 Insha'Allah tonight we're going to be speaking about one of the greatest miracles in history of creation, talking about Lailatul Isra' and the Mi'araj of the Holy Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This is something we speak about every year and every year insha'Allah ta'ala. We hear basically the same skeleton of the story but we should look for new nuances that we might grasp and new lessons learned when we hear these things over and over again. This is one of the secrets why of the Qur'an many stories are repeated so that we might have new openings every time we hear the same story. So we'll begin with the date of the Isra' some of the salaf said it's in the year five after the bi'athah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The dominant opinion from the tabi'een is that it happened at the end of the tenth year after the bi'athah, the very end of the tenth year after the calling of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. No Sahabi mentions an exact year, this is from the tabi'een. The month and the day there's a difference of opinion, it's not mentioned by many of the salaf. Later theologians and scholars they had difference of opinion. The 27th of Rabi'u l-Awwal is a very popular opinion of Al-Al-Usi and Suyuti and Imam Nawwi. The 17th of Ramadan is also given as a candidate, the 29th of Ramadan the 27th of Rajab. This is not very essential. The important thing is what actually happened on this night and what lessons we can actually take from it. By the Jumkur of the Urnama, this happened after the Amr al-Huzun, the year of grief. This was a year in which the beloved wife of the holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Khadijah al-Kubra, Rabi'u l-Awwal passed away. And Abu Talib, the Prophet's protector ostensibly passed away as well. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he went to Ta'if to make a da'wa to the bani taqif. And as we know the story, he was turned out of the city and he was stoned and bruised and bloodied and battered. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, as the story goes, he was under a tree and an orchard when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminded him of Yunus alayhi wa sallam. It's a very significant episode because some of the Quraish had summer homes in Ta'if. It was like a sort of a luxury Beverly Hills, if you will, of the Hijaz. So some of the Quraish had noticed what had happened to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. They felt bad for him, even though they were mushrikeen. So they sent him a Christian slave named Adas. And he got into a conversation with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And the Prophet learned that Adas was a Christian from Ninewa. And of course, Ninewa was the city of Yunus alayhi wa sallam. Which was the Prophet's Yunus moment when Yunus alayhi wa sallam was fit dhulu mat. He was under darknesses in the plural. He was given victory by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala soon after that. So the victory comes in the Laylatul Isra and the urooj, the ascension of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And we're reminded of what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quraan in Suratul Inshirah. Inna maa al-ursri yusra, inna maa al-ursri yusra. With every type of usur and there's a definite article, al-ursur, which is a difficulty, every type of difficulty. Every type of difficulty there's a yusran, which is naqira, this is indefinite. Which means it's not contained, it's unlimited. It's an ease, so with every type of hardship there comes an ease that you can't even think of. That won't even occur to you. Inna maa al-ursri yusra. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala repeats it. So the usra that came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, it was a gift to him. Aleyhi sallatu wa sallam was Laylatul Isra wal-mi'raj, the night journey and ascension of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And again, this was a gift given to him. Why was it given to him? Li nuriyahu min ayaatina. In order that we might show him some of our signs. Li ilamu ta'alil nuriyahu. There's a noon called noonu ta'adim. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks in the plural, the plural form. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses the noonu ta'adim, the gem or the maliki, the royal plural. The object which is being addressed by the fi'il, by the verb also has ta'adim and taqreem. Li nuriyahu. Who is who? The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. In order for us to show him some of our signs. To give him strength and certitude in his heart. Sallallahu alayhi wa la alayhi wa sallam. So the Isra is mentioned explicitly in the Quran. Subhana la di asra bi abdihi laylan min al masjid al haram ilal masjid al aqsa. Alladhi ba'raq na hawla li nuriyahu min ayaatina. Inna hu hu wassani al basir. Glory be to the one who carried his servant on a nocturnal journey. A journey by night. In one night, laylan, in one night. From the inviolable mosque which is in Mecca to the farthest mosque. We'll talk about what is masjid al aqsa. What is that? The farthest masjid which is in Jerusalem. In order that we might show him some of our signs. This is called dhalil qata'i. This is a definitive proof of the Isra. A Muslim who denies the Isra is no longer a Muslim. He's entered into kufr because it's mentioned in the Quran. Dhalil qata'i al thubut. Bits and pieces of the Isra and Mi'raj are sprinkled across numerous ahadith. Many of the ahadith are actually weak or have weakness in them. So it presents a challenge when trying to piece together an authentic narrative