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The
Fruits of the Prophet’s Ascension (Al-Mi`raj)
In the very beginning, we would like to note that the
Prophet was really depressed and dejected. His beloved
wife Khadija, a source of comfort and support, was dead.
His uncle Abu Talib, his "second father", a
pillar of strength who defended him against the vicious
attacks of his enemies, was also gone. His mission to Taif
had been unsuccessful. He had tried to invite the people
to Islam, but in hateful and humiliating retaliation, they
had sent their children after him, throwing rocks on him
until he bled. It was truly a Year of Sorrow. It was in
this context that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings be upon him) was taken up to the heavens in a
miraculous and profound journey Muslims know as Isra'
and Mi`raj.
“Out of numerous fruits of the Ascension (Mi`raj),
which is like an elaborate tree of Paradise in meaning, we
shall mention only five as examples.
First Fruit:
The vision of the truths from which the pillars of
faith originate and the seeing of angels, Paradise and the
Hereafter and even the Majestic Being, became the cause of
such a treasury and an eternal light and gift for the
universe and mankind that it has freed the universe from
being seen as a disordered heap of things doomed to
destruction and showed that, in reality, it is the
harmonious collection of the sacred ‘writings’ of the
Eternally Besought-of-All and lovely mirrors where the
Grace and Beauty of the Single One are reflected. It has
pleased and rejoiced the universe and all conscious
beings. Again, through that light and gift, it has freed
man from the confused state of misguidance in which he was
seen as a wretched, completely helpless and destitute
being entangled in innumerable needs and hostilities and
doomed to eternal annihilation, and showed that, in
reality, he is of fairest composition and the best pattern
of creation, one who, being a miracle of the Power of the
Eternally Besought-of-All and a comprehensive copy of the
collection of His ‘writings’, is addressed by the
Sovereign of Eternity, and one who is His private servant
to appreciate His perfections, His friend to behold His
Beauty in amazement, and His beloved and an honorable
guest of His designated for Paradise. It has implanted
infinite joy and enthusiasm in those who are truly human.
Second Fruit:
The Ascension brought to men and jinn as a gift the
essentials of Islam, including primarily the prescribed
five daily prayers, which contain all the things pleasing
to the Ruler of Eternity, Who is the Maker of creatures,
the Owner of the universe, and the Lord of the Worlds.
People must be so curious about perceiving those things
pleasing to Him, and the perception of them brings so
great happiness that it cannot be described. For everyone
is desirous of knowing the wishes of a renowned benefactor
or a benevolent king to the degree that he says: ‘I wish
I had a means of communication and talked to him directly!
I wish I knew what he asks of me! I wish I knew what
things of me are pleasing to him!’ God has the
possession of all creatures, and the grace, beauty and
perfections shared by all creatures are but a dim shadow
in relation to His Beauty, Grace and Perfection. You may
understand to what degree mankind, who need Him in
infinite respects and receive His boundless bounties every
moment, should be curious about and desirous of perceiving
His wishes and the things pleasing to Him.
It was as a fruit of the Ascension that having left
seventy thousand veils behind, the Prophet Muhammad (peace
and blessings be upon him) heard of the things pleasing to
the King of Eternity directly from Him with absolute
certainty and brought them to mankind as a gift.
Mankind are extremely curious to know facts about the
moon and any other planet. They desire that someone will
go there and tell them about it. They are ready to make
great sacrifices for this end. But the moon travels in the
domain of such a Master that it flies around the earth
like a fly. The earth flies around the sun like a moth. As
for the sun, it is only a lamp among thousands of other
lamps and functions like a candle in a guest-house of the
Majestic Master of Kingdom. Thus, such are the acts and
qualities of the Majestic Being, and the wonders of His
art and the treasuries of His Mercy in the eternal world,
that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon
him) saw during the Ascension and then told mankind about.
You may understand how contrary to reason and wisdom it
will be if mankind do not listen to that person with
utmost curiosity and in perfect amazement and love.
Third Fruit:
The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)
saw the hidden treasury of eternal happiness during the
Ascension and brought its keys to men and jinn as a gift.
Through the Ascension he saw Paradise with his own eyes,
observed the everlasting manifestations of the Mercy of
the Majestic All-Merciful One, and perceived eternal
happiness with absolute certainty, and then he brought to
men and jinn the good tiding that there is eternal
happiness (in an everlasting world).
