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And
Allah swt says in the holy Quoran:
"He
it is Who raised among
the "Ummies" ( illiterates)
an Apostle from among
themselves,
reciting unto them His signs,
and purifying
them, and teaching
them The Book (Qur'an)
and Wisdom although they
were
of before in manifest straying."
Surat Al Jumu'ah, Ayat 2.
The
darkness of the night had spread across the horizon and
silence reigned over the face of nature. The time had
arrived when the living creatures take rest and sleep so that
they might recuperate from their activities of the previous day.
The Holy Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him and his
progeny, was also not an exception to this law of nature
and he wished to take rest after offering his prayers.
However, suddenly he heard a voice, it was the voice of the
Archangel Jibreel who said to him:
"This
night you have to perform a very unique journey
and I have
been ordered to remain with you.
You will have to
traverse different parts of the world
mounted on an
animal named Buraq".
From
the house of "Umme Hani" the prophet mounted
on Buraq and proceeded to Bayt ul Maqdis, situated in Jordon,
which is also called Masjid ul Aqsa. After a very short
time, he dismounted from there and visited different parts
of the mosque as well as Bethlehem, the birth place of
Prophet Issa, peace and blessings be upon him, and also
saw various other places associated with different prophets.
At some of these places, he performed two rakaats of prayer.
On the
second part of his journey, he proceeded to the skies.
He, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny, then
observed the stars and the systems of the world and
conversed with the souls of the previous prophets, and also
with the angels of the heavens, peace and blessing be upon
them all. He saw the centre of the tortures and the blessings
( hell and paradise) and became fully aware of the
secrets of creation, the extent of the universe and the
signs of the Omnipotent Allah swt.
Then he, peace and blessings be upon him and his progeny, continued his
journey and reached Sidrat ul Muntaha. There he found it fully
covered with splendour, magnificence and grandeur, then
he returned back by the way he had travelled. He, peace and
blessing be upon him and his progeny, first came to Bayt ul
Maqdis and then to Mecca. It was daybreak when he
dismounted at the house of Umme Hani from the
animal which had taken him into space. He related this
matter to Umme Hani and the following night, he made it known
to the assemblies of Quraysh as well.
According
to an old tradition, the Quraysh asked the account of its
structure, and the Holy Prophet, peace and blessing be
upon him and his progeny, proved to them the incident
which had occurred between Mecca and Bayt ul Maqdis and said to
them that he met the caravan of such and such tribe who lost
their camel and he asked them to give him water and the Holy
Prophet drank water from their container. At another place, he
met a group of persons whose camel had run away and had
broken its leg. So they asked about the Quraysh caravan
and he replied to them that he saw them at Taim. So Quraysh
became very excited.
Proof
in the Holy Quran of this ayat is in Surah Bani Israel;
And
Allah says in the Quran:
"Glory
be to Him Who
carried His servant (Apostle
Mohammad) by night from the
Holy Mosque (of the Ka'ba) to
the Farthest Mosque, which We
have blessed its environment
that We may show unto him, of
Our signs;
Verily He is the
All-Hearing, the All-Seeing."
Surah Bani Israel, Ayat 1.
The
Holy Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him and his
progeny, made this journey with his body and soul
together and not just with his soul only.
The
word his servant in the Holy Quran applies to his body and
his soul
Clear
mention of Meraj is Surah al Najm.
It has
mentioned that the Meraj of the prophet has taken place
more than once.
And
Allah says in the Quran:
"The
One endued with wisdom;
(and) hence he ( the holy Prophet saw)
took an over viewing position"
Surah al Najm, Ayat 6
These
verses refer to the Meraj, ie Ascension of the Holy Prophet
into the heavens. See 17 :1 and His meeting the Angel Jibraeel
in his full form of his wonderful strength.
Ref: Commentary on the Holy Quoran by S.V. Ahmed Ali, 2nd
Ed. 1995.
Some
Ullama have mentioned that Imam Jafar as Sadiq, alaihi salam, has said
that the Holy Prophet has done Meraj about 120 times and not only once.
The efficiency of a miracle
is basically different from that
of the natural causes and the strength of
man. We should not consider the strength of Allah swt as
being limited like our own.
In
short, all the natural causes and external
impediments are controlled and conquered by the will
of Allah swt. His will does not
concern only that which is an impossibility to us, but beside
that, He does what He wills and whatever He likes whether or not man possesses
the strength for it or not.
