Isra and Mi'raj

The Israʾ and Miʿraj (, ') are the names given to the narrations that the prophet Muhammad ascended to the sky during a night journey, saw Allah and the afterlife, and returned. It is believed that expressions without a subject in verses 1-18 of surah An-Najm and some verses of 17th surah of the Quran, commonly called '' al-Isra''', allude to the story. Framework and the details are elaborated and developed in the miraculous accounts, some of which are based on hadith, the reports, teachings, deeds and sayings of Muhammad collected later centuries attributed after him. The story of the journey and ascent are marked as one of the most celebrated in the Islamic calendar—27th of the Islamic month of Rajab.

Ibn Sa'd summarizes the earliest version of the written stories under the title "Ascension and the Order of Prayer" and dated the event to a Saturday, the 17th of Ramadan, eighteen months before Muhammad's Hijrah. According to him, the angels Gabriel and Michael accompanied Muhammad to a place in the sacred precinct of the Kaaba, between the well of Zamzam and Maqam Ibrahim. There, a ladder (miʿrāj) is said to have been set up by Muhammad and Gabriel, with whose help they ascended to heaven. When he reached the top, Muhammad is said to have met the previous prophets. According to one version of the tradition, Gabriel held Muhammad's hand tightly and ascended with him to heaven. When he reached the Sidrat al-Muntaha mentioned in Sura 53, verse 14, Muhammad saw heaven and hell. So, he was required to perform the original fifty prayers, which were reduced to five by the intervention of Moses.

Sunni culture adds to the story that Abu Bakr, who heard about the miracle from the pagans, approved the event without question and was given the title of ''al-Ṣiddīq'', the Veracious. In the version accepted in Sunnism, the story tells of Muhammad's negotiations with God, who ordered him and his ummah to pray 50 times a day under the guidance of the prophet Moses. After repeated back and forth and negotiations, the 50 times a day was reduced to 5. In the Alawite-Bektashi culture there is no place for the five daily prayers and they add to the story that during his meeting with Allah, Allah spoke to Muhammad by Ali's voice and that he joined the 40's majlis on his return journey, a meeting very important for him. In the mirajnamas, religious/political leaders who lived centuries after Muhammad, such as Satuq Bughra Khan, Ahmad Yasawi and Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, are also included in stories. Thus, the views and practices of these persons are legitimized and included among the fundamental parts of Islamic culture and glorified.

Terminology

While ''al-’Isrā’'' lit means "to make someone walk" frequently translated as walking or traveling at night; and ''ʿMiʿrāj'' lit means "ascending device" / ladder" or "ascending place" as counted me'raj, derived from "uruj", lit means rising, or going up to a high place. The fact that the general name given to the stories is Miʿrāj rather than uʿruj may be a reference to the ladder motif in early narratives mentioned above.

Journey

There are different accounts of what occurred during the Miʿraj. Al-Tabari's description can be summarized as; Muhammad ascends into heaven with Gabriel and meets a different prophet at each of the seven levels of heaven; first Adam, then John the Baptist and Jesus, then Joseph, then Idris, then Aaron, then Moses, and lastly Abraham. Then continues to meet God without Gabriel. God tells Muhammad that his people must pray 50 times a day, but on return to Earth, he meets Moses, who tells him persistently, "return to God and ask for fewer prayers because fifty is too many". Muhammad goes between Moses and God nine times, until the prayers are reduced to the five daily prayers, which God will reward tenfold.

Some narratives also record events that preceded the heavenly ascent. Muhammad's chest was opened up, and Zamzam water was poured on his heart, giving him wisdom, belief, and other necessary characteristics to help him in his ascent. This purification thema is also seen in the trial of the drinks. It is debated when it took place—before or after the ascent—but either way, it plays an important role in asserting Muhammad's spiritual righteousness.

Todays narrations consist of purifying Muhammad's heart, going to the Al-Aqsa (i.e. the Farthest or Noble Sanctuary) on Buraq (a winged horse-like creature) accompanied by Gabriel (named "Isra meaning night journey"), tying Buraq and leading the prophets such as Ibrahim, Musa, and Isa in prayer, ascending to the sky (Miʿrāj) from the muallak (suspended) stone, conversations with Allah, dialogues with other prophets in the different sky layers, seeing heaven and hell, and returning sections.

In Islam, whether the Miraj is a physical or spiritual experience is also a matter of debate based on different arguments and evidence. The physical perception of the Miraj may imply attributing a physical space to God, contradicting the understanding of transcendence ( tanzih) that attributed to God in Islam. Many sects and offshoots belonging to Islamic mysticism interpret Muhammad's night ascent to be an out-of-body experience through nonphysical environments, stating "the apostle's body remained where it was" while the majority of Islamic scholars claim that the journey was both a physical and spiritual one.

