THE LIFE OF PROPHET

MUHAMMAD(SAW)
{ LECTURE 16
AL ISRA WAL MIRAJ
JOURNEY FROM HAL MASJID AL HARAM TO AL AQSA
ON BURAQ
THE ASCENSION
 A STAIRCASE OF ZAMROOD PRESENTED
 HAZOOR (SAW) WENT UP TO THE
HEAVENS
  Allah ascended the Prophet (saw) from the Dome of
the Rock through the skies, where he not only saw
many miraculous sights and numerous angels, he
also met the past Prophets (as). Along the way, he
(saw) was greeted with excitement and delight, as
his arrival had been much-anticipated.
 It is hard to imagine how he (saw) must have felt
upon meeting his brothers (as), all of whom had
gone through trials and difficulties, as they met him
with the warmth and love his own tribe had isolated
him from. He was greeted with the words, ‘Welcome
O pious Prophet and pious brother!’ (Bukhari).
(Adam (as) and Ibrahim (as), however, welcomed
him as a ‘pious son’)

THE JOURNEY
  The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ’Then he ascended
with us to the heaven [first layer of the sky and end of
the known universe]. Jibril [as] then asked the (gate of
heaven) to be opened (by knocking on one of its doors).
[Bukhari]
 It was said, “Who are you?” He said, “Jibril [as]“.
 It was said, “And who is with you?” He said,
“Muhammad [saw]“.
 It was said, “Has he been sent for?” He said, “He has
indeed been sent for”.
 And it (the door of the heaven) was opened for us and
suddenly I was with (the Prophet) Adam [as]. Then he
welcomed me and supplicated for good for me’.
[Muslim]

THE FIRST HEAVEN

 (In other narrations it mentioned the angelic
gatekeepers rejoiced at the arrival of the beloved
Prophet (saw) and proclaimed, ‘Welcome unto him!
What an amazing arrival has come!’ [Muslim] and ‘He
is most welcome and amongst family!’ [Bukhari]).
 In other narrations we gain more details of the meeting
of the Prophet (saw) and the Prophet Adam (as):
 ’There we saw a man sitting with some people on his
right and some on his left. When he looked towards his
right, he laughed and when he looked toward his left
he wept. Then he said, ”Welcome O pious Prophet and
pious son!” (or in another narration, ”Welcome you are
amongst family, O my son! What an amazing son you
are!” [Bukhari]).
  I asked Jibril [as], “Who is he?” He replied, “He
is Adam [as] and the people on his right and
left are the souls of his offspring. Those on his
right are the people of Paradise and those on
his left are the people of Hell and when he
looks towards his right he laughs and when he
looks towards his left, he weeps”’. [Bukhari]

ADAM(AS)
  When the Prophet (saw) continued to ascend the layers of sky
with Jibril (as). Again, permission was sought to enter, and the
angelic guards were delighted and welcomed the Messenger
of Allah (saw).
 At the second sky, he met the maternal cousins, the Prophets
Isa (as) and Yahya (as).
 At the third sky, the Prophet (saw) met the Prophet Yusuf (as)
whom he described as having ‘been given half of (world)
beauty’ [Muslim]. The Messenger of Allah (saw) had himself
been blessed with all beauty, ma sha’ Allah!
 At the fourth sky, the Prophet (saw) met the Prophet Idris (as)
whose soul was taken there, and he is praised in the Qur’an:
‘We raised him to a lofty position’. [The Noble Qur’an, 19:57]
 At the fifth sky, he met the Prophet Harun (as); and in the
sixth sky, he met Prophet Harun’s younger brother, the
Prophet Musa (as).
 Some narrations mention that Musa (as) was seen crying and a
voice was heard saying, ‘What makes you cry?’ He said, ’My
Lord, this is a young man whom You have sent after me (as a
Prophet) and his Ummah will enter Paradise in greater
numbers than my Ummah’. [Muslim]

