Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem. Alhumdulillah. Peace and blessings on Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam), his Noble Companions and Family. Brothers and sisters … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjdtRw1Xz-o AL ISRA' AND AL MI'RAJ We begin by thanking every one of you for being here this afternoon and we also like to thank those who have thought out/organised/implemented this program that brings us all together. We think the idea is very encouraging to have Muslims step over the artificial barriers that have been imposed on us- whether they have a religious/national/racial character or whatever character they may have- it's about time Muslims begin to transcend these artificial walls of separation that have had us in the previous centuries/generations that have had us become victims of imposed powers- military powers and mental powers and everything in-between. We've suffered from that for so long (and) it's about time some people began to think about coming together and agreeing upon what we all share in common. I would like to say. (before I begin my thoughts on this occasion), that I try as much as possible to break out of the usual wording that we have on such occasions. It's like Muslims have a particular vocabulary that gets us stuck in a rut out of which we cannot think properly. For that reason I choose to retune my thoughts with other words to help you/us altogether move ahead rather than be stagnant in the general area of "if you heard it once, you've heard it for all the times." We just want you/all of us to try as much as possible to get out of that. We will also try to break with tradition. We know these are harsh words. Tradition sometimes has a positive shadow/shade to it. What we mean by this is that the way Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj is spoken/explained has a tradition to it and we would, (with a little of your patience), try to break loose from approaching this subject matter in that traditional approach. We will begin by saying that Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj took place before the hijra by about one/two years. Now as is the case with any researcher/someone who is investigating this subject matter, you're always going to find historians/Muslim Scholars having a difference of opinion. So it becomes very difficult to pin-point a consensual exact date/zeroing in on a date/month/year for when Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj took place. So then it becomes consciously possible to say that it happened between the twelfth/thirteenth year before the hijra or within those two years preceding the Prophet's move from Makkah to Al Madinah. What goes un-noticed in this initial movement to, (what was called at the time), Yathrib- because the Prophet at the time was not present in Al Madinah, he was still in Makkah so before he went to Yathrib- he was involved in a struggle. Many of us invoke the Prophet's name many times in our prayers/the ayaat in the Qur'an referring to Allah's Prophet/the invocation of as salaat and as salaam upon him/the lectures/presentations; how many time we hear about him? In the middle of all of this unfortunately we fail to remember a very important feature of the Prophet. This is a collective failure that we suffer from- all of us. I don't care who we are. We're sorry to say this, (by the way). One of the features that hasn't come to our mind when we mention his name is that he was a person who can be characterised, (after the age of forty obviously, when he received the wahy), as a person who spent his life in a struggle. As important as this is to remember, we fail to remember it. When someone says Muhammad/the Prophet/Rasulullah/Nabiullah etc. it doesn't occur to us. The first thing that should occur to us is that we are remembering a person who was involved in a lifelong struggle. That doesn't occur and that is the first thing that we should remember when his name is mentioned because there is a build up to Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj. Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj is not some incident that took place haphazardly; it was not one of these developments in the Prophet's life that did not fit into a sequence of events; it was a calculated/measured event in the lifetime struggle of Allah's Prophet. Now, let us borrow the secular mind for a moment, (that's if we have our Islamic minds- some of us don't have to borrow it because we're implanted with it since we are born), but if that secular mind were to take a look at the lifetime of Allah's Prophet we will find that this secular mind would look at him as a failure. Then, as is the case, it would present its evidence that this Prophet is a failure. He began his mission by communicating this message from Allah to his first inner circle- his wife/cousin/best friend and his step son. OK- so what happened? What type of results were there? Nothing much! What did his wife/cousin/step son/ best friend do to enhance the message of Islam in Makkah? So what do we say? Look at him- a failure. He remained for about three/four years spreading the word of Islam in a