and its chronology. The most authentic hadith in this regard is found in Bukhari. Related by Anas ibn Malik and Malik ibn Sa'sa. And also in Sa'hi Muslim ibn Mas'ud. So in one hadith in Bukhari, first linguistically, Isra is like we said a night journey. It's the mustar, a night journey, a journey that one goes at night. It's called Isra. The Mi'raj, this is ism al aala. This is actually a noun of instrument. So like fata'a to open. Miftaah is the key because the key is the instrument by which one opens. Or the kawa, kawa means to iron. The mikwa is the iron, the actual instrument. So the Mi'raj is a noun of instrument. The Ascension is called uruj. The uruj of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. What is the Mi'raj? This is open to speculation. A staircase of gold. A flying carpet. But we believe in the Ascension of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So according to authentic hadith in Bukhari, where did this journey begin? According to Bukhari, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, I was in Al-Hateem or Hijr Isma'il when this journey began. In another hadith in Muslum, he says, Kuntu ndal-bayt. I was next to the house. Baytullah in Mecca. So there's an important principle and usul. When you have two hadith that seem to contradict each other, you try to make them work together. This is called al-Jama'a, right? Harmonization of hadith. These are both strong hadith, sound hadith. We have to try to make them work together. And if you can't make them work, then you pick one. This is called tarjih. You pick a text based on preponderance of evidence. But you'll notice here there's no contradiction. Al-Hateem, which is Hijr Isma'il, the semi-circle, right? Next to the Ka'bah. This is actually part of the Ka'bah. So you have to make tawaf around the Hateem. Ka'bah used to be rectangular. He used to actually cover the top of this area as well. So that's ndal-bayt. That's next to the house. That's at the house. There's no contradiction here. There are other hadith, however, which state that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was in the house of Umhani that night. He was sleeping in the house of Umhani. Another hadith says in the house of Abu Talib. Another hadith says he was bain al-ithnain. He was sleeping between two. How do we reconcile these hadith? Is it possible to harmonize them? Well, Umhani is the daughter of who? Anyone know? Who was the father of Umhani? Abu Talib. So it's the same house, right? And he was sleeping between two men, Ja'far and Hamza, right? Which gives you an idea as to what was going on in Mecca at the time. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he went to Ta'if, Abu Lahab at the time was the chief of the Bani Hashem because Abu Talib had passed. And Abu Lahab did not offer any protection to his nephew, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So if the Prophet comes into Mecca, they can kill him on sight. So Mu'ta'im ibn-u-A'adi, he protects the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and Allah is his real protector. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. But now they're sleeping, a group of men are sleeping in one house to be safe. This is for protective purposes, you can say. So the hadith of Umhani says, however, that Jibril alayhi sallam, he came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam through the roof, he opened the roof and plucked the Prophet out of the house of Umhani, if you will, right? Why was that necessary? Because you can imagine a small room that's full of men sleeping on the ground. How are you going to get to the door? I mean it's not a big issue. But according to this hadith, he went through the roof, right? So how do we reconcile these sets of hadith with the previous hadith that say the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was in Al-Hateen. Ibn-u-Hajr al-Asqalani, a great hadith master, Al-Hafiv, he says that initially on that night the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was in the house of Umhani, in the house of Abu Talib, also known as the house of Abu Talib. He was sleeping between Jafar and Hamza and then Jibril alayhi sallam plucked him out of that house and then took him to Al-Hateen. This is how we reconcile all of these hadith. And this makes total sense, no problem whatsoever. Now the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, at this point, Jibril alayhi sallam, he has him lie down and he splits his chest open and he removes his heart and he washes his heart with zamzam. Another hadith says with iman. Again, there's no contradiction here. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he mentions that it was a tost minbab, a bowl or a tray made of gold that his heart was placed in. So, according to our Shari'a, we can't use utensils that are gold and silver from a cereal bowl that's gold. It's not permissible. So the Ulema struggle with this. Some of them say, well, this is very early, and this is in the Meccan period, so these types of ahkam are not revealed yet. Another more interesting interpretation is that the bowl, this tost minbab, it came from jannah, right? So the fiqh of jannah applies here. And in jannah, no problem. La bas aleyhi. You can eat from utensils made of gold. No problem whatsoever. So this splitting of the chest that happened before, some of the Ulema say two times, some say three times, but this time the haddu shaitan does not remove this black clot. So how do we understand this haddu shaitan? It's very important because a lot of the Orientalists and a lot of Christian apologists they attack this. Haddu shaitan means the portion of shaitan. Now according to, this is a construct phrase. If you study Arabic, Muldaf, Muldaf aleyhi, the construct noun, absolute noun. There's two ways to understand this according to the mantan of the Ajurumiya, which is a treatise of grammar in Arabic. You can either use the preposition min or lamb. You can say haddun minashaitan or haddun lishshaitan, right? Either a portion from the shaitan, which is rejected by the Ulema, or a portion for the shaitan. So now the question is a portion of what? There's a portion of something for the shaitan in the heart of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. A portion of what? So the Ulema give a beautiful answer here. They say a portion of mercy that he might have had for the shaitan. But Allah swt did not want him to have mercy for the shaitan. Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is mercy. His very essence is mercy. Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam uses an ism here. We did not send you except as a mercy. It's indefinite. Meaning a mercy that is uncontained, unlimited, unfathomable. This is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He didn't use a fi'il. Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam didn't say something like that. He says you are mercy. So this is how we understand. So this didn't happen this time. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he says that a dabbah was brought to him. Which is a beast some sort of animal. And he describes it. Dounan baghli wa fawqa al-himar abya according to the sound hadith. He says it was smaller than a mule but larger than a donkey and it was white. And this beast is called al-burak which comes from probably from the root of burq. Lightning. There's an interesting verse in Matthew and in Luke in the New Testament. There's been tahrif but there's no opinion whether the Ma'ana has tahrif or the actual text and some say both. Nonetheless it's interesting because according to Matthew and Luke and if they have something in common that means that the source is called the bar-e-nash. Which is very early. We don't want to get into a lot of academic jargon but it's a very good source of the New Testament. It is reported to have said that the apocalyptic son of man he calls him the bar-e-nash in Aramaic. He's always talking about someone to come after him called bar-e-nash. The bar-e-nash. Which means the son of man, the son of humanity. He's He's a universal prophet. He says this son of man he will come to the west like lightning. He'll come as lightning. In the bar-e-nash the prophet said the bar-e-nash takes its front hooves and places it on the horizon and then we'll leap and fold up the earth like that. This is how fast the bar-e-nash can travel. Some of the later Muslims said that the bar-e-nash had the head of a woman and the tail of a peacock and wings. None of these things are authentic. The bar-e-nash is simply a white horse. If you looked at the bar-e-nash we said this is a little small horse. Now as the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is going north towards Jerusalem he's going very fast obviously but he actually can describe he actually notices things as he's passing by because the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is not just looking with his eyes he's looking with his heart and the heart of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is extremely vast so he knows very, very particular details about things when he's flying overhead at very high speeds so the heart is vast. This is why it says in the Shemaila Nabawiyah of Imam Tirmidhi that the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had thousands of Sahaba and when he was sitting in the Majlis he would remember, I haven't seen Fulan in a few days, oh how was he doing how was Fulan doing, how was he doing he'd remember who he hasn't seen in a matter of days because the heart of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is extremely vast so actually he sees Musa Alaihi Wasallam praying in a raid in his grave a red dune as he describes it so he goes to the temple mountain Jerusalem now, this is interesting because Allah SWT says that so if you look at the temple mount I don't know how many people are familiar with the lay of the land of the old city of Jerusalem but dominating the old city of Al Quds, Jerusalem is this huge raised platform this huge platform is 1,500 feet in length and about 600 feet across it has a surface area of about 30 football fields a quarter of a million people can easily fit on the temple mount there's two structures on the temple mount to the southern end the southern end you have this building that has a black dome this is called Al Aqsa Mosque Masjid al Aqsa if you go north if you go west you'll find another structure called Masjid Qubbat al Sahara the dome of the rock neither of these two structures were there at the time of the Prophet does everyone understand why neither of these two structures were there at the time of the Prophet because these two structures were built by the Bani Umayyah about 70 years after had conquered the city of Jerusalem the patriarch actually gave him the keys of the city so what's on the temple mount at the time of the Prophet so when Allah SWT says Masjid al Aqsa he's not talking about the current Masjid al Aqsa that wasn't there on the southern end in fact the southern end of the temple mount was added by Herod in the first century that wasn't even there and actually at the time of the Prophet the Byzantine Empire was in control of Jerusalem and they wouldn't allow any building of any structures on the temple mount in fact part of the temple mount they turned into a garbage dump it was a garbage dump to insult the Jews when he