SECOND TO SIXTH
SKY
 At each one of these levels, these Prophets (as)
welcomed the Prophet (saw) and supplicated
good for him saying, ‘Welcome O pious
Prophet and pious brother!’ [Bukhar
  At the seventh sky, the Prophet (saw) met his
greatest ancestor, the Prophet Ibrahim (as) who was
‘reclining his back against al-Bait al-Ma‘mur. And
there enter into it seventy thousand angels every
day, never to return to it (again)’. [Muslim]
 (Bait al-Ma’mur literally means ‘the much-visited
House’. It is the heavenly Ka‘bah directly above the
one on earth).
 Like Adam (as), Ibrahim (as) greeted the Prophet
(saw) saying, ‘Welcome O pious Prophet and pious
son!’ [Bukhari]

THE SEVENTH SKY

  The Prophet (saw) carried on his journey, reaching the
Furthest Lote Tree. The Arabic word for this is Sidrah
al-Muntaha [The Noble Qur’an, 53:14]. The Prophet
(saw) described this vast tree in great detail!
 ‘[Its] leaves were like elephant ears and its fruit like big
earthenware vessels’. [Muslim]
 ‘Then when it was covered by the Command of Allah,
it underwent such a change that none amongst the
creation has the power to praise its beauty’. [Muslim]
 ‘A rider will travel in the shade of one of its branches
for a hundred years,’ or ‘a hundred riders will seek to
shade themselves with its shade’. [Tirmidhi]
 The tree is surrounded with ‘golden butterflies’.
[Tirmidhi]
 He further said: ‘many a colour had covered it which I
do not know (i.e. the colours of this tree were
indescribable)’. [Muslim]
 He also stated that, ‘There terminates everything that
ascends from the earth, and everything that descends
from above’. [Tirmidhi]
 SubhanAllah, the Prophet (saw) witnessed a truly
amazing sign from Allah!

THE LOTE TREE

  At the end of this journey, the Prophet (saw)
was brought into the Divine Presence, the
ultimate source of strength and relief. It is
impossible to imagine the beauty of this scene,
or how loved, honoured and humbled the
Prophet (saw) must have felt.
 We do not know a great about what was
privately discussed between Allah and His
beloved (saw), with Allah simply stating, ‘Then
Allah revealed to His servant [saw] what He
revealed’. [The Noble Qur’an, 53:10].
 The Prophet (saw) mentioned, ‘Then Allah
revealed to me what he revealed to me and
then He made obligatory for me fifty prayers
every day and night’. [Muslim]

THE DIVINE MEETING

  It was here that Allah gave this Ummah the gift of
compulsory Salah, a daily source of strength to
Muslims because it gives us the opportunity to
communicate with Allah and draw closer to Him - it
is the believer’s ascension! We know through the
Prophet Musa’s (as) intervention and advice that
fifty prayers were eventually reduced to five, but
still rewarded as fifty, subhanAllah!
 SURAH BAQARAH LAST TWO AYATS
 FORGIVENESS EVEN IF A GRAIN OF IMAAN
 As we approach the anniversary of Al-Isra’ wal-
Mi‘raj, let us take the time to deeply appreciate the
gift of Salah and increase our voluntary prayers and
night prayers.

GIFTS BY ALLAH (SWT)

  Finally, the Prophet (saw) was taken back down to
the Blessed Masjid Al-Aqsa and returned to Makkah
on the Buraq.
 As he was transported home, he saw various
caravans heading towards Makkah, which he would
later describe to the Quraish as proof that he really
had made this miraculous journey. Allah even
displayed Bait al-Maqdis to the Prophet (saw), while
the Quraish were cross-examining him in the Hijr of
the Ka‘bah [Bukhari]. The entire journey had taken
place in a small portion of a night, and there were
many who would mock the Prophet (saw) for
making such a claim.

JOURNEY BACK
JAZAKUMULLAHU
KHAIR