The Night Journey and the Ascension: from the Haram to the Bait al-Maqdis, then to the heavens

The date of the night journey: divergences and fables

This is the chapter on the night journey of the Messenger of Allah from Mecca to the Bait al-Maqdis, then his ascension from there to the heavens, and what he saw there of the signs. Ibn Asakir mentioned the hadiths of the night journey at the beginning of the mission, while Ibn Ishaq mentioned it at this juncture, after the mission by about ten years. Al-Bayhaqi reported, through Musa ibn Uqba, from az-Zuhri, that he said: the Messenger of Allah was taken by night a year before his going out to Medina. Ibn Lahi’a mentioned it likewise, from Abu l-Aswad, from Urwa. Then he reported from al-Hakim, from al-Asamm, from Ahmad ibn Abd al-Jabbar, from Yunus ibn Bukayr, from Asbat ibn Nasr, from Isma’il as-Suddi, that he said: the five prayers were prescribed to the Messenger of Allah at the Bait al-Maqdis on the night he was taken, sixteen months before his emigration. According to as-Suddi’s view the night journey would be in Dhu l-Qi’da, and according to az-Zuhri’s and Urwa’s view it would be in Rabi’ al-Awwal.

Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba said: Uthman narrated to us, from Sa’id ibn Mina, from Jabir and Ibn Abbas, that they said: the Messenger of Allah was born in the Year of the Elephant on the Monday, the twelfth of Rabi’ al-Awwal, and in it he was sent, in it he was taken up to heaven, in it he emigrated and in it he died. In it there is a chain break, and the hafiz Abd al-Ghani ibn Said al-Maqdissi preferred it in his sira, and he reported a hadith whose chain is not sound, which we mentioned in the merits of the month of Rajab, that the night journey was on the night of the twenty-seventh of Rajab; and Allah knows best. And among the people are those who claim the night journey was on the first Friday night of the month of Rajab, which is the night of ar-Ragha’ib in which the famous prayer was innovated, and there is no basis for that, and Allah knows best. And some declaim upon it: ’On the Friday night the Prophet was taken up, on the Friday night at the start of Rajab’; and this poetry upon it is feeble, and we mentioned it only as attestation of whoever says so. And we have mentioned the hadiths that came thereupon in full, at the word of the Most High: ’Glory to Him who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs; indeed He is the Hearing, the Seeing’ [al-Isra: 1]; so let it be consulted from there, as to the chains, the traverses and the speech upon them and with them, for in it there is sufficiency; and to Allah belong praise and favor.

The Buraq and the departure to the Bait al-Maqdis

Let us mention the summary of Ibn Ishaq’s speech, for he said, after mentioning what preceded of the chapters: then the Messenger of Allah was taken by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, which is the Bait al-Maqdis of Iliya, and Islam had spread in Mecca, in Quraysh and in all the tribes. He said: of the discourse, as has reached me, of his journey, from Ibn Mas’ud and Abu Sa’id and Aisha and Mu’awiya and Umm Hani bint Abi Talib and al-Hasan ibn Abi l-Hasan and Ibn Shihab az-Zuhri and Qatada and others of the people of knowledge, what is united in this hadith, each relating of it part of what was mentioned to me of his affair; and there was in his journey and what was mentioned to me of it a trial and a purifying, and an affair of the command of Allah, in His power and His dominion, containing a lesson for the possessors of intellects, and guidance, mercy and steadfastness for him who believed and confirmed; and it was of the command of Allah with certainty,

so he was taken by night as He willed and how He willed, to show him of His signs what He willed, until he beheld what he beheld of His affair and His great dominion and His power by which He does what He wills. And Abdallah ibn Mas’ud, as has reached me, used to say: the Buraq was brought to the Messenger of Allah, the mount upon which the prophets before him were carried, which places its hoof at the utmost reach of its gaze; and he was carried upon it, and then his keeper went out with him, seeing the signs between heaven and earth, until he reached the Bait al-Maqdis, and he found in it Ibrahim and Musa and Jesus among a company of the prophets who had been gathered for him, and he prayed with them. Then three vessels were brought: of milk, and of wine, and of water; and he mentioned that he drank the vessel of milk, and Gabriel said to him: you have been guided, and your community has been guided.

