“A-úthu billáhi minash shaytánir rajeem. Bismilláhir rahmánir raheem.
Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanasta’eenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi, wana’oothu Billaahi min shuroori an-fusinaa, wamin sayyi aati a’maalinaa. May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-Alláh, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhoo warasooluh”
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In today’s khutbah we shall look at the events of Miraj and Isra, our prophet (SAW)’s Mystical Night Journey and his Ascension into the Heavenly Spheres.
These two events are described in the Qur’an:
“Glory to [Allah] Who did take His Servant on a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose precincts We sanctified; in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for Allah is He who hears and sees everything.”
On that night Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was asleep near the Kaaba, when the archangel Gabriel awoke him, washed his heart and placed him on Buraaq, a mystical winged horse. Buraaq could travel from horizon to horizon in one leap and he took the Prophet (SAW) on a journey.
Accompanied by Gabriel, they rode to Jerusalem and from there they travelled through the seven heavens, meeting and greeting all the earlier Prophets along the way, until they met a boundary called sidratul muntahar where Gabriel stopped as he was not allowed to go any further.
From this point onwards the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) continued the journey on his own. He traveled so close that in the Qur’an, in metaphorical terms his distance from Allah (SWT) is described as ‘’two bows length’’.
The Holy Quran simply uses an evocative description: “His vision did not waver, nor did the eyes deny what they saw…” This was the absolute nearest any human being has ever come to the Divine. Allah the Glorified and Exalted, and Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the slave coming in close proximity to his creator.
One of the most important events during Miraj was the receiving of the, now, five daily prayers. As the narration goes the Prophet (SAW) was given as a gift and an order for his community to pray 50 times a day. However, upon the advice of Prophet Moses (ra), Prophet Muhammad (SAW) returned a few times to ask Allah (SWT) to reduce the number of daily prayers in order not to burden the community.
Although Prophet Moses insisted that the five daily prayers would be too much for some, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was ashamed to ask yet again and came back down to earth with the gift of the five daily prayers for Muslims. Therefore the importance of Miraj is the five daily prayers.
Dear brothers and sisters whenever we pray we are embarking on a Miraj, a journey of our own, a miraj in the presence of Allah (SWT) where we are directly in front of him. When we put our face in prostration to him we are close to our creator. Let us remember the Prophet (SAW) and his Miraj and make sure we are experiencing the journey when we pray and to always be in remembrance of the presence of Allah the Almighty.
Wala thikrul-Laahi akbar, Wal-Laahu ya’lamu maa tasna’oon.” [29:45].
“And without doubt, Remembrance of Allah is the Greatest Thing in life, and Allah knows the deeds that you do.”