The Isra and Mi'raj

According to the sound view, the Prophet the Prophet was taken by night in his body from the Sacred Mosque to Bayt al-Maqdis, riding al-Buraq with Gabriel. Then he was raised from Bayt al-Maqdis through the heavens, where he met the prophets in each heaven, and prayer was enjoined on him ^{2 3 4}. His people were told of it in the morning, and their denial grew fierce ⁵.

Views differ on when the Isra' took place. Some say it was in the year he was sent as a prophet; some say five years after the mission began; some say it was the night of 27 Rajab in the tenth year of the mission; some say sixteen months before the Hijra, or a year and two months before it, or a year before it ⁶. The book prefers that the Isra' came after the death of Khadija, because the five daily prayers were enjoined in it, and because the context of Surat al-Isra' shows that it came very late ⁶.

He met Adam in the first heaven; Yahya and Isa in the second; Yusuf in the third; Idris in the fourth; Harun in the fifth; and Musa in the sixth. Musa wept, because a youth sent after him would have more of his community entering Paradise than entered from Musa's own community. He met Ibrahim in the seventh ². Then he was raised to the Lote-Tree of the Utmost Boundary, then to the Majestic One, who revealed what He revealed and enjoined fifty prayers on him. He kept returning to Musa and asking his Lord until the prayers were reduced to five. He was called and told that he had carried out his obligation and that He had lightened it for His servants ^{2 3}.

The book reports what Ibn al-Qayyim relates of the disagreement over whether the Prophet saw his Lord. It notes that seeing with the eye was not established among the Companions, that the drawing near and descent in the Isra' narration differ from what is in Surat al-Najm, and that what is in Surat al-Najm is the drawing near of Gabriel ³.

A vessel of milk and a vessel of wine were offered to him. He chose the milk, and it was said to him: "You have been guided to the natural disposition (fitra)." He saw four rivers in Paradise; Malik, the keeper of the Fire; those who eat the property of orphans; those who eat usury; and adulterers. He also saw a caravan of Quraysh and learned of its affairs, and he told the people of Mecca what he had seen ^{3 5}. When they asked him about Bayt al-Maqdis, he described it for them. Then he told them about their caravan and the time of its arrival, and it happened as he had said, which only increased their aversion ⁵.

The book's briefest account of the reason for the journey is the statement in Surat al-Isra' that God showed him some of His signs. The book holds that this is God's way with the prophets, so that they become among the people of certainty and bear for God's sake what others cannot bear ⁷. The author sees these verses as linking the Isra' to Bayt al-Maqdis and to the transfer of spiritual leadership from the Children of Israel to the community of Muhammad. He holds that the Isra' took place shortly before the Hijra, or between the two 'Aqabas ^{7 8}.

Shaykh Muhammad Mutawalli al-Sha'rawi, in his book "al-Isra' wal-Mi'raj", published in the scientific series of the Academy of Islamic Research, offers a contemplative reading that begins from a verse of Surat al-Isra' ⁹. He distinguishes the Isra', the earthly journey, from the Mi'raj, the heavenly journey. He holds that the Isra' is established by people's testimony about its place, while the Mi'raj is understood by inference from what came before it ^{10 11}. He reports from the scholars that denying the Isra' is unbelief, because it contradicts an explicit text, and that denying the Mi'raj is wrongdoing (fisq), because it is established by necessary implication ¹².

He argues that the Isra' was in body and spirit, from the word "servant" ('abd), which applies to what unites body and spirit ^{13 14}. He holds that it was while awake, because the Quraysh objected to it, and if it had been a dream there would have been no dispute over it ¹⁵. He allows that the Prophet may first have seen the journey in a dream and then seen it awake, drawing support from what is reported of 'A'isha on the truthfulness of dreams ^{16 17}.

He says the Isra' took place in a single night one year before the Hijra ¹⁰. This view does not match the one al-Mubarakfuri preferred above, so it is recorded here as a point of disagreement. He reports that the Quraysh asked for a description of Bayt al-Maqdis, that the Prophet described it, then told them about their caravan and its time of arrival, and that it happened as he said; he counts this as a material proof of the journey ^{18 19}. He reports that Abu Bakr said that if the Prophet had said it, then he had spoken the truth, and so Abu Bakr was named al-Siddiq ¹⁸.

On prayer, he says that it was enjoined directly by God during the Mi'raj, and that it is the only act of worship the Prophet received from God without the mediation of Jibril ²⁰. The obligation was fifty and was lightened to five; the reward stayed the same, and the reduction was in number, not in reward ^{21 22}. He holds that Musa's returning to ask for reductions was not a form of guardianship, and that Musa knew from his own people's experience what a community could not bear, so he meant his own community and not the community of Muhammad ^{23 24}.

He reads what the Prophet saw of scenes as teaching by image about rulings. Choosing milk over wine indicates the natural disposition ^{25 26}. Those who sow and reap together indicate that what is spent in God's way is replaced by God ^{27 28}. The image of this world as an old woman adorned warns of how short its span is ²⁹. The one who eats usury swims in blood and is made to swallow stones ³⁰. The backbiter resembles one who eats the dead flesh of his brother ³¹. Whoever is slack in prayer has his head struck with stones, and it returns to what it was ^{32 33}.

• The date is disputed. The book does not choose among the later views, and the event card carries the status "disputed".
• The interpretations of the purpose of the journey and of the transfer of leadership are the author's own reasoning. The museum relays them as interpretation.
• Al-Sha'rawi's book is a set of reflections he gave in question-and-answer form, not a study of the history of the event. His readings of the scenes and of the reason for the prayer are his own reasoning, and his words are relayed with that description.
• The book does not present an academic view that contradicts the reading it offers, so nothing is attributed to it that it did not say.

Sha'rawi reports that when Abu Bakr was told that his companion claimed to have been taken by night, he said that if the Prophet had said it, then it was true. He takes it as an example of knowledge of certainty, since the report came from one he trusted. ³⁴

The Sheikh mentions that the Prophet met the prophets, ascended to the seventh heaven and returned, and says that on his return it was as though time had stopped, a matter in which reason has no room ³⁵.

The Sheikh speaks of a prayer in which the supplicant asks his Lord for the power, strength and sight to see Him, and then says that God, in His generosity, honoured His prophet at the Miraj by showing Himself to him, after the night journey from the Sacred Mosque to al-Aqsa Mosque Al-Isra 1 ³⁶. He says that time was folded in the journey, outside the laws of humankind, so that the Prophet went from Mecca to Jerusalem and then to the seventh heaven and back, while on the Buraq he brushed the branch of a tree ³⁷. He relates that the Prophet prayed at al-Aqsa Mosque with the prophets, ascended through the seven heavens, was charged with the prayer, and then returned ³⁸. He mentions that on the way back the Prophet saw a caravan and a camel carrying a black sack, and that the camel shied from the Buraq, since animals see what we do not, and its leg broke (needs_source) ³⁸. He says the branch was still swaying when he returned, and reflects on how deeply the Companions were attached to the Messenger ³⁹.