Sources

Except for a few verses in the Quran that are thought to refer to Isra and Miraj, the other narratives consist of stories added to the biography and hadith collections. In addition, unlike the references to miracles made to other prophets in the Quran, the verses that deny any miracles of Muhammad outside the Quran attract the attention of some researchers.

Two hadiths considered the most reliable rely on Anas ibn Malik and ibn ʿAbbas persons who were recorded as children at the time.

The Quran

The 17th chapter of the Quran takes its name from a word used in the first verse, which is presented as the first stage of the journey, expressed as Isra. However, the Surah was known as the Surah "banu Israel" "Children of Israel" during the time of the companions and the successors, and other views state that the relevant verse, together with the verses that follow it, tells about the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt (..his servant means Moses, in this case). According to a different interpretation of the verse through Muhammad, the Al-aqsa used in the verse is not associated with Jerusalem, but with Cirana, which is located near Mecca.

An expression that is connected with the ascention part of the story is the subject-free poetic expressions in the .

Hadith

Ibn ʿAbbas Primitive Version

Ibn Abbas's Primitive Versions describe everything Muhammad encountered during his journey through heaven. This includes seeing other angels and the seas of light, darkness, and fire. Muhammad, as companion of Gabriel, met four important angels as he travelled through heaven. These angels were the Rooster angel (whose call influences all earthly roosters), the Half Fire Half Snow angel (an example of God's power to bring fire and ice together in harmony), the Angel of Death, and the Guardian of Hellfire. These four angels are introduced at the beginning of Ibn Abbas's narrative and focus on the angels rather than the prophets. There are ranks of angels in heaven, and he even meets some deeply connected angels called cherubim. These angels instill fear in Muhammad, but he sees them later as God's creation and not harmful.

Other important details that Ibn Abbas adds to the narrative are the Heavenly host, the final verses of the Cow Chapter, and the blessing of the Prophets.

Others

Various hadiths add much more details; the , which was not present in the previous hadiths of the miraj, is now part of Muhammad's journey from Mecca to "the farthest place of worship", although the city is not explicitly stated. The journey begins while Muhammad is in the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, when the Archangel Gabriel arrives and brings the prophets' heavenly mount, Buraq.

Buraq carried Muhammad to the "farthest place of worship." Muhammad dismounted, tied Buraq up, and prayed, where he was tested by Gabriel at God's command. Anas ibn Malik narrated that Muhammad said: "Gabriel brought me a vessel of wine, a vessel of water, and a vessel of milk, and I chose the milk. Gabriel said: 'You have chosen the fitra (natural instinct).'" During the second part of the journey, on the "ladder" of Miraj, Gabriel took him to the heavens, where he circled the seven heavens and spoke with the previous prophets: Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, and Jesus.

In other versions by Ibn Abbas, a transmitter seems to have added to Ibn Abbas' authentic narrative the descent of Muhammad and the meeting with the prophets. These are the stories of the meeting with the prophets and the meeting with Moses, which led to the reduction of the daily prayers, which are not included in Ibn Abbas' primitive version. Whether Ibn Abbas included this in his original narrative or whether it was added by a later transmitter is a matter of debate.

Of mutating hadith

Another question is whether the Isra and Mi'raj originally occurred together. According to Britannica, in the "earliest interpretations of the Mi'raj", while Muhammad was in the Kaaba in Mecca, Muhammad's body was cut, cleansed and purified by the angel Jibreel, after which Jibreel carried him "directly to the lower heaven". However, at some point "in early Islamic history", this story of purification and ascent to heaven became associated with the story of Muhammad's night journey (Isra) from the "sacred house of worship" to the "other house of worship". Eventually, Muhammad was "carried from Mecca to Jerusalem in a single night by the legendary winged beast Buraq. From Jerusalem, where the Dome of the Rock is now located, he was escorted to heaven by Jibreel and ascended, presumably by a ladder or staircase (Mi'raj)."."

Historical ( anacronistic) issues / Jerusalem connection

In the reign of the caliph Mu'awiyah I of the Umayyad Caliphate (founded in AD 661), a quadrangular mosque for a capacity of 3,000 worshipers is recorded somewhere on the Haram ash-Sharif.Elad, Amikam. (1995).
Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship. Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage
' BRILL, pp. 29–43. . This was rebuilt and expanded by the caliph Abd al-Malik in AD 690 along with the Dome of the Rock.le Strange, Guy. (1890). ''Palestine under the Moslems'', pp. 80–98. According to Islamic tradition, a small prayer hall ( musalla), what would later become the Al-Aqsa Mosque, was built by Umar, the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate.

