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Isra and Mi'raj

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the night journey

The Night Jour­ney : The Mir­a­cle of Isra’ and Mi’raj

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The verse of Isra’ in the Qur’an is clear not liable to hes­i­ta­tion or reluc­tance in say­ing that Allah had caused His ser­vant to trav­el by night from Al-Masjid Al-Haram to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa like you say ; I trav­eled by night from such and such place to such and such place. So, there is no room for hes­i­ta­tion and ask­ing whether this was with body or spir­it, or awake or dur­ing sleep. Also, it is inap­pro­pri­ate to dis­agree regard­ing the mean­ing of this night jour­ney or regard­ing the word ​‘Abd, i.e., ser­vant, and whether it refers to the spir­it, to the body or to both, as it has hap­pened between those claim­ing bod­i­ly Isra and oth­ers claim­ing spir­i­tu­al Isra.

The Position of Jerusalem and al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf in Islam 26

The Posi­tion of Jerusalem and al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf in Islam

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Dur­ing the Mi’raj, the Prophet(P) is report­ed to have received from God the com­mand of five dai­ly prayers (salah) that all Mus­lims must per­form. Upon his return to Mec­ca, the Prophet insti­tut­ed these prayers. It is sig­nif­i­cant to note that he made Jerusalem the direc­tion (al-Qiblah) which Mus­lims must face while doing their prayers (nar­rat­ed by al-Bukhari, 41 and by Mus­lim, 525). Jerusalem is thus called Ula al-Qiblatain (the first qiblah). The Prophet (P) and the ear­ly com­mu­ni­ty of Islam wor­shipped towards the direc­tion of Jerusalem dur­ing their stay in Mec­ca. After the Hijra’ (migra­tion), Mus­lims in Med­i­na also con­tin­ued to pray fac­ing Jerusalem for almost sev­en­teen months until God com­mand­ed the Mus­lims to change their direc­tion of prayer from Jerusalem to Mec­ca (Qur’an 2:142 – 150). These estab­lished facts clear­ly sig­ni­fies the impor­tance of Jerusalem in Islam.