It is indescribable how great happiness it aroused in the
mortal, wretched men and jinn who had regarded themselves
as condemned to eternal annihilation, that such a good
tiding was given to them at a time when all creatures were
giving out heart-rending cries at the thought of being in
a flux amidst the convulsions of death and decay in an
unstable world, going into the ocean of non-existence and
eternal separation through the flow of time and the motion
of particles. Consider how such a tiding delights a man if
he is given a palace by the king in the vicinity of his
residence just when he (the man) is about to be hanged.
Add together the instances of joy and happiness to the
number of all men and jinn, and understand the value of
this good tiding.
Fourth Fruit:
As the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon
him) himself received the fruit of the vision God’s
Beautiful ‘Countenance’, he brought it to men and jinn
as a gift that every believer may be honored with the same
vision. You can understand how delicious, fine, and
beautiful that fruit is when you make a comparison like
this:
Anyone with a heart loves a beautiful, perfect and
benevolent one. This love increases in proportion to the
extent of beauty, perfection and benevolence and mounts to
the degree of adoration and self-sacrifice. It even
increases to the degree that one may sacrifice whatever
one has and one’s life for the sake of a single vision
of the beloved one. Whereas, when compared to His, all the
beauty, perfection and benevolence shared by the whole of
the creation cannot even be like a few flashes of the sun
in comparison to the sun itself. You may understand from
this what a pleasant, beautiful, rejoicing and blissful
fruit it is that one deserves in the abode of eternal
happiness the sight of a Majestic One of perfection, Who
is worthy of infinite love, the sight of Whom deserves to
inspire an infinite eagerness.
Fifth Fruit:
It was understood through the Ascension that man is a
valuable fruit of the universe and a darling beloved of
the Maker of the universe. This understanding is one of
the fruits of the Ascension, through which man, who is
outwardly an insignificant creature, a weak animal and an
impotent conscious being, has risen to a position so high
that it is the cause of pride for man above all other
creatures. The joy and happiness it must give to man is
indescribable. For if you tell an ordinary private that he
has been promoted to the rank of field-marshal, he will
feel infinite joy. While being a mortal, helpless,
reasoning and articulating animal that had been
continually receiving the blows of decay and separation,
man was told unexpectedly through the Ascension: “In the
inner and external dimensions of Allah’s dominion and in
an everlasting Paradise, enveloped by the Mercy of an
All-Merciful, All-Compassionate and All-Magnificent One,
you may succeed in realizing all the desires of your heart
and in recreation, in traveling, to and fro with the speed
of imagination and in the broad sphere of the spirit and
the mind. You may also succeed in seeing His Most
Beautiful ‘Countenance’ in the abode of eternal
happiness.”
You may imagine what great joy and happiness one who is
truly human will feel in his heart on hearing this. Now,
turning to the one in the position of listener, we say:
Tear apart the shirt of atheism and put on the ears of a
believer and the eyes of a Muslim. By means of
comparisons, we will show you the degree of the value of
one or two of those fruits.
Here is the comparison: Suppose we are in a place like
a big desert. Caught by a sand storm in the midst of
night, we cannot see even our hands. While in this
wretched state (hungry, thirsty, hopeless and without
protection) if someone appears unexpectedly with a car,
and picking us up, takes us to a Paradise-like place where
an extremely merciful lord welcomes us and takes us under
his protection, where our future has been secured, and a
banquet has been prepared for us, you may guess how we
will rejoice and feel happy.
So, the desert is the world, and the sands stand for
helpless men and other creatures tossing about in the
violent disturbances of time and events. Every human being
is anxious about his future, at which he looks with the
view of misguidance, and sees it in a thick darkness.
There is no one he knows to hear his cries. He is
extremely hungry and thirsty. But thanks to God’s wishes
and the things pleasing to Him, which we come to know as a
fruit of the Ascension, the world is the guest-house of an
extremely Generous One with men in it being his guests and
officers; when, in such a guest-house, the future appears
to you as beautiful as Paradise, as lovely as mercy and as
brilliant as eternal happiness, you may understand how
lovely, pleasant and beautiful that fruit is.”
Excerpted, with slight modifications, from:
www.thewaytotruth.org
Al-Isra'
& Al-Mi`raj (Night Journey of the Prophet)
As far as the issue of Al-Isra'
and Al-Mi`raj is concerned, we'd deal with it from
the following dimensions:
1. Its Time and Incidents
As for its exact date, it is still controversial and no
agreement has been reached. However, the majority of
jurists are in favor of a date between 16-12 months prior
to migration to Madinah.
