In the name of Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him:
My dear friends, the journey of Isra and Mi’raj is one of the miracles of our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him. It is not an ordinary journey like the ones we humans take. Rather, it is a journey in which our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, reached a magnificent place in the sky. This place is called the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary (Sidrat al-Muntaha). I will tell you what this Lote Tree is, but first we will tell how this blessed journey began.
The night of Isra and Mi’raj, my dear little ones, was after ten years of the mission of our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, and before the Muslims migrated to Medina. At that time, my dear friends, the polytheists had harmed the Muslims and tortured them severely to make them abandon the religion of Allah Almighty. They besieged them in the desert and prevented selling any food to them, and the Muslims remained besieged for approximately two years.
During that period, Lady Khadija, may Allah be pleased with her, the wife of our Prophet Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, the mother of his children, the first of women to believe in him, and the one who most supported him in spreading his call, passed away. Also in the same year, the Prophet’s uncle Abu Talib died. Despite Abu Talib being a disbeliever, he used to try to prevent the disbelievers from harming the Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him.
Because of all these events, our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, became sad and worried, but Allah Almighty loves our Prophet Muhammad, so He rewarded him with this great journey.
On the night of Isra and Mi’raj, the Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him, performed the night prayer, as Muslims were required to pray two prayers at that time. After he slept, may blessings and peace be upon him, in his house in Makkah, Gabriel woke him up. Gabriel, my dear friends, is one of the angels, and he was responsible for conveying revelation from heaven to earth, so he was called the Trustworthy Spirit.
When the Messenger of Allah, may blessings and peace be upon him, went out with Gabriel, he found a strange creature that he was seeing for the first time in his life. It resembled a donkey somewhat and was white in color. Our master Gabriel, peace be upon him, told him that this creature is called Al-Buraq.
Al-Buraq was extremely fast, and when our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, rode Al-Buraq, it transported him from Makkah to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Palestine in the blink of an eye. When our master Muhammad arrived at Al-Aqsa, he found all the prophets and a group of angels praying in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
So our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, stood before them and led them in prayer because he is the Seal of the Prophets. After that, the journey of Isra ended to begin the second part of the journey of the Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him, which is the journey of Mi’raj.
The journey of Mi’raj is the journey in which our master Muhammad ascended to the seventh heaven. As you know, my dear little ones, Allah Almighty created seven heavens.
But the Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him, did not reach the seventh heaven directly. Rather, he first passed through the first heaven, where he met the father of humanity, peace be upon him. Do you know who the father of humanity is?
Yes, he is our master Adam, peace be upon him. The Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him, met him and greeted him. In the second heaven, he met our master Isa and our master Yahya, peace be upon them both.
When he ascended to the third heaven, he met Yusuf, peace be upon him. In the fourth heaven, he met the Prophet of Allah, Idris, peace be upon him. In the fifth heaven, he met Harun, then he met Musa, peace be upon him. In the seventh heaven, he met the father of the prophets and the friend of Allah, our master Ibrahim, peace be upon him and upon our Prophet.
After that, our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, along with our master Gabriel, reached a magnificent tree in the seventh heaven called the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary. At that tree, Gabriel, peace be upon him, withdrew, and our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, advanced to stand before his Lord, Almighty Allah.
Allah Almighty gave our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, a gift during that journey. Do you know what that gift is, my dear friends? It is prayer. The Lord Almighty imposed prayer upon us during the journey of Mi’raj. Our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, told us that Allah imposed fifty prayers upon us, but after our master Muhammad returned from meeting his Lord, he met our master Musa again.
Our master Musa told him that he must ask Allah to reduce the prayers so that we would not become lazy about them. Our master Muhammad indeed returned to the Lord of the Worlds, and because Allah is merciful to us and loves us, He made the prayers that a Muslim must pray every day only five prayers, but their reward equals fifty prayers.
The Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him, also saw Paradise, a beautiful and wonderful place whose beauty we cannot imagine. He also saw the Fire and saw people being punished in the Fire. The journey of our master Muhammad ended and he returned to Makkah in the same night.
In the morning, the Messenger of Allah, may blessings and peace be upon him, told the people of Makkah about his journey, but the disbelievers did not believe him. They said to him, “How can you travel all that distance from Makkah to Jerusalem when we travel there in several months?”
Our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, described the shape of Al-Aqsa Mosque in detail, but they did not believe him. So he told them, may blessings and peace be upon him, about the location of their caravan in the desert, which was a group of camels transporting goods. It was traveling in the middle of the desert and no one knew its location, but he, may blessings and peace be upon him, knew its location in detail.
When they went to Abu Bakr, the companion of the Messenger, and told him about the Prophet’s words, mocking him, he said to them, “If he said that, then he has spoken the truth,” and therefore he was called As-Siddiq (the truthful one).
After that, my dear friends, Gabriel, peace be upon him, came down and taught our master Muhammad ablution and prayer. Since that day, my dear friends, all Muslims pray five times a day, which are Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha. Thus the journey of Isra and Mi’raj ended.