low key manner from those who were nearer to him to those who were a little more at a distance from him to those who were at a distance yet a little more but still there's no dramatic change in the social life in Makkah. The secular mind would tell you "hey listen/look- this is a failure. You have a person who has been spending three or four years trying his best to communicate the message of Islam that he has. He says he's receiving something from Heaven and what do you have? A few dozen people at the most in Makkah who become Muslims after all of these years! In our dictionary that's called a failure." Then we have, (we hope some of us have some Islamic history in our mind), the details of that Makkan era. There was persecution/torture/ridicule/psychological war against the Prophet and those that were with him; they tried to isolate him; they embargoed him, (so to speak), into three years when he and those who were with him were in (what was called), Sha'b ibn Abi Talib. What do we have here? Let's take a look. Let's go a little slow here- slow motion. We're looking at the character of the Prophet and those who were with him who committed their lives to Allah and to him during these three years. What were they doing? The Makkan society had reduced them to sub-survival levels. No one could bring them any food/water. They were boycotted in every social sense of the word. Then they were forced to chew on leather to try to extract whatever nutrient there may be from leather. What would the secular mind call that? "Failure! Where's Muhammed going with this message of Islam?" In the meantime, obviously this is the social/material unfolding of facts. These are facts from our history. No one can deny them. There may be a give-and-take maybe in trying to understand them, but the facts are there- solid/ consensual and have lived for 1,400 years; but on the flip side of this we have a psychology that was not defeated. In the middle of all of this when the social order was going into all that it had to try to break this Prophet using everything at its disposal, the Prophet was sending some people to Africa. The Prophet was contacting the people who were coming to the Ka'bah- whether they were the people of Hejaz or the people from The Establishment in Makkah wanted/had a strategy to defeat this person (as) one of them. As they were pursuing that strategy uncalculated things happen. Some very important characters in this structure of Makkah joined the Prophet. The underclass that joined the Prophet is a given. This has been the case with the history of Prophethood that the under classes would be the first supporters of the Prophet but to have someone influential in society join the Prophet begins to ring bells of alarm in the Establishment. Hamzah ibn Abdul Mutt'talib (radi Allahu anhu) the Prophet's uncle and a well known figure in the Makkan society now became a Muslim in these circumstances. That began to ring the alarm bells concerning the Decision-Makers in Makkah at the time. They don't like that. Umar ibn Al Khattab (radi Allahu anhu), another well known figure in Makkah joins the Prophet and this also rings more alarm bells in the heads/planning fibres of the Decision-Makers of the Makkan Establishment. They didn't like that either. Then, all of this was leading to the event that we're speaking about- we're supposed to be speaking about Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj, as we said, Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj did not occur in a vacuum; it occurred with these dynamics at work. The Prophet would know what is happening to Bilal (radi Allahu anhu), one of his followers who was tortured to the extent that his tormentors wanted to bring him to the point of renouncing his Islam in lieu of losing his life, meaning they brought him to the moments in life when you have a choice. Either you renounce your Islam or you lose your life, and he would not renounce his Islam. The Prophet would pass by the family of Ammaar ibn Yaaser (radi Allahu anhum) and he would physically see them being tortured and that's torture to him and he would say patience family of Yaaser- your meeting point is going to be Al Jannah. Then what happens to him? With all this physical/social pressure that was on him what happens preceding/just before Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj? The two persons that were a psychological refuge for him- his wife and his uncle pass on. Those who offered him family/social comfort died that year. The secular mind would say "listen- we're not observing someone here who has anything to speak about as far as success is concerned. This is a failure!" The Prophet himself just before Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj left Makkah. He went to At Ta'if seeking some type of support system/base of support in At Ta'if and what they did was… You have to understand that Makkah and At Ta'if were very close societies- the closest two societies in Al Hejaz. So what they did was they began throwing stones at him when he was leaving At Ta'if. Now if we take a look at just two incidents- the incident in which when the Prophet and those who committed themselves to