actually got to Jerusalem and he noticed this huge garbage dump on the temple mount and the Jews at that time were not even allowed to go into the city of Jerusalem since 125 of the common era when the Emperor Hadrian kicked them out of the city it was illegal for Jews to enter the city of Jerusalem so it was said Naumar he allowed them back into the city so what is Allah SWT referring to the Masjid al Aqsa I think Sheikh Martin Lings I think he has the right idea and Yusuf Ali mentions the same thing he says it was the site of the old temple the site of the old temple and the site of the old Haikal the Haikal of Suleiman A.S the site of that temple was more likely where Masjid Qupat al Sakhra actually was that's the most likely position because that's right in the middle of the platform and that's right over the foundation stone that is revered by Jews and Christians this is probably where the Prophet led the prayer so when he dismounted the buraki tied the buraki, prayed the rak'ateen he said I turned around and Jameel Al Anbiya was behind me whether this was a resurrected form when Allah SWT resurrected the prophets 125,000 very easily could fit on the Temple Mount very easily could have fit or was it the arwah, the spirits of the Prophet or Allah SWT probably led the prophets in prayer at the current place where we call Masjid Qupat al Sakhra and then he ascended from that from that point now Abdullah ibn Mas'ud mentions a Hadith that the Prophet SAW he met Ibrahim Musa and Isa AS during the Mi'raj we don't know the exact chronology of this event whether this happened on the Temple Mount after the prayer, before the prayer maybe in the Samawad somehow when did it happen we don't know all we know is he did have a conversation with Musa Ibrahim and Isa AS during Laylat al-Isra and something they discussed was as-sa'a, the hour and the day of judgment okay so in other Hadith that supplement this Hadith the Hadith of Jabir ibn Abdullah the Prophet SAW he actually describes the physical appearance of these three men he says Musa AS looked like the men of Shenu'a who knows here he doesn't give any details so the Sahaba knew what he was talking about however in other Hadith he does actually describe more in detail of the physical description of Musa AS he says that he was a taller man he was slender, well built and had darker skin and had curly hair and then he describes Isa AS that was shorter on the shorter side very fair skin and a length hair like his hair was wet right and he says about Ibrahim AS he says he says he says that the nearest appearance I've ever seen to Ibrahim is Sahi Bukum is your companion Ibrahim AS so they talk about as-sa'a and Musa AS they have nothing to offer in this regard but Isa AS tells them some interesting information Isa AS says between now and the sa'a is my rugour between now and the hour is my return and the Prophet SAW is the eschatological prophet he is the prophet in the last time he's the first major sign of the sa'a he said me and the hour are like this and he put up two of his blessed fingers so Isa AS is saying but before that happens I'm going to return and then the Christians believe in this as well this is called the parousia and Allah SWT indicates in the Quran that he is a sign of the sa'a Allah SWT also says He will speak to the people in childhood and as a mature adult and Ibn Jose he says this stage of life begins at age 35 and Isa AS ascended according to one opinion 31 the dominant opinion 33 so he hasn't spoken yet so he's going to return and speak as an old man if you will or a mature man and then Isa AS he tells him about the dajjal he says I'm going to kill the dajjal outside Baitul Makdis and the Prophet SAW actually gave information about the dajjal that no other prophet gave to his ummah he said I'm going to tell you something about the dajjal that no other prophet told their ummah he says he is one eyed and your lord is not one eyed and he says written on his forehead is kathara the letter is kathara right so Allah SWT we don't want to get into politics we don't want to get into the conspiracy stuff but you know the one eye is the sign of the novus ordus cichlorum the new world order the new secular world age that a lot of people around the world are trying to bring into existence it is a chief symbol of the free masons it's on the back of the dollar bill the seal of the united states of america right that's the eye of the sun god ray right which represents the kind of dajjalic system of a one world type of government wallahu a'lam no more politics but one more thing I'll mention there's a hadith of the prophet SAW in bay haqi in abu dawud when the ummah will invite themselves to the killing of muslims like they're inviting to a banquet hall we are very small in number no you are many but you're like the the scum of the ocean you're like scum there's nothing to you you don't have quality just quantity one of these organizations is called the council on foreign relations just do research on it file it in your head the council on foreign relations whose initials are cfr allahu a'lam anyway and then the prophet SAW he's told from isa a'lam about ya ajuj and ma ajuj gog and ma gog as they're translated in english and he says that they're going to basically run a muck on the earth and they're going to consume all of the earth's resources right as Allah SWT says they'll come down from every direction running a muck and isa a'lam says I'm going to make dua to Allah SWT and they will die in their tracks and then their stench is going to fill up the earth and then make another dua and the rains will come and wash them away these are some relations that are coming to the prophet SAW