 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين وأفضل الصلاة وأتنم التسليم على دبينا وحبيبنا محمل وعاله وصحبه أجمعين اللهم علمنا ما ينفقنا والفقنا بما علمتنا وزدنا الماء اللهم وزدنا ودأة تنقصنا وأكرمنا ودأة تهننا وعطينا ودأة تحرمنا وأثرنا ودأة تؤثر علينا وارضنا يا رب العالمين ولا حولا ولا قوة إلا بالله إلا علم ضوهيم سبحانك الله علمنا إلا معلمتنا إنك أنت عالي محكيم السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته الحمد لله إنه جميل أن يستطيع أن نتحدث about The special event known as الإسراء والمعراج الإسراء المعراج as we know is one of the most important events in the life of the mission محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم that is one of the most important and divine encounters that he had in his mission it was a pivotal point in Islamic history and the scholars of Islam the theologians in particular they emphasize the importance of this particular event such to the extent that if a Muslim were to reject that it happened that they say that this itself threatens the faith of the Muslim and that is because الله سبحانه وتعالى in his Laurie's book he says بعد عقود بالله من الشيطان ورجين سبحان الذي أصراب عبده ليلة من المشهر الحرام إلى المشهر الأقصى الذي باركنا حوله ليوريه بن آياتينا إنه هو السميع البصير Laurie beat to him who took his servant by night from the sacred mosque to the farthest mosque the one around which we have bestowed our blessings blessings in order in order that we would show him from our signs in other words الله سبحانه وتعالى he took the message of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم from المشهر الحرام in Makkah all the way to المشهر الأقصى the place of worship in Jerusalem in a single night and returned him back to Makkah in the same night now of course this was a miracle in that it would take at least a month for the average person to travel from Makkah to Jerusalem on foot or on camel but the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم he himself was taken on this spectacular and very important journey during a single night and it is one of his great miracles now الله سبحانه وتعالى he makes it clear that if he loved you that it doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to shower you gifts or make life easy for you all the time and for that reason when we look at this event we should see it as a sign of divine love as well right so as a pivot of the event it's a miraculous event but also a sign of divine love and الله سبحانه وتعالى through his messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم صلى الله عليه وسلم that those with the most significant or the most difficult trials are the prophets شرد الناس بلا أن الامبياء ثم الامتر وفالامتر that the people with the most difficult trials or tribulations are the prophets and then those who follow them or those who are next to them in likeness and those who are next to them in likeness and we as Muslims we recite صلى الله عليه وسلم and every single ركعة of our prayers and part of that recitation we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى ادينه سرات مستقيم سرات اللذين انامت عليهم غير المقضوب عليهم ولا دارين guide us to the straight path the path of those upon whom you have bestowed your blessing you have bestowed your grace and when we think about this deeply we should realize that what we are fundamentally asking Allah سبحانه وتعالى to do is to guide us to acting and reacting in the way that the MBA the prophets and the only up the saints and all the righteous people have reacted when Allah سبحانه وتعالى tried them with things when we open the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and we read the stories of the prophets we notice that there particular tribulations and challenges that they have in the book you would expect that if Allah سبحانه وتعالى He's loving He loves someone that you would see that everything that they do and everything they ask for they giving it giving it right away Adam was trial tried by his sons one of his sons killed the other the prophet Yaku by his Salam was tried by his sons you know and his sons they abandoned one of the others and left him to become a slave and we know the story of use about his Salam نور علي his Salam was tried by both his wife and by his son لو طاهي السلام was tried by his son so there's a lot of what we call drama happening in the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى when we reflect upon the lives of the messengers علي his Salat وسلام not to mention someone like a youb علي his Salam جو who Allah سبحان اتار sent upon him affliction after افلكشن after affliction sent you to test to see how he would react when he remained grateful when he reject Allah سبحانه وتعالى was out or not so we are asking Allah سبحانه وتعالى to guide us to their path and so this is an important reflection with respect to the إسرار and the out that we know because this is a event where Allah سبحان وتعالى he فى the to do and and and فى the 10 عايل