Ibn-e-Hasham, Bukhari, Hameed Ullah, Saheeli, Tibra, Kitani and Asad Baig, said that "Maira’aj took place in the month of Rajab- the seventh Hijrah year on the night of the 27^th day of the month".

According to the tradition, the Prophet’s (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) Ascension consisted of two stages. In the first stage, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) went to Bayt-al-Muqqadas from Makkah and the second stage covered from Bayt-al-Muqqadas to the Heavens.

A few portions of Maira’aj have been narrated by some Islamic historians in the words of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) himself:

When the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) rode the Burraq, he was fully awake. He first entered a city named Habron (al-Khalil). In this city, Ibrahim^R.A’s grave was situated. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) offered Fateh here and ascended on Burraq again. He stopped at Bayt-al-Laham, a place where the Prophet Christ^R.A was born. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) prayed there, and left for Bayt-al-Muqqadas where he entered Al-Aqsa Mosque. The first phase of the journey on earth was completed at Al-Aqsa mosque.

The second phase of the Journey from earth to the heavens began from Al-Aqsa mosque. The night before his departure for ascension, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) left the impression of his feet on "Qabtahal Sakharat" - the Dome of Rock, just as Ibrahim^R.A had left the impression of his feet at "Muqqam-e-Ibrahim" in Makkah.

He reached the first Heaven, which was nearest to the earth. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) saw Adam^R.A and observed that he was standing between two groups of people who had recently arrived there from earth. Those standing at his right were to enter Paradise, whereas those on the left were destined to Hell. Adam smiled at seeing people at his right but was aggrieved for the people at his left. He is the Father of Humanity and being a true and a kind father shared the pains and pleasures of his children.

At the second Heaven, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) met Prophet Christ and at third Yuhanah (Jonah). At the fourth he met Yousaf^R.A, at fifth Haroon^R.A and Musa^R.A. When he arrived at the sixth and the seventh heavens that is the highest, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) saw Ibrahim^R.A resting against the wall of a house. It was the house of the angels. The house exactly resembled the Holy Ka’bah.

After the Seventh Heavens, began a sanctuary, like Holy Ka’bah’s Haram. At the end of this sanctuary was situated a tree named "Sidra-tul-Muntaha". This was located at the end of the universe the "Absolutely Unknown". No one knows what lies next to it.

At this point the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was so near to Allah that he could hear the scratching sound of His Pen. It was learnt that the deeds of humans were recorded here. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) could hear the scratching sound, but was unable to see Him. No one can see Him, not even the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) himself.

He could hear only the Divine voice through Jibril. Allah consoled the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). He told him, not to lose patience and endurance upon being abandoned by his tribe. Some prophets bore uncountable hardships for their mission, some even lost their lives.

Later Allah told the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) about his future responsibilities and asked him to migrate, as Musa^R.A had migrated with his followers. Such a step demands firm resolution and he had, thus, been summoned to the Heavens for strong fortitude and firmer resolution. During the ascent, Allah made fifty prayers each day obligatory for his Ummah. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) continued to ask Allah to reduce the number of prayers until He reduced them to five prayers each day. Allah decreed that all who perform their prayers with sincerity and in expectation of a reward will receive the reward of fifty prayers. Before departing, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) ascertained twelve Divine Orders, just as Musa^R.A had sought Ten Commandments. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) promised Allah to convey them to his followers.

They were; the Muslim should:

We are not surprised at all at this happening, as it conforms with Einstein’s theory of Relativity; according to which, the speed of time for two bodies, one moving and the other stationary, would be different for both. Hence it is quite acceptable that one undergoes such a journey and the door-chain is found still oscillating.

This Accession is not surprising but what remains questionable is whether the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) underwent a physical or a spiritual journey. Islamic scholars have two opinions. For some it was spiritual, and for others it was physical, but no one has stated that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) reached "Sidra-tul-Muntaha" in a dream-like trance or "Roya" - vision.