from isa a'lam on the night of isra and ma ajuj um at this point then two vessels are presented to the prophet SAW one has laban and one has khamar one has milk and one has wine and jibir SAW says you must choose one in whichever you choose your ummah so wine, we start with milk milk is pure it's nourishing, it's nutritious it strengthens the frame it's calcium, it strengthens your frame and the prophet SAW said milk is the only food that can be a food and a drink at the same time milk is a food and a drink it's the only food like that or khamar which of course is old grape juice that has bacteria and smells like urine and intoxicates right so the prophet SAW he chooses the milk and he says you have been guided to the path primordial the deen of the fitra because this is the first thing that the child will drink from the mother is the milk so this is a deen that appeals to the fitra of the human being whereas christianity chose wine during the Eucharist the sacraments of the christian religion right, they chose wine sanctified it, that's why the theology of christians doesn't jive well with the fitra and I'm going to tell the story about my daughter she's probably not going to like it but when she was about 7 years old she was sitting at the dinner table she was doing her arabic homework and I was flipping channels which is a bad idea right, so don't do that when a child is doing homework turn off the tv anyway, so I'm flipping channels and this christian preacher comes on I like to listen to christian preachers they're very interesting people they talk for 3-4 hours and it's just hot air, you don't get a single point of what they're saying because it's all from the hawah hawah is like hot air the prophet says this doesn't speak from hawah it gives you gems it gives you something to go off of something to guide you anyway, so this christian preacher is talking about God came to the world and God came down to the earth and so on and so forth when her home worker stops and she looks at the tv and she says God earth negative so this is her fitra 7 years old this just didn't make sense to the innocent child right sometimes the intellect gets in the way though we'll talk more about that inshallah so anyway, he picks the milk now he begins an ascension and to the samawat and these samawats are not the jannat they're the paradises these are samawat and he meets 7 prophets in various samawat and it's interesting the ulamas say something really interesting here they say if you look at the prophets that he met there's actually some sort of foreshadowing or typology that's going to happen in the life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam so he meets Adam alayhi sallam in the sanat of dunya this is the first heaven the first heaven is called a sanat of dunya this is the perceptible universe the perceptible universe the universe that has stars and planets and galaxies because Allah SWT says we have decorated we have beautified the first heaven with lamps or lights what are these lamps or lights according to the mufasereen nujum, these are stars so all of these images we're getting back from the Hubble telescope and whatnot thousands of light years away whatever they're saying this is just a sanat of dunya this is the first heaven beyond that there's 6 more and beyond that there's something else so he meets Adam alayhi sallam in the sanat of dunya and as we know the ulema they point something out here really beautiful they say just as Adam alayhi sallam was exiled from the garden the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam will also be exiled from Mecca you see there's a muhammadin there's a typology here if I can use that word a foreshadowing of something that's going to happen very shortly to the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam that's why these specific prophets he doesn't meet Nuh he doesn't meet Yaqub, Ismail he doesn't meet these prophets Zakaria he doesn't meet them there's 7 specific prophets so in the second heaven he meets Isa alayhi sallam so these are cousin prophets now what's the significance here is that both of these prophets were persecuted by their own people one of them killed and one was attempted to be killed Yaqub alayhi sallam was decapitated by a puppet king of Judea a Roman puppet named Herod Herod Antipas so the story says in the New Testament that Herod it was his birthday it was his moulid and he wanted his own niece to dance in front of all of the men this is called a dayouf it's the worst type of man the worst thing you can call an Arab is a dayouf someone who doesn't care about women doesn't care who looks at his wife doesn't care what his wife wears actually likes it, yeah look at my wife look what I have it's called dayouf so he says dance dance her name was Salome so then she says I'll dance on the platter so he says fine so she dances and they bring the head to her Isa alayhi sallam also was persecuted by Bani Israel their cousins, their contemporaries with Yahya alayhi sallam but they did not kill Isa alayhi sallam and they didn't kill him in fact we've mentioned this many many times the name of Isa alayhi sallam in Aramaic is Yeshua Yeshua is an ism maf'ool it's a passive participle the root is yasha which means to save what is the passive participle to save is the one saved this is what his name means the one who was saved right? so the u' if you study Hebrew very similar to Arabic like in Arabic we say maf'ool they see the u' in the middle that means passive the action was done to it the one saved this is literally what his name means so then we have the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam 13 assassination attempts during his life by