Ibn Ishaq mentioned in the account of al-Hasan al-Basri, mursal, that Gabriel woke him, then went out with him to the door of the Sacred Mosque and mounted him upon the Buraq, which is ’a white mount, between the mule and the donkey, and upon its two thighs two wings with which it strikes its two legs, placing its hoof at the utmost reach of its gaze. Then he carried me upon it and went out with me, not leaving me and I not leaving him.’ And in the hadith, which is from Qatada as Ibn Ishaq mentions: when the Messenger of Allah wished to mount the Buraq it shied, and Gabriel placed his hand upon its mane and said: have you no shame, O Buraq, at what you do? By Allah, never has a servant of Allah ridden you more favored with Allah than Muhammad. He said: it was ashamed until sweat flowed, then became still until I mounted it. And al-Hasan said in his hadith: the Messenger of Allah went, and Gabriel went with him, until he brought him to the Bait al-Maqdis, where he found Ibrahim and Musa and Jesus among a company of the prophets, and the Messenger of Allah led them in prayer.

Then he mentioned his choosing the vessel of milk over the vessel of wine, and Gabriel’s word to him: you have been guided, and your community guided, and wine is forbidden to you. He said: then the Messenger of Allah returned to Mecca, and in the morning told Quraysh of that, and he mentioned that most of the people declared him a liar and a group apostatized after having accepted Islam, while the Truthful hastened to believe and said: I believe him in the news of heaven morning and evening; would I not believe him concerning the Bait al-Maqdis? And he mentioned that the Truthful asked him the description of the Bait al-Maqdis, and the Messenger of Allah described it to him, and on that day Abu Bakr was named as-Siddiq, the Truthful. Al-Hasan said: and Allah sent down concerning that: ’and when We said to you: your Lord encompasses the people; and We made not the vision We showed you but a trial for the people, and the tree cursed in the Quran; and We frighten them, but it increases them only in great insolence’ [al-Isra: 60], the verse.

Umm Hani’s version: the caravan and the held sun

Ibn Ishaq mentioned what reached him from Umm Hani, that she said: the Messenger of Allah was taken by night only from my house; he slept with me that night after praying the last isha, and when it was near dawn he rose upon us; and when he had prayed the dawn prayer and we had prayed with him, he said: O Umm Hani, I prayed with you the last isha in this valley, then I came to the Bait al-Maqdis and prayed in it, and now I have prayed the morning prayer with you as you see. Then he rose to go out, and I seized the edge of his garment and said: O Prophet of Allah, do not relate this hadith to the people, lest they declare you a liar and harm you. He said: by Allah, I shall surely relate it to them. And he informed them and they declared him a liar, and he said: ’and a sign of that: I passed the caravan of so-and-so’s people in such-and-such valley, and the sense of the mount frightened them, and a camel strayed from them, and I pointed them to it while I was headed for Syria; then I returned,

and when I was at Dajnan I passed the caravan of so-and-so’s people and found the people asleep, and they had a vessel in which was water covered by something; I lifted its cover and drank what was in it, then covered it as it was. And a sign of that: their caravan now comes from the white pass of Tan’im, led by a greenish camel bearing two waterskins, one black and the other dappled.’ She said: the people rushed to the pass, and the first to meet them was the camel he had described to them, and they asked them about the vessel and the camel, and they told them, as the Messenger of Allah had mentioned. Yunus ibn Bukayr reported, from Asbat, from Isma’il as-Suddi, that the sun was about to set before that caravan arrived, so he, peace be upon him, prayed to Allah, and He held it until they arrived as he had described to them. He said: the sun was not held back for anyone but him that day, and for Joshua son of Nun; al-Bayhaqi reported it.

