In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary at the 7th heaven that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, translated as the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.

The reference appears in the Qur’an in a short, concentrated passage in Surah An-Najm (The Star), describing a vision “at the Lote Tree of the most extreme limit.” The lote tree is known as the Sidr tree, from which the Yemenites make holy honey, and it is also believed to be the thorn worn by Jesus.

Where the lote shows up in Islam’s most famous ascent story

The boundary, or Sidrat al-Muntahā is most often discussed in connection with the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey and Ascension (al-Isrā’ wal-Mi‘rāj) to Jerusalem, which was a dream. For in reality, Mohammed never actually made it to Jerusalem, the Holy City. In a well-known narration recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, the moment is described with a modest line:

Then Jibril took me till we reached Sidrat-ul-Muntaha … which was shrouded in colors indescribable.

In the same narration, the ascent is tied to the establishment of the five daily prayers — a reminder that the story returns to lived practice. In Judaism, the three-times daily supplication was inspired by the Jewish forefather Abraham, described as “standing” before God, interpreted as the first morning prayer (Genesis 19:27), and Isaac going out to “meditate” (or pray) in the fields and Jacob inspired by the evening prayers.

What “utmost boundary” means

In Islam, the Arabic name is descriptive: sidrah (transliterated with an h or without) refers to a lote tree, and muntahā means the farthest point or extremity — the tree at the limit. One academic treatment explores how “the lote tree of the boundary” functions as a threshold image in Islamic interpretive traditions.

Knowing about the concept of the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary helps explain a core idea in Islam: God is beyond creation, and there are limits to what humans — and even angels — can know. Islam doesn’t aim for union with God or endless revelation; it emphasizes humility, restraint, and knowing when to stop asking. The story of the Lote Tree shows why Islam values discipline and practice, like daily prayer, over personal mystical experience. Protecting the boundary between the divine and the human is seen not as restrictive, but as essential.

The sidr tree and the Lote Tree

The sidr tree is a real, familiar tree across Arabia and parts of the Middle East. And it makes great honey. In English it’s often called the lote tree or Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus species). It grows in harsh, dry conditions, provides deep shade, edible fruit, and medicinal leaves, and is known for its resilience.

For centuries it has been part of everyday desert life — practical, tough, and unremarkable in appearance.

In Islam, this ordinary tree is given extraordinary meaning. Sidrat al-Muntahā — the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary — takes its name from the sidr tree but is not simply a botanical reference. It marks the furthest limit of creation and knowledge, the point beyond which no created being, including angels, can go.

The Qur’an mentions it briefly, without description or symbolism piled on. That restraint is intentional. Islam does not turn the sidr tree into a symbol of God or a ladder toward divinity as the Jewish text goes – Jacob wrestling with the angel. Instead, it uses a known, grounded tree to mark a boundary. In Islam God remains beyond the created world, and knowing where that boundary lies is part of the faith.

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Nearly nine years have passed since since Green Prophet joined a media tour sponsored by Eco Peace head Gideon Bromberg to see what has happened to the lower Jordan River. At that time, Bromberg showed us the current situation of a once free-flowing stream that had now become nothing more than a trickle of brackish and diverted sewage water by the time it reached its final destination: the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee, the natural water source for the lower Jordan, is itself in dire circumstances due to years of extreme drought and water usage by Israel, the Palestinians and neighboring countries who all lay claim to the lake’s dwindling water supplies.

Historically, the Sea of Galilee, known as the Kinneret by Israel, and the Jordan River are so much a part of biblical history that they are often mentioned in biblical writings.

This is particularly so in Christianity’s New Testament, where Jesus often referred to the Sea of Galilee as being holy and recruited fishermen from the lake to “throw away thy nets and become fishers of men”. With lake levels near the catastrophic “black line” despite recent winter rains  the former “holy waters” of the lake are still at levels not seen in well over 100 years, according to Yoav Barkay-Arbel, an engineer for Mekorot, Israel’s national water company.

In a recent article in the UK news site, The Guardian, the state of the lake’s water crises  was dramatized by wondering how Jesus would have regarded the lake had it been in such a sad condition at the time he preached on its shores and allegedly walked upon its waters.

The Guardian article pointed out that Christian pilgrims who visit the Baptismal sites on the Jordan, particularly at the traditional biblical baptismal site at Kasir al Yahud (photo below), run the risk of contracting severe health problems due the extreme pollution of the water there. Due to this problem, most baptism rituals now take place at a Jordan River site near the lake’s southern shore, the Yardanit Baptismal Site.

