Through the Heavens

Then there is the next part of the journey, which is through the heavens, and there is detail about that as well: who he met, which prophets he met in each one of these heavens. He went on to the seventh heaven, where he met Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him). So there is Ādam (peace be upon him) in the first; they say ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) in the second; Hārūn (peace be upon him) in the fifth; Mūsā (peace be upon him) in the sixth; Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) in the seventh, resting with his back on al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr, which is the Kaʿbah of the angels, right above, in parallel to the Kaʿbah of the earth. 70,000 angels go around that every single day; they never get a chance again, because there are so many angels. That gives us some understanding of the angels, and of their number.

Then he went beyond that. Jibrīl (peace be upon him) was not allowed to go there, to come there. He went to Allah (swt), and he met with Allah (swt). It is said that while he was travelling beyond the lotus tree, he heard the sound of Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). The question is: why did he hear the sound of Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him)? He said that because he was now in a place that was very, very different, and out of the realm, he was made to hear the sound of Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), just in order to make him hear something familiar. This is not necessarily from very ṣaḥīḥ hadith or the like.

For one of the best descriptions of the Isrāʾ and Miʿrāj, there is a book by Mawlānā Thānawī called Nashr al-Ṭīb fī Dhikr al-Sayyid al-Ḥabīb^*******, ʿalayhi al-ṣalātu wa al-salām. It is a sīrah book written by Ḥakīm al-Ummah Mawlānā Ashraf ʿAlī Thānawī. An English version has long been in preparation, but a good Urdu editor to look through it and revise it has proved hard to find. But the section on the Miʿrāj is just absolutely fascinating, because he has brought most of the narrations together; he has reconciled a lot of the superficial contradictions that are found in those narrations, and drawn out the lessons from them. It is just a very amazing discussion.

So the Ascension means the Miʿrāj. The Ascension is called the Miʿrāj. The Night Journey is from Makkah to Jerusalem. That Jerusalem journey is considered to be qaṭʿī: rejecting it is kufr. The next part is not established by qaṭʿī, or definitive, proof, and that is why rejecting it is unrighteousness, fisq, but it is not kufr. Why Jerusalem? Allah knows best, but some say that that is where the door to the heavens is, above Jerusalem; and Allah knows best. It is also a blessed area. So he met with Allah (swt).