The ascension: from heaven to heaven to the Lote Tree of the Boundary

Ibn Ishaq said: one whom I do not suspect informed me, from Abu Sa’id, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: when I had finished what was in the Bait al-Maqdis, the Mi’raj was brought to me, and I never saw anything finer; and it is that toward which your dead turn their eyes when death is present. So my companion mounted me in it until he brought me to one of the gates of heaven, called the Gate of the Guardians; upon it is an angel of the angels called Isma’il, beneath whose hand are twelve thousand angels, and beneath each of their hands twelve thousand angels. The Messenger of Allah, when he related this hadith, would say: and none knows the hosts of your Lord but He [al-Muddaththir: 31]. Then he mentioned the rest of the hadith, which is very long, and we have quoted it with its chain and wording in full in the Tafsir and spoken upon it, for it is among the strange hadiths, and in its chain there is weakness; and likewise in the account of the hadith of Umm Hani, for what is established in the two Sahihs, in the version of Sharik ibn Abdallah ibn Abi Namir from Anas, is that the night journey was from the mosque from the side of the Hijr. In its account there is strangeness too, from several angles we discussed there, among them his word: and that was before revelation came to him. The answer is that their coming the first time was before revelation came to him,

and on that night nothing occurred; then the angel came to him another night, and he did not say of that: and that was before revelation came to him; rather he came to him after what had been revealed to him, so the night journey is categorically after inspiration: either shortly after, as some hold, or long after, about ten years, as others hold, and that is more apparent; and his chest was washed that night before the journey a second time, or a third, upon one view, for he was summoned to the Highest Assembly and the divine Presence. Then he mounted the Buraq in exaltation, veneration and honoring of him, and when he came to the Bait al-Maqdis he tied it to the ring by which the prophets were tied, then entered the Bait al-Maqdis and prayed in its qibla the greeting of the mosque. Hudhayfa denied his entering the Bait al-Maqdis and his tying the mount and his praying therein, and this is strange, the establishing text being preferred to the negating. Then they differed whether his meeting the prophets and praying with them was before his ascent to heaven, as what preceded indicates, or after his descent from it, as some accounts indicate, and that is more fitting, as we shall mention upon two views; and Allah knows best. It was said: his prayer with the prophets was in heaven; and likewise he wavers over the three vessels of milk, wine and water: were they at the Bait al-Maqdis, as preceded, or in heaven, as the authentic hadith establishes?

The point is that he, peace be upon him, when he finished the affair of the Bait al-Maqdis, the Mi’raj, which is the ladder, was set up for him, and he climbed it to heaven; the ascent was not upon the Buraq, as some people may imagine, but the Buraq was tied at the gate of the mosque of the Bait al-Maqdis for his return upon it to Mecca. He mounted from heaven to heaven by the Mi’raj until he passed the seventh, and whenever he came to a heaven its near ones and whoever was in it of the great angels and prophets met him. He mentioned the notables of the sent ones whom he saw: Adam in the heaven of this world, Yahya and Jesus in the second, Idris in the fourth, Musa in the sixth upon the authentic account, and Ibrahim in the seventh, leaning his back against the Much-Frequented House which seventy thousand angels enter every day, who worship in it with prayer and circumambulation and then do not return to it until the Day of Resurrection. Then he passed beyond all their ranks until he appeared at a station wherein he heard the scraping of the pens; and the Lote Tree of the Boundary was raised for the Messenger of Allah, its leaves like the ears of elephants and its fruit like the clay jugs of Hajar, and great things covered it then: multiple resplendent colors, and angels mounted upon it like crows upon a tree in multitude, and butterflies of gold, and it was covered by the light of the Lord; and he saw there Gabriel, peace be upon him, having six hundred wings, and between every two wings what is between heaven and earth; and he is he of whom Allah the Most High says:

