Through the Seven Heavens

Then they moved ahead to the third heaven: they knocked on the gates, went through, and there he met Joseph, Yūsuf (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, wa idh ūtiya shaṭra al-ḥusn — he has been given half of beauty: if the whole of beauty were a single measure, half of it was with Yūsuf (peace be upon him). They made it to the fourth heaven, went through, and he met Idrīs (peace be upon him); Allah (swt) says, "We have elevated him to a high station" — he was in the fourth heaven. They went to the fifth heaven, and there he met Hārūn, Aaron (peace be upon him). Then he went to the sixth heaven and met Mūsā (peace be upon him).

His meeting with Mūsā was an eventful meeting, subḥānAllāh — Mūsā is always surrounded by important events. In the Qurʾān, one of the scholars has said that the Qurʾān was almost going to be the story of Mūsā, so frequently is he mentioned in it, and so outstanding is his personality; whenever the name of Mūsā (peace be upon him) is mentioned, something important is going to happen. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) passed by Mūsā, and Mūsā started to weep. After they greeted each other and Mūsā had welcomed Muhammad (peace be upon him), Mūsā started to weep; when he was asked how it was that he was weeping, he said: "A young man was given prophethood after me, and he will have more of his followers entering Paradise than mine." Up until that moment, Mūsā had the largest following of any prophet — the Children of Israel were the largest believing nation up until that point — but now there was a new record, held by the ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him). So Mūsā wept, and he cried; there is competition between the prophets, but it is not a competition of jealousy and envy — it is a compassionate competition, as would be seen in the conversation that followed between Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Mūsā (peace be upon him).

Then he moved up to the seventh heaven, and he went in and met his father Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him), and exchanged greetings with him. He was then presented with al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr, and in one narration it states that Ibrāhīm had his back resting towards al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr. What is al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr? Al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr has been mentioned in the Qurʾān:

Allah (swt) is making an oath in the established House, al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr. Al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr, to the creation of the heavens, is equivalent to the Kaʿbah to human beings: just as people make ṭawāf around the Kaʿbah, and it is the first house on earth established for the worship of Allah, the same thing is to be said about al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr. So here, as Muslims would visit the Kaʿbah, angels will visit al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr.

Al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr is visited by seventy thousand angels every day, and they never come back to it again. What does that imply? Every day a new group of seventy thousand angels visits the established House — how many angels are there? If on a daily basis there are seventy thousand angels visiting it and they never come back again, how many angels are there? And for how long has this been going on — for how many thousands, or millions, or billions of years? Multiply all of those days by seventy thousand: how many angels are there? It puts human beings to shame — all that is said of overpopulation on earth, six billion of us, set beside the world of the angels, this massive creation. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: the heavens above are moaning, and they are justified in moaning, because on every space equivalent to the size of four fingers there is an angel bowing down in rukūʿ, or prostrating in sujūd, worshipping Allah ʿazza wa jall. All over the heavens above, every position, every area or volume equivalent to the size of four fingers, is occupied by an angel worshipping Allah — a vast, huge creation that makes the world of human beings seem insignificant.

In the narration that states Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) was resting towards al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr, it is symbolic to have Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) in that position after he died, after he passed away — sitting next to al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr, because he was the one who built the Kaʿbah on earth. So when Allah took his soul away, Allah (swt) had him rest next to al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr, the House of the Angels.

Then he said, "I saw Sidrat al-Muntahā" — he travelled further and reached Sidrat al-Muntahā. Sidrat al-Muntahā is a lote tree; it is a tree, but it is al-Muntahā — al-Muntahā is the end, so it is the end of the heavens. Beyond that lies the world of the afterlife: Paradise, the Throne of Allah, the Kursī. So Sidrat al-Muntahā is the end of this universe created by Allah (swt): there are seven heavens, one over the other, and then after that Sidrat al-Muntahā, and then beyond that a different world. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) reached that Sidrah and saw four rivers emanating from it, and he asked Jibrīl what these four rivers were. He was told that two of them were apparent and two of them were hidden: the apparent ones were the Nile and the Euphrates, and the hidden ones were the two rivers of Paradise. What this means is that, because these rivers are so blessed in this world, there is an equivalent of them above, and that tree is so close to Paradise that two rivers of Paradise pass from beneath it.

So again: there are the seven heavens, one over another, and after that al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr, which is in the seventh heaven, and after that Sidrat al-Muntahā, and beyond that the world of Paradise and the Throne of Allah ʿazza wa jall. In terms of size, the lowest heaven, which this world sits in, compared to the heaven above it, is like a ring in a desert; the second compared to the third is like a ring in a desert; the third to the fourth is like a ring in a desert; and so on, until the sixth to the seventh is like a ring in a desert; and then the seventh heaven, compared to the Kursī of Allah, is like a ring in a desert. This lowest heaven, that this world sits in — its vastness is beyond reckoning: the whole of the known universe today lies within the lowest heaven, because Allah (swt) says:

All of the stars are located within the lowest heaven, and the end of the creation of the stars has not even been reached — new galaxies and new clusters and new stars are discovered every now and then. So it is a vast creation, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had the chance to go through all of it on that amazing journey.