ASCENSION
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Ascension or Mairaaj is the Prophets(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) journey to Heavens. The
Holy Quranic verses are the most authentic source for details of this journey. There are
differences among the Muslim scholars about the happening of Mairaaj. They believe
in its truthfulness, but the way it was carried out bears two opinions. Ibn-e-Hasham, Bukhari, Hameed Ullah, Saheeli, Tibra, Kitani and Asad
Baig, said that "Mairaaj took place in the month of Rajab- the seventh Hijrah
year on the night of the 27th day of the month". According to the tradition, the Prophets (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 Mairaaj have been narrated by some Islamic
historians in the words of the Prophet (may Allah bless him
and grant him peace) himself: "That night I was sleeping in Makkah and I had not been expelled
from the tribe practically till then. I saw a wide gap appear in the ceiling of my house,
through which Jibril descended. He slit open my chest and washed it with
Aab-e-Zamzam. He then brought "Abreeq" - which was filled with wisdom and
sagacity. He poured it in my chest and sewed it back. He grabbed my hand and beckoned me
to "Burraq" that was the mount used for this ascension. It was a cross between a
horse and a mule. Its head resembled a womans and it travelled with the speed of
lightening". 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, IbrahimR.As
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 ChristR.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
IbrahimR.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 AdamR.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 YousafR.A, at fifth HaroonR.A and MusaR.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 IbrahimR.A resting against the wall of a house. It was the house of
the angels. The house exactly resembled the Holy Kabah. After the Seventh Heavens, began a sanctuary, like Holy
Kabahs 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 MusaR.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 MusaR.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: |
On his return the Prophet
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) told his followers about all those
people whom he had met in the Heavens. The Prophet (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) met a diverse multitude of people
including scholars, warriors, prophets and sages. These people had passed the world
centuries ago. This gave the Prophet (may Allah bless him
and grant him peace) a great opportunity of knowing those people from close
quarters. Some scholars say that during this duration of Accession to Heavens and his
conversation with Allah, the door-chain of the Prophets
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) house (which had been left dangling
open while he was leaving) was still oscillating when he returned. We are not surprised at all at this happening, as it conforms with
Einsteins 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 Prophets
(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 Mairaaj, the Prophets (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. |