Those who believe in his physical experience, state that being the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) he had control over his body to visit the Heavens as such. The others say that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) did not need his physical body for his ascension. They add, that we, being the common folks can reach and cover the distances’ thousands of miles apart during dreams. We can also, in this state talk to the dead and are not surprised by this.

During our sleep our bodies do not move even slightly, whereas we are unhampered in our vision. Our spirit transcends our body and covers millennium of space to visit and meet strange lands and people. We can talk to people who have been dead for centuries, meet people in alien lands with alien languages, yet we understand and communicate with them without any difficulty.

The other possibility is that our spirit or soul does not leave us, but inside our brain cells is produced a condition that uncovers veils before our eyes. We find ourselves well-acquainted with each place and every person.

While awake, we cannot jump across a ravine, but in sleep we can fly over and cross valleys and deep gorges just as simple as crossing a street. In dream things become enormously easy for us.

Sleep removes barriers of time and space. Entering a foreign country appears to us as if we had been there before. During the periods of sleep, we have some friends and some foes whom we cannot identify when awake, but when sleep overpowers us, they surround us. Some of them are kind to us and some are so horrible that we start screaming just at their sight.

In the world of dream, we can enter the cores of the volcanoes and remain unhurt similarly we can face extremes of cold unhurt. Thus our prevalent measurements of time and space become suspended. Many people have dreamt living in foreign countries for years, but when woken up, found themselves slept only for few hours.

Everyone has experienced such incidents in his life, In dreams, the past, present and future amalgamate in one entity and one can move thousands of years into the past or the future and can talk to people born in past or yet to come. Some scholars have solved enigmatic problems in dreams that they could not in the real world. The grip that clutches our brain neurones and compresses our mental capacities is either slowed down during sleep or completely slackens its control.

It seems possible that the Prophet’s (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) soul, during wake hours, could reach the worlds we call metaphysical.

However it seems possible that the state we experience during sleep, was developed by the decree of Allah in the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and would have taken him to the worlds that he had described himself.

When we are liberated from the barriers of time and space, we become or feel ourselves immortal. We become part of everything. We can hear the living and non-living. If a similar condition was revealed to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) when awake is intellectually quite acceptable in the 20th century.

The fact that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) might have physically gone to the Heavens is also acceptable to logic and reason. According to physical principles, two points arise. One is speed and the other is of the possibility of a body moving faster than light. It is learnt from Islamic traditions that during Maira’aj, the Prophet’s (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) speed of travel was faster than the light waves and greater than gravitational forces. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) covered all these distances in an instant. We know today that our universe is so enormous that according to Einstein, its diameter is three thousand million light years. A light ray, which covers 300,000 km/sec., would cover this distance from one point of the Universe to another in three thousand years. However, there is another form of speed which is sudden and can cover the above distance in an instant and that is under the influence of gravitational pull or waves.

In this un-ending universe, a galaxy, which comprises millions of stars, when explodes converts to waves, and then gravitational forces act suddenly that a balance is achieved in an instant. If this balance is not reached, then at the very instant of such a breakage, our own solar system would be destroyed due to the expanding gravitational forces.

The impact of this law of gravitation, intuited by Einstein, would play itself on the whole world and its equal and opposite reaction would also be sudden. According to Islamic scholars, the speed of Burraq was even greater than the speed of light. It is possible that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) travelled at such a high speed under the influence of similar forces. If we say that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) spiritually covered these distances while awake, then we will not have discussions on physics, but when we say that he did this journey with his physical self, then arises a question whether a body can tolerate the speed of three hundred thousand kilometres per second.

Some Muslim scholars insist that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) made the Accession in his physical self. I have no doubt in believing that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) made the accession in his physical self. Anyone of the scientific theories instituted or discussed above could have been made active by the Creator of this universe for his Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). Many forces operative in maintenance of our universe are still not clear and are un-known to mankind.