grade بمعنى بدور العمارة المنفاق والتبريقية ومعنى hadn't been trying to appeal to his people and trying to get new converts to his religion. And of course we know that it was a very slow process and in rejection after rejection until eventually the persecution had intensified. And then three years prior to this event أصلينا. He had decreed that the Mosheerikin themselves that they would embargo the companions and along with Vanuashian that he will place them there with make them live in a special part of Mecca and they practically tried to starve them to death. They made a pact that they would not trade with them. They made a pact that they would not enter marrying with them. And so this was caused great hardship upon the Prophet Muhammad والصلاة الله عليه وسلم و this is not to mention all the other things that he had already gone through in his life. The loss of his mother, the loss of his father, the loss of his uncle, the loss of his, of course, his grandfather. And of course, the loss of his uncle was something that happened after this, right? You know, so at the end of this 10th year, once the 33-year embargo had been done, it completed. And the Mushriki had decided to show some mercy to them. The Prophet, peace be upon him, he would lose first his wife, Khadija, and also lose his uncle, Abu Talib. So Khadija was a source of emotional support. Abu Talib was a source of physical support because himself being one of the elite clansmen, so himself was a protector for the Prophet from the abuse that we would have experienced had Abu Talib not been there yet. But once he's dead, the intensification of the persecution, it comes as well. So the Prophet actually starts to become assaulted directly. You know, so a man, you know, one of the things he does is he throws dirt on the Prophet's head, places dirt on the Prophet's head. And so it starts to get a little bit more physical. And the Prophet becomes even more worried. So what he does is that he decides to go to the Pa'ev, the nearby town Pa'ev, to speak to the chiefdoms from Pa'ev. Now, these are three brothers who were the leaders there. He was hoping that they themselves would be given support. They refused. And then they went ahead and they incited the riffraff up against the Mushriki. And so they pelted him. They pelted him out of the Pa'ev until eventually he made his way into the metal or the land of one of his enemies. And his sons were watching. And so the famous prayer happened there that moment. One of the most passionate prayers and the most beautiful prayers that we know from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Dua of Five, happened. And so eventually after this occurs, the Prophet then he heads back to Makkah. And on his way back to Makkah, because Zaid Ibn Hadith is traveling with him. And Zaid is now afraid. He said, if you want to go back to Makkah despite everything. And so the Prophet ﷺ insured Zaid. Don't worry, Allah ﷻ. He's going to make sure that I'm the victorious, right? Because in this prayer, he says in the prayer. مَا لَمْ دِكُنْ إِلَّمْ بِكَ عَرِيَّ رَضَبٌ فَلَا أَبْوَ بَرِيَ. And as long as this is not a sign of your anger against me, Allah ﷻ, then I don't care about what happens at this point, right? So he's very confident despite of being abused and physically attacked, right? During this particular encounter. So he heads back with Zaid Ibn Hadith and back to Makkah. He sends word to مطعم أبن عدي, you know, asking for asylum or his protection as he goes into Makkah. مطعم, he promises that he will go and give him protection. So he goes into Makkah. But eventually, well, before that, he stops at a place called Makkah. And he and Zaid, they perform a tourakah as a prayer. And the Prophet is reciting audibly. And while he's reciting a group of the Jinn, they pass by. And they notice the recitation. They listen to what the Prophet ﷺ is saying, you know, and this itself leads them to believe. And later on Allah ﷻ sends word to the Prophet ﷺ that the Jinn, they had accepted Islam, accepted this message because of what they heard from his recitation of the Qur'an. And so here, what's this important point to highlight here is that that, again, when we're not talking about Isra'a yet, Isra'a still hasn't happened. But the Prophet ﷺ had went through a series of setbacks and a series of tribulations in his life. So again, his father, he never knew his father. He lost his mother very early. He only knew her for about a year. Then he loses his grandfather. Then eventually he starts to gain followers and they start to be persecuted. Some of the followers are lost. And then now the doors start to be shut in his face. People is as if like the number of people converting, it stops, right? And this is one of the other reasons why this particular year, I mean the year 10 is called the year of sadness. I'm a person, not only because he lost his uncle and he lost his wife Khadija, but