Masjid al-Aqsa was in present-day Saudi Arabia, not Jerusalem.
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In my previous post https//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9612370.msg441827#msg441827 I provided evidence that Palestine, and especially Jerusalem, have no significance in Islam.
TLDR In Akhbar Makkah, a 9th century history book by Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-'Azraqi, stated Masjid al-Aqsa was in a town outside of Mecca called al-Ju'ranah and it was known to the people, especially Prophet Muhammad.
When Muslims think of Jerusalem they think of Masjid al-Aqsa, and Bayt al-Maqdis, and make a connection to the Quran chapter 17 verse 01 (1701)
بسماللهالرحمنالرحيمسبحانالذيأسرىبعبدهليلامنالمسجدالحرامإلىالمسجدالأقصىالذيباركناحولهلنريهمنآياتناإنههوالسميعالبصير
Dr. Kamal Omar's interpretation Glorified (is) He Who moved with His Abd by night from Al-Masjid-al-Haram to Al-Masjid-al-Aqsah, the precincts whereof We have blessed in order that We might show him of Our Signs. Verily He He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer
This verse has variant readings but that's not the topic.
I came across an article published in Okaz news outlet by Usama Yemani, a Saudi lawyer, regarding Masjid al-Aqsa who wrote
“Jerusalem is not Al-Aqsa as it was not bearing this name during the mission of the messenger of God, Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, nor during the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs”
“Note that the first qibla has nothing to do with Al-Aqsa Mosque, just as there is no consensus about the first qibla”
Yemani claimed that the Al Aqsa Mosque is in Al Ju'ranah, a village in Mecca province, in western Saudi Arabia.
Al Ju’ranah is located 18 miles northeast of Mecca.
He said the masjid “is located in the region and it was known as the Masjid al-Aqsa because there is another masjid built by one of the benefactors known as the Masjid al-Adna.”
Yemani claimed “narratives and narrators is due to political matters that have been employed in favor of events, issues, and political stances that have nothing to do with faith or interest in deeds and worship.”
https//www.okaz.com.sa/articles/authors/2048070
https//www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/11/326128/saudi-lawyer-claims-al-aqsa-mosque-is-in-saudi-arabia-not-jerusalemIS USAMA YEMANI'S THEORY TRUE?
In a 9th century history book Akhbar Makkah, by Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-'Azraqi, stated Masjid al-Aqsa was in a town outside of Mecca called al-Ju'ranah and it was known to the people, especially Prophet Muhammad. https//shamela.ws/book/8362/428
The masjid was built by a man of the Quraysh in the valley which by its name Aqsa was further down than another masjid named Adna which was closer.
https//shamela.ws/book/8362/428
روينا بالسند المتقدم إلى الأزرقي قال حدثني جدي، عن الزنجي، عن ابن جريج قال أخبرني زياد بن محمد بن طارق أخبره أنه اعتمر مع مجاهد من الجعرانة، فأحرم من وراء الوادي حيث الحجارة المنصوبة قال ومن ههنا أحرم النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم، وإني لأعرف أول من اتخذ المسجد على الأكمة، بناه رجل من قريش سماه، واشترى بمال عنده نخلا، فبنى هذا المسجد، قال ابن جريج فلقيت أبا محمد بن طارق فسألته فقال اتفقت أنا ومجاهد بالجعرانة، فأخبرني أن المسجد الأقصى الذي من وراء الوادي بالعدوة القصوى مصلى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ما كان بالجعرانة، قال وأما هذا مجاهد فإنما بناه رجل من قريش، واتخذ ذلك الحائط١ ... انتهى.
ونقل ابن خليل عن ابن جريج أن الرجل الذي بنى المسجد الأديني هو عبد الله بن خالد الخزاعي.
وذكر الواقدي أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أحرم من المسجد الأقصى الذي تحت الوادي بالعدوة القصوى من الجعرانة، وكان مصلى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم إذا كان بالجعرانة، فأما الأدنى فبناه رجل من قريش، واتخذ ذلك الحائط عنده، ولم يجز رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم الوادي إلا محرمًا ... انتهى.
