After the Muslim victories in Shām, Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ besieged Jerusalem, and its people agreed to surrender only to the caliph in person, so ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb travelled from Madinah and received the city peacefully in about 16–17 AH — a fulfilment of the Prophet's foretelling that the conquest of Bayt al-Maqdis would be among the signs preceding the Hour. ʿUmar granted the famous ʿUmarī covenant guaranteeing the inhabitants their lives, property, churches and crosses, with no compulsion in religion, and historians such as al-Ṭabarī record that he declined to pray inside the Church of the Resurrection lest Muslims after him take it as a mosque. He then had the neglected site of al-Masjid al-Aqṣā cleared and a prayer place built at its southern end. The episode is cited by Sunni scholars as a model of just conquest and of the protection owed to non-Muslims under a treaty.
Q&A · Islamic History
How did Jerusalem come under Muslim rule during the caliphate of ʿUmar?
Evidence — the daleel
Sahih al-Bukhari 3176 ṢaḥīḥQuran 2:256Quran 17:1al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk — the covenant of ʿUmar to the people of Ilyaʾ (Jerusalem)
On deen2u
Informational, not a personal fatwa. Consult a qualified scholar for rulings on your situation.