The object
of this grand journey was to make known to the prophet the
various aspects of the existence of the great universe.
The
Holy Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his progeny,
travelled through these worlds in a short time, not with human
strength but with divine strength. Allah swt commences his
statement "glory be to him !'' - Allah is free
from all defects and needs and He has also not contented
himself with this and has introduced himself as the agent of
the journey by saying "Asra" ( Allah made him
perform the journey.) Allah favoured this journey so that
people might not think that the journey was performed
according to natural laws and with usual means and some
might deny this possibility. So it has been to clarify
that it was under divine will and with special favour
from the Almighty.
A
person asked our 4th Imam, alaihi salam,- "is there a particular
place for Allah?"
He,
alaihi salam,
replied: "no".
The
man said: "then why did he make his
prophet journey through the skies?"
The
Holy Imam, alaihi salam, said: "He made him ascend so that he
might become aware of the expanse of the
universe and see and hear wonderful things, the like of
which had not been seen and heard by the eyes and ears
before."
It is
no doubt necessary that the prophet should enjoy such a
position that he should rely on his vast
information and should be able to send a
message to the people of the 20th century, who are still thinking of travelling to the moon and to mars,
that he did this performance without any
means and his Creator was kind to him and made him
fully aware of the system of creation.
Meraj
and Modern Science
Modern
scientists deny and do not conform to the ascension to the
heavens (the Meraj) of our Holy Prophet, peace and blessings
be upon him and his progeny. They use scientific arguments
such as, in order to depart the earth, it is necessary to neutralize
its gravity. eg. if you fling a ball into the air, the power
of gravity brings it back to the earth and whatever force you
use, it will come to earth again.
The
unbelievers ask that as we claim the Holy Prophet went to
Meraj out of the zone of gravity and became weight-less, how
did he perform the journey at this speed and without the
necessary facilities. Below are some of their points of
dispute.
 1)
The atmosphere in which one may breathe exists just beyond the
earth's surface and as we go higher, the air becomes thinner
and still more unfit for breathing and eventually we reach a
point where there is no air at all. Therefore, how did the
Holy Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his progeny,
manage to live without the oxygen during his journey in the
aforesaid region?
2)
The mortal rays and celestial stones destroy every terrestrial
body which is touched by them and therefore do not reach the
earth on account of their collision with the regions of air.
In fact, these regions serve as a coat
-of -mail for the inhabitants of earth. They then
ask by what means did the Holy Prophet remain safe from these
mortal rays?
They
further add that the speed at which the Holy Prophet performed
his journey had to be decidedly more than the speed of light
and given that light travels at the speed of 300,000
kilometres per second and modern science has proved that
nobody can travel faster than the speed of light, how was it
possible? Keeping this scientific law in view, they then ask,
how did the Holy Prophet commence his journey at a speed
faster than that of light and then return safely?
Research
by both eastern and western astronomers has made all of these
matters possible by sending the first artificial satellite
into space in 1957, called the "Sputnic". So
it became clear that the power of gravity could become
neutralized by means of a rocket. By sending these rockets
into outer space, problems like mortal rays and the difficulties
in breathing air are being overcome by technological means.
After some time it may become possible for humans to lead
their lives in one of the celestial spheres and they may
travel quite easily to the moon and to Mars.
So,
here it has been proven by scientists and technicians that
such an activity as Meraj is one hundred percent possible.
As
always, however, there is satan in between humankind who are
always arguing about divine rules and they bring objections
from different points and they will definitely spread this
question that the Holy Prophet undertook this journey without
scientific and mechanical help and he performed this journey
during the one night of Meraj. So questions arise as to how.
Clear
proof in foregoing discussions about the miracles of prophets
are detailed in narratives which concern the event of the year
of the elephant and the incident of Abraha's army being killed
with small stones. All this was done without scientific tools
and only with the help of The Divine Ruler, and in Meraj also
the Holy Prophet went with the blessing of Allah "the
creator of this whole wonderful system to whom we
all belong".
To
argue with all this is the same as to argue with Allah itself,
where all is clear proof from Holy Quran.
On
26th Rajab, all
the Muslim believers could celebrate this as a grand day of
Meraj as "grand idd" and all the Muslims
who believe in our Holy Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him and his progeny, should be proud to have such a prophet
like Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his
progeny, to whom Allah swt was also proud and had invited him
to visit his place.
"...and
made Your Easts and Wests come under his feet,
and harnessed for him the Buraq,
And did make him ascend towards Your heavens..."