’and indeed he saw him in another descent, at the Lote Tree of the Boundary, near which is the Garden of Refuge, when the Lote Tree was covered with what covered it; the sight did not swerve nor transgress’ [an-Najm: 13-17], meaning: his sight did not swerve right nor left, nor rise from the place to which gazing was limited; and this is the great steadfastness and the noble adab. This is the second vision of Gabriel, peace be upon him, in the form upon which Allah the Most High created him, as Ibn Mas’ud and Abu Hurayra and Abu Dhar and Aisha all report; and the first is the word of the Most High: ’taught by one terrible in power, endued with strength; so he stood poised, while he was at the highest horizon; then he drew near and descended, and was at two bows’ length or nearer, and He revealed to His servant what He revealed’ [an-Najm: 5-10]; and that was in the valley, and Gabriel descended upon the Messenger of Allah, filling what is between heaven and earth with the greatness of his creation, until there was between him and him two bows’ length or nearer; and this is the sound view in the Tafsir, as the words of the great senior Companions indicate. As for Sharik’s word from Anas in the hadith of the night journey, ’then drew near the Compeller, Lord of Might, and descended, and was at two bows’ length or nearer’, it may be the transmitter’s understanding, which he foisted into the hadith, and Allah knows best; and if it is well preserved, it is not a tafsir of the noble verse; rather it is another thing, not what the noble verse indicates, and Allah knows best.

The fifty prayers and the debate over the vision

Allah prescribed to His servant Muhammad, and to his community, that night, fifty prayers in every day and night; then the alternation did not cease between Musa and his Lord until the Lord reduced them, to Him belong praise and favor, to five. And He said: ’they are five and they are fifty: the good deed with ten of its like.’ Thus he attained the speaking from the Lord that night, and the imams of the Sunna are unanimous upon it; and they differed over the vision: some said he saw Him with his heart twice, as Ibn Abbas and a group said, and Ibn Abbas and others stated the vision unrestricted, which is carried upon the restriction; and among those who stated it unrestricted are Abu Hurayra and Ahmad ibn Hanbal; and some stated explicitly the vision with the two eyes, which Ibn Jarir chose and insisted upon,

and others of the later ones followed him in it; and among those who stated explicitly the vision with the eyes of the head is the Shaykh Abu l-Hasan al-Ash’ari, as as-Suhayli reports of him, and the Shaykh Abu Zakariyya an-Nawawi preferred it in his book. A group said: that did not occur, for the hadith of Abu Dhar in the Sahih of Muslim: I said: O Messenger of Allah, did you see your Lord? He said: ’a light; how could I see Him’, and in a version: ’I saw a light’. They said: the vision of the Rest cannot be by the perishing eye, and for that Allah the Most High said to Musa, as reported in some divine books: O Musa, none sees Me who lives, except that he dies, and none firm except that he crumbles. The dispute in this question is famous among the ancients and the later, and Allah knows best.

Then the Messenger of Allah descended to the Bait al-Maqdis, and the apparent is that the prophets descended with him, honoring and venerating him upon his return from the immense divine Presence, as is the habit of the visiting guests not to meet anyone before the one who was summoned; and for that, whenever he passed by one of them, Gabriel said to him upon the entry of that one to greet him: this is so-and-so, so greet him. Had he met them before his ascent he would not have needed to be introduced to them a second time; and of what indicates that is his word: when the time of prayer came I led them in prayer; and no time was due then except the dawn prayer, so he preceded them as imam upon the command of Gabriel, as he relates from his Lord. Some deduced from this that the mightiest imam is preceded in the imamate over the lord of the station, since the Bait al-Maqdis was their place and residence. Then he went out from it and mounted the Buraq and returned to Mecca, arriving there in the utmost steadfastness, serenity and dignity, having beheld that night signs and matters which, had another seen them or part of them, he would have woken stupefied or with his mind bewildered; but he, peace be upon him, woke composed, that is calm, fearing that if he began by telling his people what he saw they would rush to call him a liar, so he was gentle in informing them first that he had come to the Bait al-Maqdis that night. That was because Abu Jahl, may Allah curse him, saw the Messenger of Allah in the Sacred Mosque sitting composed and said to him: is there any news? He said:

