Lessons from the Night Journey

Several matters stand out from this account of al-Isrāʾ and al-Miʿrāj. First, the event of opening the chest of Muhammad (peace be upon him) occurred more than once: it occurred once when he was with Ḥalīmah al-Saʿdiyyah, when he was a child, and it occurred another time in the journey of al-Isrāʾ and al-Miʿrāj. The meaning of Isrāʾ and Miʿrāj is this: Isrāʾ means travelling at night, and Miʿrāj is ascending. Al-Isrāʾ is the journey of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) from Makkah to Jerusalem, and al-Miʿrāj is the journey from Jerusalem to the heavens. So the event of opening the chest of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) happened more than once — these are two incidents when it happened, and it could have happened another time, or more than once, in addition to these two occurrences.

Second is the conversation of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) with Mūsā (peace be upon him). When Allah (swt) prescribed fifty daily prayers on Muhammad (peace be upon him), Muhammad (peace be upon him) accepted it, but when he went down and met Mūsā (peace be upon him), Mūsā told him: "Your nation won't be able to handle it." So Mūsā is speaking out of experience, and that is the value of experience — sometimes knowledge does not suffice; in addition to knowledge, there has to be experience. Mūsā told Muhammad (peace be upon him): "I have more experience than you do in dealing with the people. You are new in this. I have spent my whole life dealing with the most difficult of peoples, the Children of Israel. Believe me, they won't be able to handle it — go back and ask for a reduction." Mūsā himself had learned this: that experience is different from knowledge.

When Mūsā was meeting with Allah ʿazza wa jall, in the journey of the forty days, Allah (swt) told Mūsā that in his absence his people had worshipped the calf:

Allah (swt) said that his people had gone astray, and they deviated due to al-Sāmirī, who made for them a calf out of gold. So Allah told Mūsā (peace be upon him) everything that had happened. Mūsā had just received from Allah the ten tablets — the tablets, al-Alwāḥ — so Mūsā had the tablets in his hand, and he was told by Allah that his people had deviated. So Mūsā already knew. When Mūsā went back and saw his people worshipping the calf, what did Mūsā do? He threw the tablets from his hand. Mūsā (peace be upon him) already knew that; how is it that his response was different when he saw it compared to when he heard it? Because seeing something is not like hearing of it. When Allah told him that his people had deviated, Mūsā had the tablets in his hand, and nothing happened; but when he saw it with his own eyes, he threw the tablets — it was a surprise for him. Seeing something is different from hearing of it: laysa al-khabaru ka-l-muʿāyanah.

Mūsā (peace be upon him) was telling Muhammad (peace be upon him): "I have dealt with the people, I have first-hand knowledge — your people can't handle this, it's too much." He kept on asking for the reduction, and when it was reduced to five, Mūsā (peace be upon him) told Muhammad (peace be upon him) that even five was too much for them. And subḥānAllāh, Mūsā was right — Mūsā (peace be upon him) was right: how many Muslims do not even pray the five daily prayers? How many of them lapse, praying some and missing others? May Allah reward Mūsā for making it easy — at least it was reduced to five. Had it been fifty, the difficulty can be imagined: believers are barely managing the five as it is — what would the case be, what would the situation be, if fifty had to be prayed? Every believer owes Mūsā (peace be upon him) immense thanks for that. As already noted, the competition between the prophets is a compassionate one: even though Mūsā wept on learning that Muhammad's following would be larger than his own, that did not stop him giving his valuable advice. Mūsā was eager to help, and eager to give his advice to Muhammad (peace be upon him); the prophets loved each other, and their competition was a competition of love. Mūsā (peace be upon him) kept on insisting and telling Muhammad (peace be upon him) to go back and ask for a further reduction.