"...lowered and humbled before him the Easts and the
Wests,
under his total control was brought all affairs,
exalted his soul in Thy heavens...."
The concept and
reality of the BURAQ has been a controversial issue among
Muslim scholars.
The
Sufi school gave it a shape, an entity and further
credibility. According to hadeeth, it is a specially prepared "animal"
or "carriage" that took our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him and his progeny, to the
heavens on the Night of Asra in his full body (that is, it was
not a dream).
Sufi
poets gave it shape and form, so that now people think that it
was a white horse.
I
remember from my early childhood that in our ancestral village
of Mustafabad (in U.P., India), there was one Imambara
where
several pictures decorated the walls. One such picture was
that of a white horse with wings and the face of a very
beautiful woman. The title on that picture read al- Buraq.
My
personal view about this whole concept is as follows:
The
Arabic word BURAQ is derived from the root B-R-Q, which is the
word for electricity. BARQ AS-SAMA is the term used for
thunderbolt and lightning in the sky.
Therefore,
my conclusion is that Allah the Almighty, out of His Unlimited
Power to Create, designed some sort of otherworldly method of
transport for the Prophet to travel all that distance in a
flash.
We
are not sure about the kind and length of the distance the
Prophet had to cover that night. When Allah says: nahnu
aqrab ilayhi min hablil wareed, then one is inclined to
think that the distance covered by the Prophet that night was
actually physical, but it was the distance of MA'RIFA. That
will, logically mean, that so called BURAQ was a carriage to
cover the intellectual distance of understanding Allah's
reality.
Allah
only knows what the truth is in this matter, because we don't
have a very clear expression of the whole thing in the Hadeeth
literature. All we have is the wishful thinking of the Muslim
scholars who came in later times.
Our
knowledge is limited and and the reality of the Almighty Allah
and that of the Prophet is unlimited.
In the meantime, Buraq Air, at Mitiga International
Airport in Tripoli, Libya have no hesitation in supporting the
ascension story of the Prophet of Islam and have named their
airlines after BURAQ.
Ayatullah
Jaffer Subhani.The Message - the Holy Prophet of Allah.
Bihar
Ul Anwar, Vol- XV111,Pg 282, Ascension chapter
Email
by Syed Mohsin Naquvi, Jafariya Forum. 2003.
Email by Sakina Zayn Al Abidin,
Jafariya Forum.
Email by
Grand Ayatollah,
Qom, Iran.
S.V. Ahmed Ali, 2nd
Ed. 1995.The Holy Qu'ran
S.V. Ahmed Ali, 2nd
Ed. 1995. Commentary on The Holy Qu'ran Appendix Email
question and answer to the office of Grand Ayatullah Sistani
concerning the Buraq
From: "www.sistani.org"
To:
Subject: Answer
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 18:55:24 +0430
Translation:
In His name, the Most High
Answer: Buraq is the horse with which the holy Prophet (pbuh)
ascended to the Heavens.
Board of Istifta
Office of Grand Ayatollah Sistani
* Please, open attached file to read answer in original
language.
* Kindly, excuse us for not replying to your message sooner.
The delay is
due to large number of mails coming to us each day.
-----Original Message-----
From: istifta@aalulbayt.org [mailto:istifta@aalulbayt.org]
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2003 11:20 AM
To: sistani@sistani.org
Subject: FW: [Jafariya-forum] Att: Syed Mohsin Naquvi Re: the
Buraq
-----Original Message-----
From: shanteek99 [mailto:shanteek99@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 2:48 PM
To: Jafariya-forum@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Jafariya-forum] Att: Syed Mohsin Naquvi Re: the
Buraq
Bismihi Ta'ala
Salamunalaykum Syed,
I would like to please ask a question regarding the "Buraq"
which is
mentioned in Dua'a Nudbah.
I have two translations into English of the following section
relating to our Holy Prophet (s):
"...and made Your Easts and Wests come under his feet,
and harnessed for him the Buraq,
And did make him ascend towards Your heavens..."
"...lowered and humbled before him the Easts and the
Wests,
under his total control was brought all affairs,
exalted his soul in Thy heavens...."
According to the commentary for the first above translation,
the Buraq is said to be "The musculus steed on which
the Holy Prophet (s) ascended to the Heavens."
However, the second translation does not support this literal
meaning.
So, can I please ask Syed for an explanation for what is the
Buraq?
Jazak Allah
Wa salamun'Alaykum,
shanteek
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