yes. He said: and what is it? He said: I was taken this night to the Bait al-Maqdis. He said: to the Bait al-Maqdis? He said: yes. He said: what if you call your people so as to tell them: will you tell them what you told me? He said: yes. Abu Jahl intended to gather Quraysh that they might hear it from him, and the Messenger of Allah intended to gather them to tell them and convey to them. Abu Jahl said: come, O assembly of Quraysh! And they gathered from their councils, and he said: tell your people what you told me. The Messenger of Allah related to them the report of what he saw, and that he had come to the Bait al-Maqdis that night and prayed in it, and among them were those who clapped and those who jeered, denying him and rejecting his report; and the news flew through Mecca, and the people came to Abu Bakr and informed him that Muhammad says such and such. He said: you lie about him. They said: by Allah, he says it. He said: if he said it, then he spoke truly. Then he came to the Messenger of Allah, the polytheists of Quraysh around him, and asked him of that, and he told him, and he questioned him upon the features of the Bait al-Maqdis, so that the polytheists might hear and know his truthfulness in what he informed them of. And in the Sahih, it was the polytheists themselves who asked the Messenger of Allah of that, and he said: ’I began to inform them of its signs, and some of it eluded me, so Allah showed me the Bait al-Maqdis until I could look at it before the house of Aqil, and I described it to them’; and they said: as for the description, he has hit it.

Dream or waking: the debate between Ibn Ishaq and the Companions

Ibn Ishaq mentioned what preceded of his informing them of his passing by their caravan and of his drinking their water, and Allah established upon them the proof and the clear evidence shone for them, so whoever believed believed with certainty from his Lord, and whoever disbelieved disbelieved after the proof stood against him, as Allah the Most High said: ’and We made not the vision We showed you but a trial for the people’ [al-Isra: 60], meaning a trying of them and a testing. Ibn Abbas said: it is a vision of the eye which the Messenger of Allah was shown. And this is the doctrine of the majority of the ancients and the later, that the night journey was with his body and his soul, as the apparent of the accounts indicates, of his riding and his ascent in the Mi’raj and other things; and for that the Most High said: ’Glory to Him who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque’, and the glorification only occurs at great, extraordinary signs, indicating that it was with soul and body, ’servant’ being an expression for both; and also, had it been a dream, the disbelieving Quraysh would not have hastened to deny it and reject it, for therein is no great matter, indicating that he told them he was taken in waking, not sleep. And his word in the hadith of Sharik from Anas, ’then I awoke and behold I was in the Hijr’, is counted among Sharik’s errors, or carried upon the transfer from one state to another being called waking,

as will come in the hadith of Aisha when the Messenger of Allah went to Ta’if and they called him a liar, and he said: ’I returned distressed, and I recovered myself only at Qarn ath-Tha’alib’; and in the hadith of Abu Usayd, when he brought his son to the Messenger of Allah to have him taste dates, and placed him on the Messenger of Allah’s thigh while the Messenger of Allah was occupied with speech with the people, and Abu Usayd lifted his son, and the Messenger of Allah awoke and found not the boy and asked after him, and they said: he was lifted; so he named him al-Mundhir, and this carrying is finer than counting it an error, and Allah knows best. Ibn Ishaq related, saying: one of the family of Abu Bakr related to me, from Aisha the Mother of the Believers, that she used to say: the body of the Messenger of Allah was never missing, but Allah took his soul by night. And he said: Ya’qub ibn Utba related to me that Mu’awiya, when asked of the journey of the Messenger of Allah, used to say: it was a true dream from Allah; and that was not denied of their two words, because of al-Hasan’s word: this verse descended thereupon, ’and We made not the vision We showed you but a trial for the people’, and as Ibrahim, peace be upon him, said: ’O my son, I see in a dream that I slaughter you’ [as-Saffat: 102], and in the hadith: ’my eye sleeps and my heart wakes’. Ibn Ishaq said: Allah knows best which of that came to him, and what he beheld of the affair of Allah the Most High in whichever of his two states, sleeping or waking: all of that is truth and verity.