Despite water levels rising more than a meter during the recent rains, the lake’s current water levels are now between the “lower red line”, where the water is still considered as being safe; and the dire “black line” where underground saline springs could make the lake’s water too saline to use.

Israel already gets more than 85% of its fresh drinking water from 5 desalination plants along its Mediterranean sea coast. Although environmentally non-friendly and very expensive to operate, desalination has become so widely used that there are now plans to actually divert some of this desalinated water into the Kinneret to help raise the lake’s fresh water levels as well as diverting a small portion of lake water back into the lower Jordan.

Eco Peace’s Gideon Bromberg has been involved for many years in trying to enable better distribution of the Sea of Galilee’s water to all of the inhabitants of the region. including Jordan and the Palestinians. Bromberg says that letting the lake level reach the dreaded “black line” “would be an ecological disaster.”

Bromberg had previously told us during the river tour 9 years earlier that this situation had already happened to the Lower Jordan River, largely due to most of the Kinneret’s water being diverted by Israel for drinking and agricultural use. The present situation in February, 2019 has definitely not improved and has even deteriorated further. Mekorot’s Barkay-Arbel says that a so-called wet winter only gives a temporary respite to the lake’s critical water shortage and that summer water evaporation will return the lake to former critical water levels.

Israel’s 1994 peace agreement with Jordan included diverting part of the Kinneret’s water to the Kingdom to help alleviate its dire water shortage. Joint desalination projects between Israel and Jordan have been discussed for a number of years; but so far, no joint projects have actually been implemented. Israel continues to be in a state of war with Syria; and as such, no water agreements have been officially been reached between them. This is especially so, since Syria has demanded that its border actually reaches part of the lake; which up to now has been unacceptable to Israel.

More about the water issues of the Sea of Galilee and Lower Jordan River:

Sea of Galilee still critical water levels despite winter rain

Canada and the USA sign on to rehabilitate the Jordan River

Unholy Waters: the Jordan River is Nearly Dead

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If Jesus had a Facebook account, this could be his profile picture. So says Richard Neave, a medical artist famed for reconstructing legendary faces from antiquity. (See the reconstructed face of Ramses II here). With a team of Israeli archeologists and British scientists, he recreated what they claim is the most accurate image of Jesus.

For Christ’s sake, is this for real?  Short, black, kinky hair wrapped around thick features? A swarthy man looking awfully well fed?

Western culture paints a far different picture of a tall, slim man with flowing locks threaded with golden highlights.  He has light-colored eyes set in a pale face that sprouts wispy facial hair. It’s a look rocked by 1970’s musicians, think Neil Young, George Harrison, even Frank Zappa.

And he’s scrawny like Russell Brand, not brawny like Russell Crowe.

That’s not only an industrial-age Western view – the mosaic portrait below is from Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.

“The fact that he probably looked a great deal more like a darker-skinned Semite than westerners are used to seeing him pictured is a reminder of his universality,” Charles D. Hackett, director of Episcopal studies at the Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, told Popular Mechanics, “And [it is] a reminder of our tendency to sinfully appropriate him in the service of our cultural values.”

The New Testament doesn’t describe Christ’s appearance, no contemporary drawings of him have ever been found. But there are clues.

Recall the Gospel of Matthew: when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas Iscariot had to point him out because the soldiers couldn’t tell him from his disciples. It’s logical that he would have looked like the Galilean Semites of his era, and not a white-boy rock and roller.

Neave and his research team started with Semite skulls from near Jerusalem, where Jesus lived and preached. Tapping into forensic anthropology – the same scientific toolkit used to solve crimes – Neave used special software to determine the thickness of soft tissue at key areas of the face, making it possible to re-create the muscles and skin overlying a representative Semite skull.

Results, verified against anthropological data, were used to digitally reconstruct the face. Next, researchers cast a skull, applying layers of clay matching computer-specified facial tissue, topped with simulated skin. The nose, lips and eyelids were modeled in accordance with underlying muscles.

Neave’s team turned to drawings found at archeological sites dated to the first century to determine Christ’s hair and coloration.  Clues indicated that Jesus had dark eyes and hair, and that, in line with Jewish tradition, he was bearded.

Analyzing skeletal remains, archeologists established that Christ’s contemporaries averaged a smidge taller than 5 feet and weighed about 110 pounds. They theorize that after years of outdoor work, this most famous carpenter would have been muscular with a weather-beaten face.

Neave emphasizes that his re-creation is simply that of an adult man who lived in the same place and at the same time as Jesus. Alison Galloway, professor of anthropology at the University of California in Santa Cruz, told Popular Mechanics, “This is probably a lot closer to the truth than the work of many great masters.”