Allah and to him were sub-surviving for three years did it ever occur to us that the Prophet was a very hungry man for three years? This is the Prophet that we say "sallalahu alayhi wa sallam/sallalahu alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam." He was very hungry for three years. We think that doesn't occur to many of us when we evoke his name. When he was expelled from At Ta'if when they threw stones at him, this was a Prophet who had no protection at all- nothing! It was within these types of psychological dynamics that Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj occurred. Remember, the Prophet was struggling to have some type of demographic success in Makkah- it never happened. Then, all of a sudden as if to turn a page in this history, this Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj occurred. He was taken on a night journey from Makkah to Al Quds and then from Al Quds to the seven Heavens above. It was like a two way divorce. Here he was locally involved in Makkah- a place that in-and-of itself was in the margins of the real world of the time. What was Makkah in the real world? It was just a habitat in a desolate desert and from that isolated pocket of existence/area of the world that was cut away from civilisation- the Prophet was involved just in the local struggle there in Makkah, as local as you can get, then Allah took him on this tour of the universe in it's expanse of time/place. Some of the details we listened to concerning the particulars of meeting with the Ambiya'/ Prophets/Messengers of Allah. Here he was trying to convince the rulers/people of Makkah concerning Islam and they were turning him down and Allah took him out of those eleven/twelve years of frustration/ setbacks/intimidation and all types of campaigns against him and placed him in the presence of the leaders of the world- Ibrahim/Musa/Isa/Nuh and the rest of these Prophets (alayhim as salaam). These were the leaders of humanity/history/all the peoples of the world. He took him from that languishing status in Makkah and now he was in the presence/new world. Thus we read Extolled and Exalted is He who has taken His conforming subject on a night journey from Al Masjid Al Haram to Al Masjid Al Aqsa, the environs of which We have blessed so that We may demonstrate some of our ayaat to him. For He (meaning Allah) is All Hearing All and All Seeing i.e. nothing escapes His attention and detection. (Surah Al Isra' verse 1) The word abd that was used in the ayah, (and the respected speaker spoke about in his presentation to break away from the conventional choice of words), means a conforming subject. Allah chose this word so that this development of Al Isra' and Al Mi'raj can relate to us. He could have said Subhanalladhi Asra bi Nabihi/bi Rasulihi/bi Mustaphahu… but the choice of word abd is deliberate because it involves an abd/conforming subject to Allah and you/I, if we define ourselves as obedient to Allah we gain that description; we become ibaadAllah. Therefore the incident as it is worded here relates to us. If Allah could come to the rescue of His Prophet who He did not call His Prophet on this occasion, He called him His conforming subject then He certainly can come to the rescue of others of His conforming subjects. He's not going to exclude us and say this is a particular event that is specific to a Prophet. This is an event that belongs to conforming subjects of Allah, ourselves included if we meet the criteria. Extolled and Exalted is He who has taken His conforming subject on a night journey from Al Masjid Al Haram to Al Masjid Al Aqsa … (Surah Al Isra' verse 1) There's a couple of thoughts that come to mind in understanding the words of Allah and the works of His Prophet. The first thing that comes to mind is the choice/direction of this movement. Remember, Allah is taking His conforming subject on a night journey from Makkah … (Surah Al Isra' verse 1) And of all other places in the world it was to Al Quds. No where else. Now, this would have some meaning for people who are thinking the details of the struggle then/now. What is established/an alphabetical fact in the Muslim mind is that the Prophet of Allah at that time in Makkah was in a struggle with his social self. Now some people can't understand what we're saying. We've had a couple of brothers who said "what do you mean by social self?" There was an Arabian society that had Arabian culture/traditions/history and the Prophet was struggling against this and this struggle was represented in the clash with the Makkan Establishment/Order/Authority. That clash continued for a dozen years or-so. That was his struggle with his social self. If we bring those facts to our world and we look around and we ask "where are the Muslims who are in a struggle with their social self?" We also belong to a social self. You have your national/ethnic /racial/some other type of cultural character- that is your social self. What the Prophet was doing was he was in a lifetime struggle with that social self that was wrong. Racism/ethnic discrimination/cultural bias/ gender prejudice is wrong- this is the struggle that he was in. What happened? His social self was