SOLOMON TEMPLE - TWICE MISCHIEF AND DESTRUCTION

Timeline:

1004 B.C. - finished building of Temple by Solomon.

586 B.C. - destroyed by the Babylonian under Nebechadnezzar . The Jews were brought to Babylon to be captives. The first warning by Allah.

520 B.C. - return of the Jews from Captivity after the Persians conquered Babylon. 

515 B.C. - Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt the Temple.

167 B.C. - turned into a heathen idol-temple by one of Alexander's successors, Antiochus Epiphanes.

167 B.C. to 63 B.C. - under the rule of Asmonaean dynasty, Jews had a national revival and the names of the Maccabees are remembered as those of heroes.

17 B.C. to 29 A.C. - restored by Herod of the Idumaeans dynasty (63 B.C. to 4 B.C.). The Jews enjoyed some independent power.

70 A.C. - completely razed to the ground by Roman Emperor Titus and the Temple was never rebuilt. The second warning by Allah for resistance leading to 'crucifixion' of Jesus.

Surah 17: Bani Isra'il or A-Isra'

4. And We gave warning to the children of Israel in the Book, that twice would they do mischief on the earth and be elated with mighty arrogance.

5. When the first warning came to pass, We sent against you Our servants given to terrible warfare: they entered the very inmost parts of your homes; it was a warning fulfilled.

6. Then did We grant you the Return as against the: We gave you increase in resources and sons, and made you the more numerous in manpower.

7. If you did well, you did well for yourselves; if you did evil against yourselves. So when the second of the warnings came to pass, to disfigure your faces, and to enter your Temple as they had entered it before, and to visit with destruction all that fell into their power.

1. Glory to (Allah) who did take His servant to a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, shoe precincts We did bless, - in order that We might show him some of Our signs: for He in the One who hears and sees.

(The Farthest Mosque, refers to the site of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem on the hill of Moriah, at or near which stands Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock. They were completed by the Amir 'And al-Malik in A.H. 68. In the time of the Prophet, it was a sacred place to both Jews and Christians, the latter had included in the Byzantine (Roman) Empire and maintained a Patriarch at Jerusalem).

Ref: Abdullah Yusuf Ali. The Meaning of the Holy Quran