I say: Ibn Ishaq wavered in that and permitted each of the two matters as to the general formulation; but what admits no doubt nor dispute is that he was awake of necessity, for what preceded; and Aisha’s word does not require that his body was never missing and that the night journey was with his soul, meaning it was a dream as Ibn Ishaq understood; rather the night journey of his soul may have occurred truly, and he was awake, not asleep, and rode the Buraq, and came to the Bait al-Maqdis, and mounted the heavens, and beheld what he beheld, in truth and waking, not sleep; perhaps this is what Aisha the Mother of the Believers intended, and whoever followed her in that, not what Ibn Ishaq understood of them, that they intended thereby sleep; and Allah knows best. A caution: we do not deny the occurrence of sleep before the night journey, parallel to what occurred after it, for he, peace be upon him,

saw no dream but it came like the gleam of dawn; and the like of that has preceded in the hadith of the beginning of revelation, that he saw the like of what befell him in waking as a dream before it, that this might be of the heralding and preparation and confirmation and familiarity; and Allah knows best. Then the scholars differed whether the night journey and the ascension were in one night or each on a separate night; and among them is one who claims the night journey was in waking and the ascension in sleep. Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra related in his commentary on al-Bukhari from a group that they held the night journey was twice: once with his soul asleep and once with his body and soul awake; and the hafiz Abu l-Qasim as-Suhayli relates that from his shaykh Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, the Maliki jurist; and this view gathers the hadiths, for in the hadith of Sharik from Anas: ’and that is what his heart sees,

his eye sleeps and his heart does not sleep’, and at its end: ’then I awoke and behold I was in the Hijr’: this is sleep, while another indicated waking; and among them is one who claims multiplicity of the night journey in waking too, until some said: there are four night journeys; and some claimed part of it was in Medina. The Shaykh Shihab ad-Din Abu Shama attempted to reconcile the divergence of what occurs in the versions of the hadith of the night journey by multiplicity, making three night journeys: once from Mecca to the Bait al-Maqdis only, upon the Buraq; once from Mecca to the heavens upon the Buraq too, for the hadith of Hudhayfa; and once from Mecca to the Bait al-Maqdis then to the heavens. We say: if he was led to this division only by the divergence of the versions, the wording of the hadith therein has diverged upon more than these three descriptions, and whoever wishes to stand upon that,

let him look at what we gathered in detail in our book of Tafsir at the word of the Most High ’Glory to Him who took His servant by night’; and if he was led to it only by that the division was confined to three descriptions in relation to the Bait al-Maqdis and the heavens, intellectual confinement does not entail its occurring thus in reality except with proof, and Allah knows best. And the strange thing is that the Imam Abu Abdallah al-Bukhari mentioned the night journey after mentioning the death of Abu Talib, agreeing with Ibn Ishaq in mentioning the ascension at the end of the matter, while differing from him in mentioning it after the death of Abu Talib, and Ibn Ishaq delayed the mention of the death of Abu Talib until after the night journey; and Allah knows best which of that it was. The point is that al-Bukhari separated the night journey from the ascension, making a chapter for each of them alone.