As already described, when it comes to Mūsā saying he would have more people entering Paradise, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had spoken of visions of the Day of Judgment, seeing the different nations of the prophets: some prophets have ten followers, some have five followers; "I've seen a prophet with two followers, I've seen a prophet with one follower, and I have seen prophets with no followers at all," he said. A prophet may come on the Day of Judgment alone, having spent a whole life in daʿwah with no one responding, nobody. And when he saw a huge nation, he thought it was his own following, but it turned out to be the following of Mūsā — so that is the greatest ummah after the ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Third is the importance of prayer. There is no command, none whatsoever, that was prescribed upon this ummah in the heavens except ṣalāh; every other ʿibādah, every other ritual, was prescribed on earth. Jibrīl would reveal the revelation to Muhammad (peace be upon him) on earth, with the exception of ṣalāh: it was reserved to be given to Muhammad (peace be upon him) in this special, one-to-one meeting between Allah and His Messenger, without anyone in between. Everything else was a revelation through Jibrīl, with the exception of ṣalāh — that shows how important ṣalāh is. Not only to Muhammad (peace be upon him): even when Allah prescribed ṣalāh on the Children of Israel, Allah (swt) prescribed ṣalāh on Mūsā in the direct conversation that happened between Allah and Mūsā at al-Ṭūr, in the verse of Sūrat Ṭāhā:

"I am Allah, there is no god besides Me, so establish prayer in My remembrance." And that was the moment in which Mūsā became a prophet — he was given the command of prayer immediately when he became a prophet: he was told first lā ilāha illā Allāh, and then second, to pray, and that was when Mūsā was at the age of forty and received the revelation from Allah, when Allah spoke to him directly. That is the value of ṣalāh.

Ṣalāh is the ʿibādah of which the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "If the Muslim does not do it, they have left Islam" — between a person and becoming a disbeliever is discontinuing prayer, not praying. That is how important ṣalāh is. Not only is praying important, but even playing around with its time, not praying within its proper interval, is a major sin. Concerning the ones who lost their prayers, the āyah says:

Allah (swt) promised Hellfire to whom? To the ones who have lost their prayers. Ibn Masʿūd gives an interpretation to this āyah: he says losing their prayer does not mean that they do not pray, but that they pray past its time. It is the opinion of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) that if a person misses one prayer intentionally, without an excuse, they have left the fold of Islam. The scholars have two opinions regarding the hadith that states the disbelief of the one who does not pray, but the end result is that prayer is the most important ritual in Islam.

It is the one thing no one is excused from. If a person does not have enough money, if they do not have the ability to make Ḥajj, they are excused. If they are unable to fast because of old age or illness, they are excused. If they do not have wealth, they do not have to pay zakāh — but there is no situation where a person is excused from prayer. If a person cannot pray standing up, they pray sitting down; if they cannot pray sitting down, they pray lying down; if they cannot even move a finger, they pray with their eyes — but there is no situation where a person is excused from praying. Even when a battle is going on, ṣalāh still has to be done, in the āyah of Ṣalāt al-Khawf. So ṣalāh is the only ʿibādah in Islam where there is no excuse for not doing it, and no relief from it — it has to be done. The classical scholars have said that a Muslim who is spying on the enemy and cannot pray can pray with a finger, but they have to pray. Ṣalāh needs to be done.

Fourth, this journey reveals the importance of the Holy Land, Jerusalem, and its surroundings. Allah (swt) says in Sūrat al-Isrāʾ:

That is a blessed land, to show him of Our signs — He is the Hearing, the Seeing. Jerusalem was promised to the believers: Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) was given that promise, that his descendants, the believers among them, would be the guardians of Jerusalem, the Holy Land, and that was a promise fulfilled through the prophets of the Children of Israel. Allah (swt) also promised Jerusalem to Mūsā (peace be upon him). Now, even though Mūsā (peace be upon him) did not see the result of that promise in his lifetime, it occurred in the lifetime of his successor, Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn, the prophet Joshua, and the Children of Israel remained in that land as long as they were the bearers of truth. When they deviated from the true message of Allah, and fought the prophets, and attempted to kill ʿĪsā (peace be upon him), and killed other prophets, Allah (swt) stripped the land away from them and gave it to the other branch, the descendants of Ismāʿīl. Allah (swt) gave that to Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his ummah, because now they are the ones carrying the torch of truth — that land is promised to the believers. And since the torch is now being carried by the seal of the prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon him), even though he would not open Jerusalem in his lifetime, he still had to visit it: he had to go and receive the keys.

