The life of the Prophet Muhammad (5/11): the Night Journey

By Michel Abdallah Grimbert · February 26, 2022 · 5 min read

Contents

The Night Journey: al-Isra’ wa al-Mi’raj, from the Prophet towards God, in God, and his return towards men

This episode of the Prophet of God’s life, miraculous in the literal sense of the word, is emblematic of his personal realisation, which in truth encompasses the realities of all the worlds. Was he not sent as a mercy to the worlds: (Qur’an XXI, 107) ‘We sent thee only as a mercy to the worlds’? The Prophet’s life therefore contains a multitude of indications relating to those other worlds to which he has direct and clear access, but which do not, for all that, prevent him from participating totally, and in the most fitting manner, in our world. And thereafter each person followed his ‘track’, treading in the Prophet’s own footsteps, bearers of transcendence.

Thus it is reported: while the Prophet was resting or keeping vigil in the Hijr, a place within the circular bounds of the original Ka’ba, the trace of Adam’s tent (khayma) during his presence on earth, the angel Gabriel came to him, made him rise and led him to a winged animal called al-Buraq, which carried him, first, from the sacred mosque (Masjid al-Haram) at Mecca to the Masjid al-Aqsa’ at Jerusalem (al-Isra’), where he prayed with the prophets who preceded him. This nocturnal translocation, called Isra’ (from sa-ra-ya: to travel by night), here from one mosque to another, implies that it is in fact the same undivided essential reality: the Spirit of God (Ruh) dwelling in each of them. Thereby confirming that this journey is guided by the divine Spirit, according to the nocturnal conditions propitious to the presence of the other world; and hence outside the diurnal conditions of this lower world.

Indeed the Qur’an, which describes this realisation in surah al-Najm (‘The Star’), LIII, 1-18, begins its description thus: ‘v.1 By the star when it disappears!’. That is to say, we leave the conditions of the cosmic order and go beyond them. The sacred Text then affirms that, for all that, though carried off (jadhaba) from the earthly condition: ‘v.2 Your companion is not astray; he is not in error; v.3 he does not speak under the sway of passion (hawa)’. Passions of the soul born, as is known, of its bonds to the body, here transcended.

The ascension through the seven heavens

Then the Prophet of God attained to the divine Presence, passing successively through the seven heavens that mark the spiritual realities proper to each of the seven prophetic realities (al-Mi’raj): Adam, then Jesus and John the Baptist, Joseph, Idris, Aaron, Moses and finally Abraham. The Qur’an continues its description thus (LIII, 4-16):

’v.4 It is only a Revelation (wahi) inspired in him. V.5 The Mighty, the Strong made it known to him. V.6 He who possesses strength stood firm in majesty, v.7 while he was on the highest horizon (bi-l-ufuqi al-‘ala); v.8 then he drew near and remained suspended. V.9 He was at a distance of two bowshots, or nearer still, v.10 and He revealed to His servant what He revealed to him. V.11 The heart (fu’ad) did not invent what it saw. V.12 Will you then raise doubts about what he sees? V.13 He saw him, in truth, a second time, v.14 beside the Lote Tree of the Limit (sidrat al-muntaha), v.15 near which stands the Garden of the Abode; v.16 at the moment when the Lote Tree was enveloped by that which covered it.’

The angel Gabriel had then fallen back, pursuing no further his accompaniment of the Prophet of God, who was attaining to realities far beyond the angelic states. At the culminating point of his ascension stood the ‘Lote Tree of the Limit’ (sidrat al-muntaha), before the Absolute: (LIII, 17-18) ‘His gaze did not swerve nor was it deceived. He then saw the most wondrous of the marvels of his Lord (Laqad ra’a min ayati rabbihi al-kubra)’.

The Meccans’ reaction and the return towards men

The Prophet’s account of the ‘Night Journey’, when he reported to the Qurayshites that he had travelled to Jerusalem (al-Isra’) during the night, was met with reserve, not to say mockery and the most utter unbelief. Such were the first reactions, except on the part of his companion and intimate friend Abu Bakr, who then declared: ‘If he says so, then it is true!’; which earned him the nickname as-Siddiq: ‘the one who bears witness to the truth’. Later, caravan-drivers who had seen him returning from Jerusalem confirmed his words to the Meccans. Thereafter he was to speak of his ascension to heaven (al-Mi’raj) only to his closest companions.

Beyond this ascension properly so called, which other prophets have accomplished, such as Elijah (Ilyas or Il-Yasin, XXXVII, 123) or Jesus (’Isa), the most notable aspect is the Prophet of God’s descent, his return towards men; which was to be followed, first, by his emigration from Mecca to Medina, then by the reconquest of the ancient sanctuary of Mecca, henceforth definitively purified and consecrated to Islam. If we are to understand this succession of seemingly negative events surrounding the Prophet of God’s Hegira, obliged as he was to flee the place and the family circle that had seen him born, grow up and assert himself, up to the moment the Revelation took place, which most of his fellow citizens rejected: this exile, negative though it may be and appear, provisionally obliges the Prophet first to convince and win over the other tribes of Arabia in the name of Islam before being able to return victorious to Mecca with their support (these were the ones called the Ansar, ‘the helpers’), against his Meccan enemies the Qurayshites, whom he had had to leave reluctantly, the Message he bore from God going unheeded and being fiercely opposed. That was the price to pay for reconquering the sacred House for good. He was to die among his own people, having transmitted to them the Muhammadan Reality, which gathers together both the ascending realisation towards Allah and the descending one towards men; in the image of the attestation of faith, which runs: ‘La ilaha illa Allah wa Muhammad rasul Allah’. We shall return to these various points.

By Michel Abdallah Grimbert, disciple of the tariqa Qadiriya Boutchichiya.