towards an abundance of virtue and excellence. Imam Fakhruddin al-Razi mentions this in his tafsir of Surah al-Ikhlas. So all these different names for Jerusalem is an indication that it is a very blessed and honourable place. May Allah ta’ala grant us to visit it and pray in Masjid al-Aqsaa, Aameen.
The names of Al Quds
Al Quds (Jerusalem) has a variety of different names, numbering close to twenty. Some of them are as follows, as mentioned by Imam ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani in his commentary of Sahih al Bukhari, ‘Fath al-Bari’:
1. Iliya’ with madd [extension]
2. Iliya’ without madd
3. Ilya’ by dropping the first yaa
4. According to ibn ‘Abbas (ra) ال could be prefixed to all the above three
5. Bait al-Maqdis
6. Bait al-Muqaddas
7. al-Quds
8. al-Qudus
9. Shallam
10. Sallam
11. Shalam
12. Salim
13. Uri
14. Kurah
15. Bait Ail
16. Sihyun
17. Misruth
18. Kurshila
19. Babus
You can view the Arabic of these names by clicking on the link to this document, as unfortunately I was unable to get the Arabic to display correctly within the post.