The hadith of Jabir: the description of the Bait al-Maqdis

Then he said: al-Bukhari, a chapter of the hadith of the night journey and the word of Allah: ’Glory to Him who took His servant by night’: Yahya ibn Bukayr narrated to us: al-Layth narrated to us, from Uqayl, from Ibn Shihab: Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman related to me: I heard Jabir ibn Abdallah relate that he heard the Messenger of Allah say: when Quraysh declared me a liar, I was in the Hijr, and Allah showed me the Bait al-Maqdis, and I kept informing them of its signs while I looked at it. Muslim and at-Tirmidhi and an-Nasa’i reported it from az-Zuhri, from Abu Salama, from Jabir ibn Abdallah, likewise; and Muslim and an-Nasa’i reported it from Abdallah ibn al-Fadl, from Abu Salama, from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet, in like fashion. Then al-Bukhari said: a chapter of the hadith of the ascension.

The great account of the Mi’raj: the seven heavens and the fifty prayers

Hudba ibn Khalid narrated to us: Hammam narrated to us: Qatada narrated to us, from Anas ibn Malik, from Malik ibn Sa’sa’a, that the Prophet related to them the night he was taken by night, and he said: while I was in the Hatim, and sometimes he said in the Hijr, lying down, when there came to me one who came, and I heard him say: he split what is between this and this. I said to al-Jarud, who was beside me: what does he mean? He said: from the hollow of his neck to his hair. And I heard him say: from the top of his chest to his hair. My heart was drawn out, then a basin of gold full of faith was brought and my heart was washed, then filled, then restored; then a mount was brought to me, smaller than the mule and above the donkey, white. Al-Jarud said: and that is the Buraq, O Abu Hamza? Anas said: yes, which places its hoof at the farthest reach of its gaze, and I was carried upon it,

and Gabriel went with me until he came to the lowest heaven and asked leave to open. It was said: who is this? He said: Gabriel. It was said: and who is with you? He said: Muhammad. It was said: and was he sent to? He said: yes. It was said: welcome to him; what a good coming he has come. It opened, and when I passed through, there was Adam, and he said: this is your father Adam, so greet him. I greeted him and he returned the greeting, then he said: ’welcome to the righteous son and the righteous prophet.’ Then he took me up to the second heaven and asked leave to open. It was said: who is this? He said: Gabriel. It was said: and who is with you? He said: Muhammad. It was said: and was he sent to? He said: yes. It was said: welcome to him; what a good coming he has come. It opened, and when I passed through, there were Yahya and Jesus, and they are cousins, and he said: this is Yahya and Jesus, so greet them. I greeted them and they returned, then they said:

’welcome to the righteous brother and the righteous prophet.’ Then he took me up to the third heaven and asked leave to open. It was said: who is this? He said: Gabriel. It was said: and who is with you? He said: Muhammad. It was said: and was he sent to? He said: yes. It was said: welcome to him; what a good coming he has come. It opened, and when I passed through, there was Yusuf, and he said: this is Yusuf, so greet him. I greeted him and he returned, then he said: ’welcome to the righteous brother and the righteous prophet.’ Then he took me up until he came to the fourth heaven and asked leave to open. It was said: who is this? He said: Gabriel. He said: and who is with you? He said: Muhammad. It was said: and was he sent to? He said: yes. It was said: welcome to him; what a good coming he has come. When I passed through, there was Idris, and he said: this is Idris, so greet him. I greeted him and he returned, then he said:

’welcome to the righteous brother and the righteous prophet.’ Then he took me up until he came to the fifth heaven and asked leave to open. It was said: who is this? He said: Gabriel. It was said: and who is with you? He said: Muhammad. It was said: and was he sent to? He said: yes. It was said: welcome to him; what a good coming he has come. When I passed through, there was Harun, and he said: this is Harun, so greet him. I greeted him and he returned, then he said: ’welcome to the righteous brother and the righteous prophet.’ Then he took me up until he came to the sixth heaven and asked leave to open, and it was said: who is this? He said: Gabriel. It was said: and who is with you? He said: Muhammad. It was said: and was he sent to? He said: yes. It was said: welcome to him; what a good coming he has come. When I passed through, there was Musa, and he said: this is Musa, so greet him. I greeted him and he returned, then he said:

