Al-Israa wa al-Meraaj – And the Instillation of Cobwebs of Doubts in the Muslim Minds
Al-Israa wa al-Meraaj – The Instillation of Cobwebs of Doubts in the Muslim Minds
Sourced from the book: Fiqh us Seerah by Shaykh Dr. Mohammed Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti (Allah be pleased with him), and slightly paraphrased for a better understanding.
Israa is the term used to refer to the night journey which Allah honoured our noble Prophet Muhammed ﷺ from Masjid al-Haraam in Makkah to Masjid al-Aqsa in Palestine. Additionally, Mi’raaj or the ascension refers to that journey which subsequently followed the same night, wherein the Holy Prophet Muhammed ﷺ was taken up to the highest reaches of heaven, and was also brought to a place called Laa-Makaan, where no creature, be it be angel, human, jinn was every brought to. Prophet Muhammed ﷺ saw, heard, and received access to all that knowledge which Allah gave him. According to Ibn Sa’ad, this journey took 18 months before the Hijrah (migration).
It is agreed upon the majority of Islamic scholars that this sacred journey involved both the holy body and the spirit of Prophet Muhammed ﷺ. Hence, it is also looked upon as one of the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ. Bukhari and Muslim both relate a detailed account of the Prophet’s journey ﷺ.
However, in this article, let’s take a look at the lessons that we can learn, and the foreign theories that Muslims must refrain from, about the most remarkable journey and miracle of our most beloved Prophet Sayyiduna Muhammed ﷺ.
1. Many researchers are fond of mentioning only the human aspects of Prophet Muhammed ﷺ and try to show that the life of Prophet Muhammed ﷺ lacked supernatural and miraculous aspects. According to such thinkers, Prophet Muhammed ﷺ constantly affirmed that such miracles and supernatural aspects were none of his concern and that he was incapable of such. And in order to prove their point, they cite the Quranic words: “Say, signs are with Allah alone.” (6:109). Hence a common Muslim begins to imagine that the Prophetic life had no miracles and signs, something which Allah usually endorses His true prophets with. And, with the will & grant of Allah, we should know that anything is possible.
If we actually look into this theory in depth, we come to know that this was originally the idea of certain orientalists and foreign scholars like Gustav Le Bon, Kant, Hume, Goldziher and others. The basis of this theory was to tremble and create a lack of belief of the Creator of miracles (Allah), because if one possesses a firmly rooted faith in Allah the Almighty, then it becomes easy to believe in the possibility of any number of events & miracles - natural or supernatural.
Unfortunately, some Muslims too marshalled their efforts, knowledge and lives to promote such ideas of the foreign thinkers. In the name of rationality, they planted the atheistic notions in people’s minds. As a result, they rather started focused on certain qualities of Prophet Muhammed ﷺ such like his heroism, genius, leadership etc., which certainly existed, but they started to portray Prophet Muhammed’s ﷺ life as devoid of any supernatural or miraculous dimensions. And with the rejection of the supernatural miracles like Israa and Miraaj, it also starts to sow seeds of doubt on many more Islamic aspects including the revelation of Quran – as the phenomena of revelation too is supernatural. Imagine, if a Muslim starts doubting the very basic tenants and foundational sources like Quran, what else remains?
The human aspect in the life of Prophet ﷺ existed for sure, but remember, the consequence of denying and eliminating the supernatural and miraculous aspects in the Prophet’s ﷺ life is to destroy the meaning of prophethood, which in fact means to deny the religion of Islam itself.
A question might then arise. Was this notion published by the orientalists openly? The answer is: not every orientalist said so, but they set the premises of such conclusions, and once their premises are accepted, it obviously leads to the same conclusion. Nevertheless, many people started to state this conclusion openly, not to forget mentioning Shibli Shumayyil here, who referred faith in religion as the faith in “the impossible miracle” – most likely calling Israa and Meraj as such. Shibli Shumayyil used this expression in his introduction to the Arabic translation of Beckner’s book explaining Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Such people, and there have been millions others, have been quick to treat falsehood as truth, if it can serve to confuse the minds of Muslims and make it more difficult for them to comprehend and appreciate their religion of Islam.
Isra & Meraj – Answering Atheistic Criticisms
Richard Dawkins was stunned by Mehdi Hasan’s affirmative answer when the latter interviewed him in 2012. Richard had asked him: “Do you believe that Muhammed (ﷺ) went to heaven on a winged horse?”
Terminologically, that’s a wrong way of describing the Burraaq. According to an Islamic belief, it is a being which is beyond the concepts of physics (metaphysics), and despite taking a form as described by the Prophet ﷺ it took him ﷺ on the night journey.
First of all we Muslims ourselves need to understand that this claim of Prophet Muhammed ﷺ is not a scientific claim that can be verified by scientific methodologies and theories, and those who do not wish to believe it, including the atheists and non-Muslims, have the liberty to disbelieve it, but to claim that it contradicts science is wrong, as it lies beyond the sphere of verifiability. Muslims on the other hand confirm the prophetic statements as we consider every word and letter to be truthful. A prophet’s ﷺ word is sufficient for a Muslim.
If an atheist of a non-Muslim can claim to the maximum is to say that the Burraq or the Prophet’s ﷺ miraculous journey of Isra and Meraj is scientifically unknown and therefore unverifiable. They can disbelieve in such notions, even though they entertain the possibility of the existence of aliens. Take a look at the article retrieved from one of the biggest organizations of scientific research – NASA, whose sub-heading says: “Do aliens exist? Extraterrestrial life has never been discovered, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Here is the link to the article:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/episode-5-we-asked-a-nasa-scientist-do-aliens-exist
Aliens’ existence hasn’t been scientifically proven yet, but they do not close the doors of their extant, but try their best to disprove Isra & Meraj. Why? Similarly, the Makkan pagans also mocked this sacred event when they were informed about it. They doubted and cross checked it with the travelers who arrived in Makkah from Palestine, but they found the situations and conditions of the place to be exactly the same as told by Prophet Muhammed ﷺ.
Islam is to simply believe in the ever truthful prophet ﷺ – believe truly wholeheartedly, and say the same with your tongue. That’s it – there’s no complexity, no force, and no penalty. And the reward you get for the same (apart from adhering to the other Islamic principles) is massively mind boggling and beyond our thinking and imagination!
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