winning in Makkah in these first dozen years in his life and his personal self was failing, (if we take a look at it as we said, with a secular mind.) This Isra' and Mi'raj in the Heavens/Universe where there's the convergence of time/place was to have- (it's) true that there may have been a political/economic failure in those times of duress in Makkah, but there was no psychological failure and because there was no psychological failure and he and those who were with him proved that they were a success psychologically- Allah wanted to deliver them from that phase of history to a new phase of history. So he comes back and he speaks to the people around him about that one night. He says I've been of a night journey from Makkah to Al Quds and then from there I was taken on a journey where I met with the Ambiya' of Allah. Of course, the people who are at this level of war with him continued to ridicule him. This is what they said: it takes us about thirty days when we go on our caravans to get us to Al Quds, (the area that he's speaking about), and here he is telling us that he did it in one night. You've got to be kidding. This propaganda warfare against the Prophet even affected some Muslims. Some of these people who said they're committed to Allah's Prophet after hearing what happened said Oh- we don't want to be Muslims anymore. The unfortunate fact of our history books is that we don't have the names of these characters. It's nice to know who these were who at times like this stepped out of their commitment to Allah and His Prophet who later on would probably rejoin the Muslim crowd and become maybe unreliable characters in Islamic history. We don't have their names unfortunately. But this is one of the dynamics that happens as a struggle goes on. The struggle is real. Human nature is human nature. We have human beings who are strong and who would withstand the pressures that are put on them and we have others who are weak. They can't. They can't take it anymore. This is one of these junctures in Islamic history when we are exposed to characters who couldn't take the pressures anymore. But this brings us back to a very important point i.e. history speaks for itself. The Prophet here was involved in a struggle of over a decade with a society/culture that was opposed to him in Makkah against his social self, we ask ourselves, if we understand these events in context, are we involved in a struggle against our social selves? At least at that time the Prophet had access to the Ka'bah/Haram. With all the pressure that was put on him, no one was telling him "you cannot come and speak your mind at the Ka'bah/around the Haram." Today we have a Regime/Authority/Establishment/ Officials who rule over the Ka'bah/Haram. If you don't believe us, try it- try to go to Makkah/Al Madinah and try to speak to the people the "language" of the Prophet. They'll tell you "you're not welcome here. Don't come to the Ka'bah/Makkah with these types of ideas." These are not our ideas. These ideas are from the Holy Book/Holy Prophet. They'll tell you "you can't come here." Quraysh that was an enemy of Allah's Prophet stands out "more merciful" than those who rule … Say: exalted is my Sustainer, but I'm only a human, a Messenger… (Surah Al Isra' verse 93) And this is a miracle- brothers and sisters. We Muslims we don't dwell on miracles. We're not like Christian/Jewish history/theology which is punctuated full of miracles. This is a miracle in any way you think about it. The Prophet goes all of these distances to the end of existence, (as it were), and he comes back in one night. We say this is a miracle. What is noteworthy here is (that) it is mentioned that he went on, (what is called), Al Buraaq. Al Buraaq is a derivative of a word that you're more familiar with if you're reading the Qur'an. There's a word in the Qur'an- al barq. Barq means lightning and Al Buraaq is a derivative of lightning which if we were to break it down to the chemistry of today's world we'd probably say it's somewhere between electricity and light; so this transfer is like, (if some of you watch TV in the passing years there's an expression there on one of the programs "beam me up." That beam- these people say they don't read the Qur'an and they nothing of this history yet they use a term that can be directly related to the Qur'an and this history of ours and here we are struggling with "was that animal, Al Buraaq, closer to a mule or a donkey." But this is where we are in real life; this is who we are- whether its looking back at our history and understanding it or whether its looking at the developments of our time and understanding that or whether its trying to relate/intertwine the experiences of the Prophet and his precedents with our obligations/responsibilities today. The other comment that we will wind up on is the destruction, almost physically, is the destruction of Al Masjid Al Haram and Al Masjid Al Aqsa. We have two Regimes- one of them occupying Arabia and the other one occupying Palestine/the This presentation was presented by Imam Muhammad Al Asi on the occasion of Isra' and Mi'raj on 27 July 2008 in |
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