’welcome to the righteous brother and the righteous prophet.’ When I passed beyond him he wept, and it was said to him: what makes you weep? He said: I weep because a lad was sent after me of whose community more enter Paradise than of my community. Then he took me up to the seventh heaven, and Gabriel asked leave to open. It was said: who is this? He said: Gabriel. It was said: and who is with you? He said: Muhammad. It was said: and was he sent to? He said: yes. It was said: welcome to him; what a good coming he has come. When I passed through, there was Ibrahim, and he said: this is your father Ibrahim, so greet him. I greeted him and he returned the greeting, then he said: ’welcome to the righteous son and the righteous prophet.’ Then the Lote Tree of the Boundary was raised to me, its fruit like the clay jugs of Hajar and its leaves like the ears of elephants, and he said: this is the Lote Tree of the Boundary; and there were four rivers, two apparent and two hidden.

I said: what is this, O Gabriel? He said: as for the two hidden, they are two rivers in Paradise; and as for the two apparent, they are the Nile and the Euphrates. Then the Much-Frequented House was raised to me, which seventy thousand angels enter every day. Then a vessel of wine and a vessel of milk and a vessel of honey were brought to me, and I took the milk, and he said: it is the fitra upon which you are, and your community. Then the prayers were prescribed to me, fifty prayers every day; and I returned and passed by Musa, and he said: with what were you commanded? I said: I was commanded fifty prayers every day. He said: your community cannot bear fifty prayers every day, and by Allah I tested the people before you and dealt with the children of Israel with the severest of dealings; return to your Lord and ask Him relief for your community. I returned and He deducted ten, and I returned to Musa and he said the like; I returned and He deducted ten,

and I returned to Musa and he said the like; I returned and He deducted ten, and I returned to Musa and he said the like. I returned and I was commanded ten prayers every day, and he said the like; I returned and I was commanded five prayers every day, and I returned to Musa and he said: with what were you commanded? I said: I was commanded five prayers every day. He said: your community cannot bear five prayers every day, and I tested the people before you and dealt with the children of Israel with the severest of dealings; return to your Lord and ask Him relief for your community. I said: I asked my Lord until I was ashamed, but I am content and I submit. When I passed beyond, a herald called me: ’I have accomplished My ordinance and lightened My servants.’ Thus al-Bukhari reported this hadith here, and he reported it in other places of his Sahih, and Muslim and at-Tirmidhi and an-Nasa’i reported it by routes, from Qatada,

from Anas, from Malik ibn Sa’sa’a; and it was reported to us from Anas ibn Malik from Ubayy ibn Ka’b, and from Anas from Abu Dhar, and by many routes from Anas from the Prophet; and we mentioned that in full with its routes and wordings in the Tafsir. In this account there is no mention of the Bait al-Maqdis, and some of the reporters would omit part of the report out of knowledge of it, or forget it, or mention what was most important to him, or expand at times and quote it all, and at times tell his interlocutor what was most beneficial to him. Whoever makes every version a separate night journey, as some of them claimed, has gone very far astray: for all the accounts contain the greeting upon the prophets, and in each of them he is introduced to them, and in all of them the prayers are prescribed to him; how then could the multiplicity of that be claimed? That is of the utmost remoteness and impossibility, and Allah knows best.

The vision with the eyes and the tree of az-Zaqqum

Then al-Bukhari said: al-Humaydi narrated to us: Sufyan narrated to us, from Amr, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, concerning the word of the Most High ’and We made not the vision We showed you but a trial for the people’: he said: it is a vision of the eye which the Messenger of Allah was shown the night he was taken by night to the Bait al-Maqdis; and the tree cursed in the Quran, he said: it is the tree of az-Zaqqum.