MUHAMMAD�S NIGHT JOURNEY TO HEAVEN

Various other matters, such as Muhammad�s night journey to Jerusalem, and the coming of DajjAl and Jesus before the Day of Resurrection, are also discussed in the �Book of Faith.� These are quite important in Islamic lore.

One night, riding on al-BarAq, �an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule,� Muhammad was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem and from there to the different regions, or �circles� (as Dante called them), of heaven, on the way meeting different apostles.  Adam he met in the first heaven, Jesus in the second, Moses in the sixth, and Abraham in the seventh.  Then he met Allah, who enjoined on the Muslims fifty prayers a day.  But on the advice of Moses, Muhammad made a representation to Allah and the number was reduced to five.  �Five and at the same time fifty�-one prayer will now count for ten-for �what has been said will not be changed� (313).  So nothing was really lost in efficacy, and five will do the work of fifty.

The more mystic-minded explain this journey spiritually, but Muhammad�s Companions and later on most Muslim scholars believe that the journey or ascension (mi�rAj) was physical.  Many in his day scoffed at Muhammad and called his journey a dream.  But our translator argues that precisely because it was not believed, it was not a dream!  For �had it been only a dream, there would have been no occasion for such a reaction about it.  Visions like this can flit across the imagination of any man at any time� (note 325).

author: ram sawrup