because the message itself has been rejected. This is like the doors were closed in his face. And so it was very difficult for him to reach anyone, right? But Allah سبحانه وتعالى first sends him this message. Don't worry that Jinn, they have listened to you. They have heard you. So as if Allah سبحانه وتعالى is saying to him. So even if the people in the material realm are rejecting you, then those in the spiritual realm are accepting you, right? So to console him. And that's really what matters more than anything else. Is those in the spiritual realm, or the unseen realm are accepting you, that means more than anything else, right? And so eventually he makes his way to the house of Um Hanat, his cousin Um Hanat. He spends the night there. And so while he's sleeping, this is when the angel visits him and then takes him on this journey from Makkah to Jerusalem. Now once he arrives in Jerusalem, and he's riding on the back of the Barak, these very special animal that we know, all the prophets that they had had written. He arrives and he has a grand reception. So he arrives in Jerusalem and then one quotes. And all of the prophets are there. All of the major prophets are there. And so then he's asked to need them in Salah. So the prophets, right? Is asked to need all of them in Salah. Again, another sign of not only Allah's love for him, but Allah is choosing him over everyone else, right? So a grand reception. And after this is finished, this is when the angel approaches them and says, I have something to show you. And so then he opens and puts on display what it's called at Me'araj. Me'araj is said to be some sort of special type of ladder or escalator or something, which it helps one to descend into the heavens. And the prophet in one hadith said that The Me'araj is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I had never seen anything more beautiful than what I have seen the Me'araj. And he also said that the Me'araj is the very thing that every single person who dies and leaves this world, it stares at as he leaves this world. So friends, you notice when people, when their soul is leaving their bodies there, their eyes eventually become fixated. What are their eyes fixated on? Their eyes are fixated on the Me'araj, right? So the prophet ﷺ, and to some extent we can say that this was sort of a version of like near-death experience, right? Except that he wasn't near-death, but he was completely alive. And so Allah سبحانه وتعالى He had them have this experience. So he saw things on this night that only an angel or a dead person would see. He experienced things and visited places on this night that only an angel or a dead person would probably ever experience or see, right? And so the angel took him up into the first heavens. And so he goes with جباري الهي سلام up to the first heavens. When he reaches the first heaven, he sees a man, he's sitting at the entrance or near the gates of the first heaven. And what he's doing, he seemed to be greeting souls as they enter into heaven. And so he would see one of them and he'd make a negative comment about them. روحن خبيث خرجت من جسدن خبيث a wicked or filthy or foul soul which came out of a foul body, right? And he says to another one روحن طيبة خرجت من جسدن طيب a good soul a dead soul a good soul a delightful soul which came out of a good body, right? And then the prophet, he turns to جباري الهي سلام he says, جباري الهي who is this? And so he says, This is your father أبوك آدم عليه السلام that this is your father آدم he greets or he he himself has given information about all of his progeny as they enter into as they enter into this particular realm. They transition they cross over that he himself he observes them as they enter as they enter into this particular realm. And so so I said that the reason why if he discovered that one of those children one of those souls was a disbelieving soul he would be upset and he would make this negative comment about about that person right about that soul. And if it was a believing soul he would say make a positive comment about the believing soul. And fundamentally I think that one of the lessons we learn from this is the importance of إيمان right that a loss of heart is ultimately wants every single person every single human being to believe in him. And all the prophets they value the believers right that more than they value non-believers what they non-believers a potential believer but believers are more important you know and a believing life is more invaluable in the sight of a loss of panel who's out of the non-believing life right. And so this is in this first heaven you know so the prophet eventually goes to what it's called باب الحفظة جبريل takes him to the gate of the guardians or the guardian angels right. And at the gate he meets an angel by the name of إسماعيل. And so when he reaches that gate إسماعيل says to إجبريل عليه السلام he said جبريل who is this person so