It was during this period that the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) found himself made to have a night
journey from the Ka`bah to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa (The
Farthest Mosque) in Jerusalem. Then he was borne to the
celestial regions where he witnessed the seven heavens,
met the Prophets of yore and saw the remarkable signs of
divine majesty about which the Qur’an says: “The
eye turned not aside nor yet was overbold, verily he saw
one of the greater revelations of his Lord.” (An-Najm:
17-18)
Occurrence of the event at that time was meant to confer
dignity upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon
him). It signified something like viands of higher regale
in order to console and alleviate the feelings of distress
caused to him by the persecution of the pagans at Ta’if.
After the incident of Al-Isra' and Al-Mi`raj,
the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) told the
people about his nocturnal journey, but the Quraysh mocked
him and shook their heads stating that it was
inconceivable and beyond the bounds of reason. When Abu
Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) saw the Quraysh
accusing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of
falsehood, he said, “What makes you wonder about it? If
he said this, then it must be true. By Allah, he tells me
that the revelation descends upon him from Heaven in a
flash or in an instant during the day or night and I
believe him. This is even more unimaginable and difficult
than what seems to astound you."
2. Real Significance of Al-Isra' and Al-Mi`raj
The journey of Al-Isra' and Al-Mi`raj did
not occur in a routine or ordinary run of things only to
demonstrate the profound phenomena of the Kingdom of Allah
in the Heavens and the earth to the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) of Islam. More than that, such a
prophetic journey of tremendous importance alludes to a
number of other significant and complex realities of
far-reaching concern to humanity.
The two Qur'anic chapters (Surahs) of Al-Isra' and
An-Najm revealed in connection with this heavenly journey
indicate that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)
was charged with the office of prophethood for both the
Houses of Allah, those in Jerusalem and Makkah, and was
sent as the leader of the East and the West or the entire
human race until the end of time. As the inheritor of all
the Prophets of old, he represented the fulfillment and
consummation of mankind’s religious development. His
nightly journey from Makkah to Jerusalem expresses, in a
figurative way, that his personality conformed and alluded
to the oneness of Al-Masjid Al-Haram at Makkah and Al-Masjid
Al-Aqsa at Jerusalem. That all the Prophets arrayed
themselves behind him in Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa shows
that the doctrine of Islam, preached by him, was final,
universal and all-comprehensive, meant for every class and
section of human society throughout the ages.
The event is, at the same time, indicative of the
comprehensiveness of the prophethood of Muhammad (peace
and blessings be upon him) the place accorded to his
followers in the great task of humanity’s guidance and
the distinctive character of his message.
Frankly speaking, the incident of Al-Isra' and Al-Mi`raj
represents a demarcation line between the regional,
limited and variable rules of divine guidance entrusted to
the Prophets of old and the global, comprehensive and
abiding principles of faith conferred to the universal
leader of human race. Had the Prophet (peace and blessings
be upon him) been a sectional or regional guide, a
national leader, the savior of any particular race or the
restorer of the glory of any particular people, there
would have been no need to honor him with ascension to the
Heavens nor would he have been required to perceive the
hidden phenomena of the Heavens and the earth. Nor would
it have been necessary to create a new link between the
celestial and the earthly surface of the Divine Kingdom;
in that case the confines of his own land, his
surroundings environs and the times would have been
sufficient enough and there would have been no need for
him to divert his attention to any other land or country.
Neither his ascension to the most sublime regions of the
Heavens and to the “Lot-Tree of the Farthest Limit” or
even the nocturnal journey to the far away Jerusalem, then
in the grip of the powerful Christian Empire of Byzantium,
would have been necessary at all.
The Journey of Al-Isra' and Al-Mi`raj of the
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was a divine
proclamation that he had nothing to do with the category
of national or political leaders whose endeavors are
limited to their own country and nation, for they serve
the nations and races to which they belong and are a
product of their time, they serve the need of a particular
juncture. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of
Islam, on the contrary, belonged to the luminous line of
the Messengers of Allah (peace and blessings be upon them
all) who communicate the inspired message of Heaven to the
earth. They are links between Allah and His creatures.
3. The Prescription of Prayer
On this occasion, Allah made fifty Prayers a day
obligatory for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon
him) and his followers. The Prophet (peace and blessings
be upon him) constantly implored Allah for the reduction
of the Prayers until the Lord was also pleased to limit
these to only five times daily. The Lord was also pleased
to declare that whoever properly performs these five times
daily Prayers would be recompensed for all the fifty daily
Prayers enjoined earlier.
Based on Saifur Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri's The Sealed
Nectar and the Biography of the Prophet in: http://www.prophetmuhammed.org
Allah Almighty knows best.
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