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https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ji%27rana - see footnotes too
Al-Ji'rana (Arabic الجعرانة) is a village in Makkah Province, in western Saudi Arabia. It is located 18 miles northeast of Mecca.
Al-Ji'rana was mentioned by the 8th-century Arab historian al-Waqidi.
In his Kitab al-Tarikh wa al-Maghazi (Arabic كتاب التاريخ والمغازي, "Book of History and Campaigns" Al-Waqidi describes two ancient sanctuaries in Al-Ju'ranah visited by Muhammad on his journey on dha al-qa'dah of the eighth year after the Hijrah masjid al-aqṣā ("the farthest mosque" and masjid al-adnā ("the closest mosque". This was also mentioned by Al-Azraqi, a 9th century Islamic commentator and historian.
According to the Qur'an, Muhammad was transported to a site named Al-Aqsa—"the furthest place of prayer" (al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā) during his Night Journey (Isra and Mi'raj). The Qur'an does not mention the exact location of "the furthest place of prayer". The actual meaning of the phrase is debated in both early Islamic and contemporary sources. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the term was originally understood as a reference to a site in the heavens. Another group of Islamic scholars understood the story of Muhammad's ascension from al-Aqsa Mosque as relating to Jerusalem. Eventually, a consensus emerged around the identification of the "furthest place of prayer" with Jerusalem, and by implication the Temple Mount.
In 1953, British Islamic scholar Alfred Guillaume suggested that Al-Ju'ranah was the location of Al-Aqsa described in the Qur'an as the destination of Muhammad's Night Journey. He based his theory on the writings of Al-Waqidi and Al-Azraqi. In 1959, French art historian Oleg Grabar wrote this theory was convincing. This theory has received backing from Youssef Ziedan, Mordechai Kedar, Yitzhak Reiter, and Suleiman al-Tarawneh in recent years. These historians also support the view according which the Umayyad dynasty's political objectives contributed to the sanctification of Jerusalem in Islam, as they sought to compete with the religious importance of Mecca, which was then ruled by their rival, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The theory has been criticized as a "claim merely consists of subjective interpretations".
In November 2020, Saudi lawyer Osama Yamani promoted this theory in an opinion article in the Saudi newspaper Okaz. The article sparked outrage from Muslims around the world, with some writers claiming it was fabricated to justify the decision of some Gulf countries to normalize ties with Israel.
The Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem https//www.jstor.org/stable/4629098
Khalek, N. (2011). Jerusalem in Medieval Islamic Tradition. Religion Compass, 5(10), 624–630. doi10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00305.x.
"One of the most pressing issues in both medieval and contemporary scholarship related to Jerusalem is weather the city is explicitly referenced in the text of the Qur'an. Sura 17, verse 1, which reads has been variously interpreted as referring to the miraculous Night Journey and Ascension of Muhammad, events recorded in medieval sources and known as the isra and miraj. As we will see, this association is a rather late and even a contested one. The earliest Muslim work on the Religious Merits of Jerusalem was the Fada'il Bayt al-Maqdis by al-Walid ibn Hammad al-Ramli (d. 912 CE), a text which is recoverable from later works. He relates the significance of Jerusalem vis-a-vis the Jewish Temple, conflating 'a collage of biblical narratives' and comments pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a practice which was controversial in later Muslim periods.""Miʿrād̲j̲". The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 7 (New ed. 2006 ed.). Brill. 2006. pp. 97–105. For this verse, tradition gives three interpretations
The oldest one, which disappears from the more recent commentaries, detects an allusion to Muhammad's Ascension to Heaven. This explanation interprets the expression al-masjid al-aksa, "the further place of worship" in the sense of "Heaven" and, in fact, in the older tradition isra is often used as synonymous with miradj (see Isl., vi, 14). The second explanation , the only one given in all the more modern commentaries, interprets masjid al-aksa as "Jerusalem" and this for no very apparent reason. It seems to have been an Umayyad device intended to further the glorification of Jerusalem as against that of the holy territory (cf. Goldziher, Muh. Stud., ii, 55-6; Isl, vi, 13 ff), then ruled by Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr. Al-Tabarl seems to reject it. He does not mention it in his History and seems rather to adopt the first explanation.