A hadith reports Muhammad's account of the experience:

Although not in all of them, in some hadiths, such as bukhari 3207, the Miraj story is handled and processed independently of Al-Aqsa. Besides that city of Jerusalem is not mentioned by any of its names in Surah Al-Isra 17:1, however, the consensus of Islamic scholars is that Quranic reference to '' masjid al-aqṣā'' in the verse refers to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is mentioned in later Islamic literature and in the hadith as the place of Isra and Miʽraj. Some figures contest the consensus that '' Al-masjid al-aqṣā'' was in Jerusalem and believe it was somewhere other than Jerusalem. This arises from the belief that there's no evidence of a Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem before the Islamic conquest of the Levant, and Umar's arrival;

The first and second temples were destroyed by the Babylonians and the Romans, respectively, the latter more than five centuries before Muhammad's life. After the initially successful Jewish revolt against Heraclius, the Jewish population resettled in Jerusalem for a short period of time from AD 614 to 630 and immediately started to restore the temple on the Temple Mount and build synagogues in Jerusalem. After the Jewish population was expelled a second time from Jerusalem and shortly before Heraclius retook the city (AD 630), a small synagogue was already in place on the Temple Mount. This synagogue was reportedly demolished after Heraclius retook Jerusalem.

French American Academic Oleg Grabar believed that the Quranic '' Al-masjid al-aqṣā'' referred to one of two sanctuaries in a Hijazi village known as al-Juʽranah near Mecca, basing this on the statement of two near-contemporary medieval Muslim travelers Al Waqidi and Al-Azraqi who used the term "''Al-masjid al-aqṣā" ,'' and "''Al-masjid al-Adna"'':

Israeli political scientist Yitzhak Reiter mentions some alternative interpretations among some Muslim sects in the 21st century which dispute that the night journey took place in Jerusalem, believing instead it was either in the Heavens, or in Medina and its vicinity by Jaf'ari Shi'tes.Yitzhak Reiter (2008)
''Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity''
Springer, p. 21.: "The issue of al-Aqsa Mosque's location has been subject to much debate within Islam, and even today there are those who believe it is not in Jerusalem at all, according to one claim, the text was meant to refer to the Mosque of the Prophet in al-Madina or in a place close to al-Madina. Another perception is that of the Ja’fari Shiites, who interpret that al-Aqsa as a mosque in heaven. This interpretation reflects the Shiite anti-Umayyad emotions in an attempt to play down the sacredness of Umayyad Jerusalem and to minimize the sanctity of Jerusalem by detaching the qur'anic al-Masjid al-aqsa from the Temple Mount, thus asserting that the Prophet never came to that city, but rather ascended to the heavenly al-Aqsa mosque without ever stopping in bayt al-Maqdis erusalem Apart from depriving Jerusalem of its major attraction for pilgrims, the Shiite traditions offer alternative pilgrimage attractions such as the Shiite holy city of Kufa, as well as Mecca. However, the tradition about Muhammad’s Night Journey to Jerusalem were never suppressed. They were exploited by the Umayyads and continued to be quoted in the tafsir (Qur’an interpretation) collections. The interpretation dating from the Umayyad and Crusader eras, according to which al-Aqsa is in Jerusalem, is the one that prevailed." Reiter also claimed that the location being in Jerusalem was a tradition invented after Muhmmad's life by the Umayyad Caliphate to divert pilgrimage to either Shi'ite sites such as Al-Kufa, or Mecca when it was held by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr during the Second Muslim Civil war

Similarities to other traditions

Traditions of living persons ascending to heaven are also found in early Jewish and Christian literature. The Book of Enoch, a late Second Temple Jewish apocryphal work, describes a tour of heaven given by an angel to the patriarch Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. According to Brooke Vuckovic, early Muslims may have had precisely this ascent in mind when interpreting Muhammad's night journey.

The similarity of many details in the Miraj narratives to Zoroastrian literature is striking. While critics argue that these narratives are a transfer from Zoroastrian literature, another claim argues that the relevant literature was written after Islam.

Celebrations and reception

In Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, the structure of the Dome of the Rock, built several decades after Muhammad's death, marks the place from which Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven. The exact date of the Journey is not clear, but it is celebrated as though it took place before the Hijrah and after Muhammad's visit to the people of Ta'if. The normative view amongst Sunni Muslims who ascribe a specific date to the event is that it took place on the 27th of Rajab, slightly over a year before Hijrah. This would correspond to the 26th of February 621 in the Western calendar. In Twelver Iran, Rajab 27 is the day of Muhammad's first calling or ''Mab'as''. The al-Aqsa Mosque and surrounding area is now the third-holiest place on earth for Muslims.

