Article 48: The Night Journey and the Ascension

The next section is very simple: number 48, the Night Journey, Isrāʾ, and the Ascension, Miʿrāj. To describe this quickly: there are actually two parts to this journey. They both have different names (they have been called different things), and there are also different rules related to each of them.

The first is that the Prophet (peace be upon him) is either in the Ḥaram, in the Ḥaṭīm area, or he is in the house of Umm Hāniʾ. Both of these things have been related in the aḥādīth. He is picked up by the angels, and taken on a Burāq from Arabia, from Makkah al-Mukarramah, to Jerusalem. This was done at night-time, on this special animal which was from the heavens, and he was accompanied by the angels. This was a special journey. There is a lot of detail as to what happened in between. Some versions mention that he actually stopped at three places in between: he saw certain things; he met certain prophets.

Anyway, he got to Jerusalem. The Burāq was tied to the ring to which the prophets would tie their mounts in their times. He entered Masjid al-Aqṣā. When he entered Masjid al-Aqṣā, it is mentioned that all the prophets were present there: Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him), Mūsā (peace be upon him), et cetera, et cetera. Somebody had to lead the prayer. Some of these points are in weak hadith; some of them are in stronger hadith. The main story, the main general movement from one place to the other, is in the Qur'an, up to here.

Subḥāna alladhī asrā bi-ʿabdihi laylan min al-Masjidi al-Ḥarāmi ilā al-Masjidi al-Aqṣā: glorified be He, the Lord who took His servant by night from Masjid al-Ḥarām to Masjid al-Aqṣā. In ʿAbdullāh Yūsuf ʿAlī's translation, it says: who took His servant by night from the glorious precinct (it seems to say that there) to the furthest precinct^******.

There is the account of a man who came up and said that he had looked all over the Qur'an, and Masjid al-Aqṣā was not mentioned in it. He was looking at a translation. Masjid al-Aqṣā is not mentioned in the Qur'an, he said, and yet these Muslims keep saying that Masjid al-Aqṣā is very holy, and that it is mentioned in the Qur'an. This is because a literal translation is being made. Aqṣā means to be furthest. Masjid al-Aqṣā, al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, means the furthest precinct; masjid, in the sense of the sanctified area. They literally translated it: from this glorified place to that one which is further away.

When he got there (in some versions it is mentioned that all the prophets were there), who was going to lead the prayer? Jibrīl (peace be upon him) led the Prophet (peace be upon him) forward. That marks his superiority over all the prophets as well. He led the prayer; he met the prophets. There is a lot, lot more detail, which cannot be gone into here; a whole study would be needed just for that.

Up to this point, the journey is called Isrāʾ, the Night Journey. This part is mentioned in the Qur'an. Anybody who rejects this, according to the scholars, is considered a kāfir, because this is established through absolute, definitive proof from the Qur'an.