Hebron -

A few meters separate the last Israeli checkpoint from the first stone entrance to the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the Palestinian city of Hebron (south of the West Bank).

There, the director of the mosque, Sheikh Hefzy Abu Asinina, was waiting for Al-Jazeera Net correspondent to learn about the graves of God’s prophets, whose narrations have been repeated to have them buried in a cave under the mosque called “Al-Makafilah” which means “the double”;

Referring to the separation of men and women in the burial, according to the director of the mosque.

At the first doors of the mosque, the visitor takes a stone staircase of 32 steps, each of which is about two and a half meters long, and more than 80 centimeters wide, and ends with another ornate stone gate, all of which date back to the Mamluk era (1250-1517 AD).

Tombs and shrines

Away from the historical details that crowd the mosque - especially the Islamic monuments in its construction and walls - Abu Asinina takes us to small rooms distributed throughout the mosque called "maqamat".

The shrine is a room built of white, red and black stone, on top of a wooden chest covered with pieces of cloth, some of which date back hundreds of years, and on top of each is the tomb of a prophet or his wife, who were buried in the cave about 18 meters below the mosque.

The shrine of Abraham, peace be upon him, in Hebron (Al-Jazeera)

There are 7 shrines in the mosque, of which 5 are in the part of the mosque that is controlled by the occupation, and Muslims can only access it on limited religious occasions, with the possibility of seeing some of them, and the rest are within the section available to Muslims.

After a massacre carried out by an Israeli settler in 1994, the occupation cut off about half of the mosque and turned it into a synagogue, and closed it to Muslims.

Sarah's grave

The tour began before the last door leading to the minbar and mihrab area of ​​the mosque, in the shrine of “Our Lady Sarah, may God be pleased with her,” as documented by a metal plate on a window overlooking the shrine, located in the part controlled by Israel, but it appears from one of its windows.

The shrine of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, peace be upon him, in Hebron (Al-Jazeera)

Sarah is the wife of the Prophet of God and his friend Abraham, peace be upon him, to whom the mosque or sanctuary is attributed as the Palestinians prefer to call it, and the visitor can see the shrine covered with cloth brought to him from India.

The cloth is adorned with Quranic verses, and on it is written, "This is the tomb of our Lady Sarah, may God be pleased with her, the wife of the Prophet, Khalil al-Rahman, peace be upon him."

Tomb of Khalil Allah

After we entered the mosque, we headed right to the opposite side of the shrine of Sarah, where the shrine of Abraham, peace be upon him, is covered with a luxurious cloth brought from India as well, and renovated in 2006.

Inside the shrine of Abraham, peace be upon him, in Hebron (Al-Jazeera)

On the canvas, Quranic verses are written with threads of gold, defining it, “This is the tomb of Khalil al-Rahman, peace be upon him.” It is located in the area designated for settlers from the mosque.

Abu Asinina points out that the Maqamat cloth is usually brought from Malaysia or Egypt, in addition to India.

Tomb of Isaac and his wife

At the front of the mosque, where the pulpit and the mihrab are in the part dedicated to Muslims, two shrines that cut the rows of worshipers stand out, erected over two tombs inside the cave at the bottom of the mosque.

The shrine of Isaac, peace be upon him, in Hebron (Al-Jazeera)

To the right of the chapel is the shrine of Ishaq, peace be upon him, covered with a cloth embroidered with gold threads from the Ottoman era, and inside it are lamps that were lit with oil, but today they have been replaced by dim green electric lights.

The organizers of the mosque keep inside the shrine a wooden box that was given to the mosque from the Sultanate of Oman, and inside it the best types of incense, and it is used when needed.

On the opposite side and to the right of the prayer hall, there is the shrine of Rebekah, Isaac's wife, and this is written on an old piece of cloth covering a wooden box inside the shrine.

The shrine of Mrs. Rebekah, the wife of the Prophet Isaac and the mother of the Prophet Jacob, peace be upon them (Al-Jazeera)

The visitor can look inside the rooms through windows covered with iron grilles and bearing the emblem of the Ottoman Empire.

Tombs of Joseph and Jacob

The director of the Ibrahimi Mosque points out that the shrine of Joseph, peace be upon him, is located in the area under the control of the settlers, as is the case with the shrines of Jacob and his wife, Laika, and none of them can be reached.

Abu Asinina transmits the historical account that Joseph, peace be upon him, lived, died and was buried in Egypt, then his father’s will was carried out to bury him next to him, so his body was transferred to Hebron, when Moses, peace be upon him, presented “according to the most likely narrations.”

Umayyad signals

Abu Asinina explains that the shrine "consists of signs and signs, built to confirm and prove that the owner of this tomb is in this place."

He says that the first to set up rooms over the Umayyad shrines (662AD-750AD), and the first to be buried was Sarah, the wife of Hebron, peace be upon him, and then Abraham recommended that he be buried next to Sarah and his offspring after him.

The Palestinian Endowments Department owns the keys to the shrine rooms, but the occupation does not allow access to them or open them.

In connection with the shrines, there is a small window that leads to the cave at the bottom of the mosque. A dome was built over it during the Mamluk era by order of Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun, as written on it in thuluth script and gold water.

Director of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, Sheikh Hefzy Abu Sneina (Al-Jazeera)

Youssef's body was transported

Mustafa al-Dabbagh states, in his encyclopedia "Our Country Palestine", that "in the early nineteenth century BC, Abraham, peace be upon him, lived (...) north of Hebron."

He added, "When Abraham's wife Sarah died, he buried her in the "Cave of the Machpelah" that he had bought, and when Abraham died and after him his son "Isaac" and his wife "Rebekah" they were buried in the aforementioned cemetery, as was buried there after that "Leah" Jacob's wife.

And it is reported from the Old Testament that "Jacob had died in Egypt, but the doctors mummified his body and Joseph and his brothers brought it to the village of Arba' (Hebron) and buried him in the Cave of Macphleia."

He added, "When Joseph died in Egypt, his body was mummified, and when the Jews, led by Moses, left Egypt, they took it with them and buried it near Nablus. It is said that his body was then transferred to the village of Arbaa (Hebron)."