Muhammad's Ascention, Al-Isra
When we look at the subject of the prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and Ascension into heaven, know as Al-Isra, there are few specific details that are constant in the number of versions that exist on the subject. In fact, there are only two passages in the Qur'an that give a direct reference to the episode, leaving the highest concentration of information to the Hadiths. To complicate the subject further, there are a number of different interpretations that exist, these being in regard to some of the more popular versions of the journey. With all of this uncertainty, it would then seem strange that any one event, in the Night Journey, could of helped to unify the entire Muslim faith. Yet, we do see this in the fact that even though the details may be debated, the Night Journey served as a kind of seal on the acceptance of Muhammad, as the greatest of God's prophets. The reason that the Night Journey can have at least one unifying factor mainly has to do with the fact that it is mentioned in the Qur'an, making an indefinite version of the journey acceptable to all Muslims. The verse of the Qur'an that gives us the best reference to the Night Journey reads "Glory be to Him who carried his servant by night from the sacred te
Some Hadiths place Muhammad in the house of his cousin, while others place him sleeping next to the Ka'aba (Sarwar,119-120). This is the key to what brings Islam together under the teaching of Muhammad, that he was the last prophet, and that among all the prophets he held the supreme position. One of the key arguments given by those who believe the whole journey was physical are the Hadiths which tell of Muhammad of encountering a caravan traveling by Makkah, in which he led to a stray camel. So we can not really get a comprehensive look at the Night Journey by combining all of the Hadiths with one another, for there are too many places that these documents conflict. We can also come to a conclusion, that if some of the information in the Hadiths is inaccurate, like the dates, than other pieces of information could have been recorded incorrectly. One of the beliefs about the Night Journey that permeates through the body of Hadiths is that as Muhammad moved through the levels of heaven the other prophets recognized him as the last of God's messengers. Of the parts of the journey that have been debated is whether or not Muhammad physically left the earth during the experience, or if what happened was purely a spiritual journey. While these passages from the Qur'an give the same basic concept to the reader, that the Night Journey and Ascension did occur, they do not really attempt tell the whole story about the experience. It is widely accepted that the Night Journey took place between 620 and 621 C. "It may here be mentioned that the exact dates of all of the events before Muhammad's emigration to Medina, with very few exceptions, are difficult to ascertain as Muslims were not then a settled community and life was so hard for them that they had not yet thought of keeping records of all events" (Sarwar, 120). As well as the fact, that there are a number of Hadiths that conflict one another about where Muhammad's body was during the night. A summarized version of this story from Muhammad's perspective reads "I met a caravan, one whose camel had taken fright and run away. "During his journey through the seven heavens, Muhammad meets the prophets one by one. "It was of coarse one thing and marvelous, to have had revelation descend from God to Muhammad; it was quite another, and more wonderful and auspicious, for God to have caused Muhammad to ascend to his presence" (Denny, 69).
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Acceptance Essays