جبريل says to him this is محمد and so إسماعيل responds so has he already been sent has he already been sent and so جبريل says yes is this time is he been sent and it said that as the prophet goes through all the heavens he passes to the first heaven to the second all the way to the seventh every time he reaches the door or the gate of each heaven the angels at the door they ask the question about okay who is he has he already been sent when he's told is محمد عليه السلام so again a grand reception for محمد الله عليه السلام and all this happened before he finally has this special meeting with the creator of the universe right. And so he's the lowest heaven in the lowest heaven he also meets the keeper or the trustee over the hellfire right. So all the angels when they greet the prophet they find out who he is they said they're laughing and they're very joyful and they're saying very nice things to him everyone has a you know nice smiling exterior and then he comes to this one angel and the angel is told to say this is محمد you know and so he meets the prophet and but he doesn't smile right. Like the other angels you know so he and Jibreel continue on their way and so the prophet turns to Jibreel and says Jibreel who's this angel here why is he doesn't smile he said oh don't worry there's Manik Manik doesn't smile in anyone and if he were to if he were to have a smile at anyone you would be most worthy of being smile there but he doesn't smile at all right. So don't don't don't think too much about that so the prophet they asked the angel Gabriel said Jibreel that you command all the angels and I was wondering if you would order Manik to show me the hellfire so Manik takes the prophet Muhammad to the hellfire and so the prophet witnesses a number of punishments happening right. So in the Shami mentions that there were four examples of people that were he was shown the ability of sexual indiscretion right. So one of the the property crimes was devouring the wealth of orphans right. So these particular people said that they were people that have given very large lips that looked like the lips of camels and they were tossing into their mouths little tiny horses they were going they were horses that made a fire fire you know so each time they put one in their bodies right. And so when they asked you who are these and these are the ones who devour and consume the wealth of the orphans then he goes to another group of people he sees another group of people said these are bunch of men they're they're sitting around their very large stomachs right but and the very large stomachs and but then they can't move and then all of a sudden these are those who devoured the people who actually consumed and paid and charged this is why they're being punished and then he passed by another group of men and these men were sitting down and they had a piece of fresh meat on one side of them and a people rotten meat on the other side of them and then they would look at each one of them and then they would chew their rotten meat and they would eat from it and they wanted to eat from the other from the rotten meat and then he asked who are these people why are they why do these men have to do this he said that these are the men who committed those men who chose the Haram over the Halal right and then he passed by according to my narration according to this narration passed by a group of women he saw they were being hung they were hanging by their breasts right and so he said well who are these women what did they do he said these women to their homes babies that didn't belong to their husbands right so so he was shown some of this and this is all in the first heaven so eventually جبير عاي السلام he kills with the prophet and he takes them to the second heaven in the second heaven he meets Aisha Ibn Maryam and Yahya and Yahya and Ibn Zakaria the two cousins the two maternal cousins and the third heaven he goes he meets the prophet Yusuf and the fourth heaven he meets the prophet عاي السلام in the fifth heaven he meets Haroon عاي السلام the brother of Mousa عاي السلام and then the sixth heaven he meets Mousa عاي السلام قليم الله and then in the seventh heaven he meets Ibrahim عاي السلام he meets Ibrahim عاي السلام and then eventually they come to a place they come to a point called the سزرات المنطاع right and if جبير he tells the prophet that he can no longer go with them and so he said you can only go the only you can go beyond this point and so the prophet he moves beyond the seventh heaven and enters into the low tree of the highest limit right and so when he gets there is a very fascinating spectacular display happens you know where what look like of many many number large large number of golden butterflies you know they're landing on the tree you know and then they disperse right and they disperse and then then he has this conversation with الله سبحانه وتعالى and as we know الله سبحانه