The symbolism in this journey of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) going to the masjid and leading the prophets in prayer is to show that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is now the inheritor of the message of the prophets, and he is the leader of the sons of Adam, and the land that was under the custodianship of the prophets of the Children of Israel is now transferred to the followers of Muhammad (peace be upon him). And just as Mūsā did not see it in his lifetime, but it happened in the lifetime of his successor Joshua, Muhammad (peace be upon him) did not see it in his lifetime, and it happened in the time of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) — the man of whom the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "If there is to be a prophet after me, it would be ʿUmar." That was a blessing Allah reserved for ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. And subḥānAllāh, such was the divine destiny, that when the Muslims reached the gates of Jerusalem, even though its religious and political leadership could not fight the Muslims and had to give it up, they said: "We will surrender, but we cannot surrender to anyone but the khalīfah of the Muslims — he must come here and take the keys with his own hand." And subḥānAllāh, that brought ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb to travel all the way from Madīnah to Jerusalem, because he was the one who would receive the keys of Jerusalem; he went all the way there, and he was the one given the keys to the holy city. So now the Muslims are the ones who hold the promise of Allah, the promise of the Holy Land, Bayt al-Maqdis.

Fifth is the principle already described — inna maʿa al-ʿusri yusrā, worded slightly differently the second time it occurs. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) went through some very difficult moments in the tenth year of his revelation, so Allah (swt) gave him this blessing, the journey of al-Isrāʾ and al-Miʿrāj. And subḥānAllāh, this was such a treat for Muhammad (peace be upon him): there is no earthly journey with as many attractions as this journey of al-Isrāʾ and al-Miʿrāj, with Jibrīl (peace be upon him) as guide to take him through, meetings with the prophets of Allah, and passage through this real wonderland from one place to another, until entering Paradise, Jannah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), in that journey, entered Jannah, and saw the river of al-Kawthar, which was given to him; Jibrīl (peace be upon him) told Muhammad (peace be upon him), "This is your river, al-Kawthar." Such a bounty did Allah (swt) give Muhammad (peace be upon him) — and that recalls what was already described: that no one knows what Allah (swt) is hiding for them. As already recounted, Hājar (peace be upon her), running between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah, did not know — she was crying at the time — that this would be followed by the greatest nation, the ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him). So when going through difficulties in this world, no one knows what Allah is reserving for them. When Allah (swt) says, inna maʿa al-ʿusri yusrā, with difficulty comes ease, that promise should be believed: with every difficulty gone through, Allah (swt) is reserving something — whether it is received in this world or the next, it will be received. So the believer should never give up, should never feel despair.

Sixth is the position of Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). How did Abū Bakr receive the news of al-Isrāʾ and al-Miʿrāj? When the people of Quraysh were joking around, laughing, clapping and whistling, Abū Bakr was not present; he was coming into Makkah, and someone went and told him: "Do you know what happened? Muhammad (peace be upon him) claims that he went to Jerusalem and made it back." What was the response of Abū Bakr? He did believe — but what he said matters just as much. Abū Bakr said: "If he said it, then it is the truth." So Abū Bakr did not just accept the information as it was given to him; there are two things to learn from this. The first, "if he said it," is the science of verifying hadith: when the scholars study the lives of the narrators of hadith, they want to discern whether the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said it or not — not just accepting anything said by anyone, but making sure that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did say it. That is what makes the difference between Muslims and the People of the Book. The People of the Book accepted pretty much everything that came down to them, even when it was separated from the original source by a few centuries — a blind faith, following mere conjecture. But with the Muslims, no: they had the science of verification, studying the lives of thousands and thousands of men and women to look at their profile, whether these are truthful people or not, whether what they convey can be accepted or not. So when people go back to the Islamic sources, they can feel at ease that they are dealing with material that has been verified. If he said it, then it is the truth — that is the science of verifying hadith. The second part is "then it is the truth," and this is the characteristic of a ṣiddīq, and that is why he was called al-Ṣiddīq: whatever the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says, he believed him — he had faith in him, and faith in everything that he says.

Finally, there is a matter of terminology. Using the word heavens, or heaven, confuses some into thinking it refers to paradise — that is a problem with the English language, where these are treated as synonymous. But in Islamic terminology, they are not: heaven refers to the sky above, part of the temporary world that will be destroyed on the Day of Judgment; paradise refers to Jannah, the permanent place of abode for the believers. Wherever the word heaven is used, it is not a reference to paradise, but to the sky above — the meetings that occurred with the prophets took place in these different heavens, above this world, and lower than paradise.