different people in fact just before the Hijrah the Quresh had sort of an emergency Dar al-Nidwa this was kind of a city council and they said what were we going to do with him and according to Sira literature this strange black figure is wearing a black clothes they call him sheikhun najdi sheikhun najdi he comes in he sits and he listens for a little bit listening to the deliberation what are we going to do about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he says what do you think we should do sheikhun najdi right? what is your opinion he says just kill him and Abu Jahl says great and he takes credit for the idea and the sheikhun najdi was a sheytan this is one of the first assassination attempts of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam ibn Mas'ud actually says that part of the reason why he had passed is because of the poison that he had ingested ibn Mas'ud mentions this that a Jewess from Bani Nadir gave him some poison many years earlier and he had ingested it one of his companions actually died because of it and but Allah s.w.t. had prolonged his life as a mu'ajiza and he had to finish his Risala but the ulema mentioned ibn Mas'ud mentions that he actually died a Shahid he was given the honor of the istishhad wallahu alam in the third heaven he meets Yusuf alayhi sallam Yusuf alayhi sallam what happened during his life is that he was persecuted by his brothers right? persecuted by his brothers and then his brothers came to him begging have mercy and he forgave them by the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam being chased out of Mecca and he's attacked several times and then he comes back into Mecca your noble brother your noble brother and what does the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam say to them he quotes from Surah Yusuf and he said exactly what Yusuf alayhi sallam had told his brothers there's no blemish on you today right? another typology of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in the 7th heaven he meets Idris alayhi sallam who's called Khaloukh in Hebrew or Enoch Idris not much is said in the Quran about Idris alayhi sallam except what Kourfil Kitabi Idris in the Hukana siddiquan nabiyyah we relate or remember in the book the story of Idris he was a siddiqu he was truthful and a prophet and we raised him to a high place and the fourth heaven is a very high place now keep in mind however the seven heavens are not indicative of the muqam of the particular prophet they're not commesser it with the muqam or daraja of the particular prophets that are found in them because these are not jannat in fact all the prophets are in the 7th heaven because Yusuf alayhi sallam is from Ulu al-Azmi min al-Rusul he's one of the five most exalted prophets but he's in the 2nd heaven whereas Idris is in the 4th heaven by consensus Yusuf alayhi sallam's daraja or muqam wallahu alam is higher than Idris he's one of these different levels we have to do further research anyway just as Idris was raised we have raised your dhikr to the prophet sallallahu alayhi we mentioned this many times in the past that right now somewhere in the world somebody is shouting on the earth the dhikr is exalted this is happening 24 7 around the clock every single second of every single day somebody is saying Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam loudly somewhere and if you just forget about what's going on what's going on in the Malakut is ajeeb how the prophet's name has been raised because Allah sallallahu alayhi sallam Allah prays upon or blesses the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and that's enough if Allah praises you nobody can debase you nobody can say anything to you even if the whole world was insulting you and wanting to kill you if Allah is pleased with you Allah is totally sufficient for you and then in the fifth heaven he meets haroon alayhi sallam and the interesting thing about haroon alayhi sallam is that initially he was hated by his people and this is what's going on that's why he's sleeping with a group of men in a small room because he's afraid of people coming in and massacring them his people hated him at this time but then because haroon alayhi sallam they came and said fashion the golden calf in the taura it actually says he acquiesced and said fine let's make a golden calf which is impossible for a prophet to do that a prophet cannot disobey Allah sallallahu alayhi sallam in the Quran it wasn't haroon alayhi sallam it was this man called assamiri who did that so they got angry according to the Quranic narrative they were very angry with haroon alayhi sallam they wanted to kill him that's why musa alayhi sallam when he descended saini he came to haroon alayhi sallam he took him by the beard musa alayhi sallam and shidda very tough one time he punched the angel of death his eye fell out you don't mess around with musa alayhi sallam that's why the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he said umar is like musa so anyway he took haroon by his beard and he said all these people are going to kill me I didn't do anything so the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam was hated by his people why? because he wouldn't fashion for them their golden calves alat and al-uzza and manat he wouldn't worship these gods he was very uncompromising when he finally took mecca they said okay one day of one hour we'll worship al-uzza one minute one sec no nothing it's shirk of course not you can never be pleased with kufr a prophet is never pleased with kufr a mu'min is never pleased with kufr if you're pleased with kufr this is kufr right so the people of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam they hated him