Shu'fat Eastern Mosque (Ali Bin Abi Taleb)

Overlooking the rocky slopes on the outskirts of Jerusalem, the Eastern Mosque of Shu'fat, named after Ali ibn Abi Talib, may God be pleased with him, serves the Palestinian community of Anata and the neighbouring suburbs of the holy city. Anata is an ancient village whose history reaches back to biblical times, identified by scholars with the Anathoth mentioned in early sources, and its name still preserves echoes of that distant antiquity. Through the long centuries of Islamic rule, beginning with the peaceful opening of Jerusalem by the Caliph Umar ibn al Khattab, may God be pleased with him, in the year 637, the villages around Bayt al Maqdis grew into a ring of pious settlements orbiting the sacred precinct of al Aqsa.

The naming of this mosque after Ali, the noble cousin and son in law of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, plants his memory among the rocky hills that he himself is said to have visited in the earliest accounts of Muslim armies approaching Jerusalem. Ali is remembered across the Muslim world as the gate of knowledge, the brave warrior of Badr and Khaybar, and the judge whose rulings combined firmness with tender mercy. Every person who prays here is invited to reflect on those virtues and carry a little of them into daily life.

The building is a characteristic Palestinian village mosque. Walls of local limestone, whitewashed on the inside, surround a simple prayer hall oriented toward the qiblah of Mecca; a slender minaret rises beside the entrance, and carpets donated by neighbourhood families cover the floor. The congregation gathers for the five prayers, for Jumu'ah, and especially for tarawih during Ramadan, when the proximity to al Aqsa gives every recitation a particular resonance. Despite the political difficulties that have long marked life here, the mosque remains a quiet anchor of faith.

On this page you will find current prayer times for the Shu'fat Eastern Mosque, its location map, its address near Anata, and notes that help residents of East Jerusalem, travellers from Ramallah or Bethlehem, and relatives visiting from abroad to attend Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha here within sight of the holy city, with calm confidence through every season of the year.