The ''Lailat al-Miʿraj'' (, ), also known as ''Shab-e-Mi'raj'' (, , ) in Iran, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and ''Miraç Kandili'' in Turkish, is the Muslim holiday on the 27th of Rajab (the date varying in the Western calendar) celebrating the Isra and Miʿraj. Another name for the holiday is ''Mehraj-ul-Alam'' (also spelled ''Meraj-ul-Alam''). Some Muslims celebrate this event by offering optional prayers during this night, and in some Muslim countries, by illuminating cities with electric lights and candles. The celebrations around this day tend to focus on every Muslim who wants to celebrate it. Worshippers gather in mosques and perform prayer and supplication. Some people may pass their knowledge on to others by telling them the story of how Muhammad's heart was purified by the archangel Gabriel, who filled him with knowledge and faith in preparation to enter the seven levels of heaven. After salah, food and treats are served.

Sufism

The belief that Muhammad made the heavenly journey bodily was used to prove the unique status of Muhammad. One theory among Sufis was that Muhammad's body could reach God to a proximity that even the greatest saints could only reach in spirit. They debated whether Muhammad had really seen the Lord and, if he did, whether he did so with his eyes or with his heart. Nevertheless, Muhammad's superiority is again demonstrated in that even in the extreme proximity of the Lord, "his eye neither swerved nor was turned away," whereas Moses had fainted when the Lord appeared to him in a burning bush. Various thinkers used this point to prove the superiority of Muhammad.

The Subtleties of the Ascension by Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Sulami includes repeated quotations from other mystics that also affirm the superiority of Muhammad. Many Sufis interpreted the Miʿraj to ask questions about the meaning of certain events within the Miʿraj, and drew conclusions based on their interpretations, especially to substantiate ideas of the superiority of Muhammad over other prophets.

Muhammad Iqbal, a self-proclaimed intellectual descendant of Rumi and the poet-scholar who personified poetic Sufism in South Asia, used the event of the Miʿraj to conceptualize an essential difference between a prophet and a Sufi. He recounts that Muhammad, during his Miʿraj journey, visited the heavens and then eventually returned to the temporal world. Iqbal then quotes another South Asian Muslim saint by the name of ' Abdul Quddus Gangohi who asserted that if he (Gangohi) had had that experience, he would never have returned to this world. Iqbal uses Gangohi's spiritual aspiration to argue that while a saint or a Sufi would not wish to renounce the spiritual experience for something this-worldly, a prophet is a prophet precisely because he returns with a force so powerful that he changes world history by imbuing it with a creative and fresh thrust.

European reception

In the 13th century AD, an account of the Isra' and Mi'raj was translated into several European languages—Latin, Spanish and French. Known as the '' Book of Muhammad's Ladder'', this account purports to be the words of Muhammad himself as recorded by Ibn Abbas. It was translated by Abraham of Toledo and Bonaventure of Siena. It may have influenced Dante Alighieri's account of an ascent to heaven and descent to hell in the ''Divine Comedy''.Ana Echevarría, "Liber scalae Machometi", in David Thomas; Alex Mallett (eds.), ''Christian–Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History'', Vol. 4 (Brill, 2012), pp. 425–428.

See also

* Islamic view of miracles
* Entering heaven alive - view of the belief in various religions
* Transfiguration of Jesus
* Miraj Nameh

References

Further reading

* Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali (2010).
Me'rāj
'. Encyclopædia Iranica.
*
*Colby, Frederick, "Night Journey (Isra & Mi'raj)'', in Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God'' (2 vols.), Edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014, Vol II, pp. 420–425.
* Schimmel, Annemarie (1985). "The Prophet's Night Journey and Ascension", in ''And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety'', University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

External links

Hadith On Isra and Mi'raj
from Sahih Muslim

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isra' and Mi'raj
Angelic apparitions
Entering heaven alive
Gabriel
Islamic mythology
Islamic terminology
Kandil
Life of Muhammad
Miracles attributed to Muhammad
Quran
Quranic verses
Shia days of remembrance
Sunni Islam
Katabasis
Public holidays in Algeria
Public holidays in Indonesia
Public holidays in Malaysia
Public holidays in Bangladesh
Public holidays in India
Public holidays in Pakistan
Public holidays in Saudi Arabia
Public holidays in Morocco
Public holidays in Lebanon
Public holidays in Egypt