initially and then they came to love the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in the sixth heaven he meets musa alayhi sallam and there's a lot of similarities between musa alayhi sallam and the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and if you want to take a class with me on comparative religion we'll study a prophecy and Dr. Omar Farouq, he actually may Allah preserve him, he says he quoted Deuteronomy 1818 and said that's the definitive verse that establishes the responsibility of ahlul kitab to believe in the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam that Allah will raise a prophet like Moses from the Israelite brethren and God will speak to him words and this prophet will repeat those words and this is the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam so if you read the Quran you'll quite often find a correspondence between the two prophets musa alayhi sallam and the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam we sent for example surah muzamil we sent a prophet unto you a prophet to be a witness just as we sent a prophet unto fir'aun right so musa alayhi sallam and the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he said he said there has come unto you the great law just as it came to musa alayhi sallam so musa alayhi sallam he knows the type of difficulties that the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is going through in the seventh heaven he meets ibrahim alayhi sallam and from ibrahim alayhi sallam of course he inherits the rights of the hajj now in the seventh heaven the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he saw major ayat major signs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala first he saw the baytul ma'amur the baytul ma'amur is the celestial ka'bah the ka'bah of the heavens so directly above the earthly ka'bah in mecca in the seventh heaven is the baytul ma'amur and the ulama say if the baytul ma'amur fell to the earth it would fall right on top of the earthly ka'bah and the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said the baytul ma'amur every day 70,000 angels enter the baytul ma'amur and they don't leave this happens every day which gives you an idea how many malaika there are there are way more malaika than there are jinn and ins in haywanat and ibrahim alayhi sallam according to one tradition was leaning on the baytul ma'amur when the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam saw him and then he saw the jannat he saw the heavens the gardens he saw paradise and then he saw jibreel alayhi sallam in his true form and this was the second time he had seen him in his true form we'll talk about the first time inshallah ta'ala and jibreel alayhi sallam had 600 wings 600 wings and then he saw something called as siddaratul muntaha as siddaratul muntaha this is the loat tree of the outermost region the loat tree it's a tree of the outermost region this is the end of the 7th heaven imam nawawi says the trunk of the loat tree begins in the 6th heaven and its leaves or branches extend into the 7th heaven so this is a massive huge celestial tree that is created by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala according to Sahih Muslim in Bukhari on the authority of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud and Anas ibn Malik the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that the fruits of the siddaratul muntaha are like the jars of the people of Hajar the jars of the people of Hajar who knows how the jars of the people of Hajar look like we don't know how they look like but the sahaba they knew what he was talking about and apparently some of the ulamas say that they were huge storage jars as tall as a man these are the fruits these look like the fruits of siddaratul muntaha the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that the fruits of siddarat are like the ears of elephants now there's no indication that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam actually saw an elephant during his life but this is how he describes it the first elephants actually a funny story the first elephants actually came into Medina during the time of Imam Malik he was teaching the muwattah and he had a group of students that were in front of him and a caller called out and he cried so all of his students left except Yahya ibn Yahya one man sat in the front row and Imam Malik he stopped take a break he said aren't you going to go out and see the elephants and he said I didn't come for the sake of elephants so this has become like an idiom in Arabic that if you go somewhere for an important purpose and someone's talking about God knows whatever come on I didn't come for elephants let's get to the point let's study the hadith do you see the idiom anyway and then the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he sees alwan these colors these colors are enshrouding and enveloping the leaves of acidiratu al-muntah different colors like waves flowing over changing the tree it's changing colors and these are colors that are outside of the spectrum the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said I can't even describe to you what these colors are I've never seen these colors that are going through the leaves and the trunk of acidiratu al-muntah this is truly an unbelievable spectacle and then he said there's there's butterflies of gold that are flying around acidiratu al-muntah flying around acidiratu al-muntah so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he says in the Quran that was recited by qari Umar may Allah preserve him when the when the acidirah was enveloped or enshrouded with whatever it was enshrouded ma