وتعالى prescribes to him the five prayers on this particular night which began with fifty you know so الله سبحانه وتعالى take these fifty prayers return to your and tell them that they have the obligation to pray them and every time in his way back down he could pass by موسى عاي السلام موسى say no how many did he tell he said fifty say well they won't be able to do it go ask him to reduce it so he returned so he returned and then he reduced the number then Allah reduced him by ten so forty returns موسى said no they won't be able to do it he reduces goes back again and then Allah reduces it another ten and ten and then back down and so موسى no no no but ask him again so he returns and then he reduces it another ten another ten times so it's twenty until eventually الله سبحانه وتعالى he says to him these I will reduce the number to five and these five were equal to fifty prayers موسى tells them that they won't be able to do this they won't be able to do this so we'll return ask Allah to reduce the burden once more and so the Prophet ﷺ told him that I feel I feel uneasy returning to Allah after he told me that these five were equal to fifty and so giving me the indication that he would not there was no need for me to return right so the Prophet returned on that night with the prayers the five prayers which should indicate to let us know how important these five prayers are how important these five prayers are because this all of this culminating in Allah سبحانه وتعالى giving him five compulsory prayers for the Muslims to pray every single day every single day and so the prayer is extremely important and of course we know the story after this returns to Mecca he wakes up and then he tells Omehanna about it Omehanna she's not excited and she don't think she should go do it or the other people anyway and then what happened and what happened but ultimately this is the story of Isra'a Na'raj and Breath now but we can say that perhaps some of the lessons that you can learn from this is that that first and foremost that Allah سبحانه وتعالى that his love is not necessarily going to manifest in the form of luxuries that that because when Allah loves someone it doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to ت give them countryside كخيوم يارت it بناعب شر حديث حديث خير محمد سلوي نفس ريخеeenth ما يولد Schrكر من night��ح فيه هزار هزارالتذيييي ع hid هزر فإنه يرسله على مطلعهم ، حين نساعدهم. لذا ، عندما نساعد الله على المعادل، إذا كان من المجمعين الذي قد أعطيه نعمة ، من المجمعين ومأدين ، بأسراراً ، نساعد الله على ذلك ، يجب علينا جهة جداً. ومن الشيئ الذي يريده لديه جهة جداً يأتي بها. فهذا فقط لأننا لم نرى لأننا نرى أن الحياة تصدر بشكل أساسي لكي نحن نستطيع أن نحصل على حقيقاً ونفعل الأمر بشكل أساسي لا يعني أن الله سبحانه وتعالى أنه أعلم of what's happened which perhaps you can say is a second another lesson which is that as long as we are doing good as long as we do the right thing as long as we fulfill all those commandments we remain patient and we endure a tribulation we endure criticism and ridicule that Allah سبحانه وتعالى He always knows He knows at all times what's happened and Him knowing is all that really matters and it's really interesting that at the end of that verse the very first verse in Surah Al-Isra He says In the Huwa Samir In the Huwa Samir He is the all hearing, the all seeing and that is what matters at the end of the day is that if Allah sees it then it doesn't matter if no one else actually sees it because the credit is when it comes from Allah سبحانه وتعالى and so when it seems that the world is turning totally against you and you continue to be patient and committed in your religion the spiritual realm will be placed in your service and Allah سبحانه وتعالى He will see and He will come to your support and He will reward you for your patience and eventually you will have your victory eventually you will have your victory and after this the prophet returned refreshed that the love of God Allah's love is sweet but it's only sweet to those who love God and those who understand God and how God behaves and interacts with interacts with us so at any rate I hope that there was some benefit that came from that that lesson and this reflection upon hopefully in the future we'll be able to sit in one of the presence Insha'Allah and to gravitate and bounce and enjoy one of His energy but we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to grant you all a blessed Isra and Maharaj may the lessons be taken to heart may He keep your family safe may He increase and magnify your rewards for all the good that you do on these days may He grant you a part of the prophetic light that says that you are able to emulate the Masha'Allah both during good times and during bad times so we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to forgive us as well and to guide us and grant us His assistance سبحانه وتعالى ورحمة لله إلا أنت أصف في روك الله السلام عليكم ورحمة