Images of Christ in order of appearance from Popular Mechanics; Christ from Hagia Sophia mosaic; Wikipedia; Catholic Tradition; and Wikimedia Commons

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Built at the lowest elevation on earth, and less than a year old, this jewel-box of a museum showcases the Dead Sea region’s rich past.

After Israel, no nation has as many Biblical sites as Jordan.  The Dead Sea gets several mentions in the Bible, and it’s where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.  Jesus was baptized by John in Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, before the baptist lost his head in Machaerus.

Jordan was a favorite stomping ground for Moses: he struck a rock in ‘Ain Musa and his people and their livestock drank of its flowing waters. He gazed across the Jordan Valley to the Promised Land, then died at Mount Nebo.

And there’s Lot’s Cave, where the prophet and his daughters sought refuge after the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s perhaps the Bible’s spiciest story: clan Lot narrowly escapes annihilation in the ancient “sin cities”,  the missus turns to salt, and dad runs with his daughters into the Jordan hills for a future seeped in alcohol and incest. And now you can step right in to see where it all went down.

The Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth is located 1,329 feet below sea level at the southern edge of the Dead Sea, a stone’s throw from the Byzantine monastery that commemorates Lot’s cave. The museum, spearheaded by Dr. Konstantinos Politis, was developed by the Hellenic Society for the Near East (HSNES) in collaboration with the British Museum.

It features well-lit gallery spaces  filled with important antiquities recovered from the Ghor-es-Safi region by Dr. Politis and his team of archaeologists.   Clear storyboards describe the diverse populations that have inhabited the Dead Sea shores over millennia.

Visitors can see 4,500-year-old pottery excavated from Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira (commonly considered to be the biblical towns of Sodom and Gomorrah).  There are architectural elements and mosaics salvaged from the Byzantine monastery, preserved Greco-Roman garments, and Bronze Age ceramics recovered from inside Lot’s cave.

Ancient tombstones unearthed from the region’s many cemeteries help tell the story of the Arab, Jewish and Christian communities that settled sequentially in Zoar /Zoora.

A final gallery displays objects from Ghor es-Safi’s more recent past, including artifacts from the intensive sugar industry that flourished in Zoar /Zoora during the Mamluk period (13th–16th centuries), as well as handicrafts and daily implements used by the Bedouin and villagers who live in the area today.  (See a basket rendered in typical style using plastic bags collected from village roadsides, below.)

Visitors can sit in a small indoor theater and enjoy short films about the project’s mosaic conservation efforts or the geology of the Dead Sea and the Rift Valley, and the museum is planning special exhibits including “Seafaring on the Dead Sea” to “Zoar’s Pottery Through the Ages.”

Facilities include a large conservation laboratory, library, a multimedia center, and a shop run by the local women’s co-operative.  Publications about the museum’s findings are available via the HSNES website.

Most trips to Jordan include a dip in the Dead Sea, and all along its northern shoreline, public beaches and a cluster of posh resorts offer that experience to every price point.

Backpackers and couchsurfers tend towards open camping and minimalist eco-accommodation, depending on Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet for self-guided tourism. Wealthier travelers tend towards the larger hotels offering luxury spas and pricey restaurants, where there is some encouragement by concierge staff for visitors on extended stay to visit nearby sites like Karak Castle and Mount Nebo.

In the area? Check out this quiet gem.  It’s an easy day tripping option within the coastal area’s wider tourism menu.

Museum photos from Dr. Konstantinos Politis; basket photo by author

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Late November, the Israel Ministry of Tourism launched the Gospel Trail, a modular trail that follows the paths that Jesus is believed to have taken when he left Nazareth, the home of his childhood, for Capernaum on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which became the center of his ministry. It is the second trail to follow the footsteps of Jesus, joining a somewhat parallel course as the Jesus Trail nearby.

The 62 kilometer Gospel Trail starts at Mount Precipice near Nazareth and ends at Kfar Nahum, and it consists of specially-signposted footpaths and roads which can be traveled on foot, by bicycle, horse and by car even.

Green tourism in Israel

The new trail is expected to enrich the Israeli tourism experience for Christian tourists to Israel.

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in Christian tourism to Israel, and the Gospel Trail is expected to attract an additional 200,000 tourists over the next two years. We like the “green” component of getting outside and hiking through villages to know the land and people along that trail.

Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov: “Christian tourism is both significant and central to the incoming tourism industry in Israel. The Gospel Trail enhances the spiritual experience for every tourist and traveler in Israel, and especially for the Christian community.

“It is a real honor to invite the entire Christian world to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and to walk in the same places where he walked.”

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