so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he leaves it ambiguous ma yaksha whatever it was it doesn't go into details but the commentators say these alwan these dynamic colors outside of the spectrum flowing in and out passing over the sidra like waves butterflies of gold flying around melaika these huge fruits that are as big as jars as big as a man enshrouding and enveloping acidiratu al-muntah and then the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said I saw four rivers at the base of acidiratu al-muntah and then Nehrani bantinani two rivers that are hidden and these are al-kawthar and as-sal-sabil and then Naahrani Zahirani two rivers that are apparent and these are the Neil and the Furaqt the Neil is in Egypt and the Furaqt is in Iraq so, these are earthly rivers how is their origin at the base of acidiratu al-muntah? we don't know infact Genesis chapter 2 in the Torah, just an FYI. Genesis chapter 2 also mentions that there's a river that's flowing out of Edan, Gan Edan, as it's called in Hebrew. Gan Edan is Jannah to Adnan, the Garden of Eden, or Jannah to Adnan is translated, the Garden of Eternity. This river becomes Arva'a Roshim in Hebrew, Arva'a Roshim, or Arba'atu Ru'us, becomes four heads. So there's something confirmed in the Torah. We don't need the Torah, the Qur'an is sufficient. That's just an FYI for you. And then at this point, Jibril alayhi salam, he says, Ya Muhammad takaddam, O Muhammad, you go forward now. So Jibril alayhi salam cannot go beyond As-Sidratu al-Muntaha. In the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, he goes beyond As-Sidratu al-Muntaha. And according to some traditions, Jibril alayhi salam says, if I go further, I would combust into flames, right? Because even though Jibril alayhi salam is the teacher of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam has the highest station, khayr al-khalq illa. So some of the ulema say, obviously the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, when he went beyond As-Sidratu al-Muntaha, he was wearing clothes, he had sandals. Why didn't his clothes and sandals burst into flames? And the ulema say, because there's ittisal with the vat of the Prophet. There's a connection to the Prophet. His sandal is connected to his foot. They say he's a great lesson here. If you have strong ittisal, a strong connection with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, then the fire won't, you won't burst into flames. You won't be put into flames. You won't be put into flames. Have a strong connection to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. According to Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, when he went beyond As-Sidratu al-Muntaha, he heard some scratching, scratching. So according to his sound hadith, the first thing that Allah s.w.t. created was al-Qalam. And he told the Qalam, uktub, write. And the Qalam wrote all of history, meta-history, everything. It was writing. So the ulema say here that he heard the Qalam writing. And there's no scribe. The pen is writing. Because no living creature is beyond this point, As-Sidratu al-Muntaha. Only the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, only the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, kitabu al-nindahu fawqa arashi'i. There's a book with him above the Arsh. So he comes into the presence of al-Qalam and al-Arsh. He's at the base of the Arsh. And at this point, or at this maqam, Allah s.w.t. he speaks to his Habib directly. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, according to a strong opinion, he experiences the ru'ya, the bi-atathic vision, in which he sees Allah s.w.t. And they say, how did he see him? It's a modal. It's impossible to describe. With his eyes, with his heart, with his ruh, with his S, how did he see him? Allah s.w.t. But this is a reality for the people of Paradise. Imam Abu Jafaratahawi says, ar-ru'ya tu haqqun li ahli-jannah. The ru'ya is a reality for the denizens of Paradise. The people in Jannah will see Allah. So why can't the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam see him conceivably? Because the Prophet is what? He's better than the people of Paradise. The Prophet is better than Paradise. He's better than Paradise. Certainly this is conceivable for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam to have seen Allah How did he see him? Allah knows. But Allah s.w.t. says, that you love the ajila, the fleeting gratification, the quick gratification, and you put off the afterlife. On that day, faces will be beaming, glowing, gazing at their Lord. Gazing at their Lord. Allah s.w.t. says in another Surah, I think in Surah Yunus, if I'm not mistaken, li laddina ahsanu khusna, if I'm not mistaken in reciting the ayah, for those people of Ihsan, there's a good thing, wa ziyada, and something extra. A little extra. Imam Ghazali says this ziyada is not something a little extra. This is it. This is the ru'ya. This is the beatific vision of Allah s.wt, which is the greatest felicity imaginable for a human being. The greatest joy imaginable is gazing upon Allah s.w.t. There's no modality. We don't know how. Anyway. So make it clear, notice I mentioned in this maqam, he experiences the vision of Allah s.wt. We didn't say maqan, because Allah s.wt transcends maqan. Maqan means place. You are sitting in a place. Are you not? We're sitting in a maqan. That means that Allah cannot reside in a maqan, because there's nothing like the likes of God. Allah was before any type of place, and he is now exactly as he was. Allah exists without place, no space, time, direction, materiality. Allah transcends all of these, because these things are found in creation. Allah is. He has wujud, period. Allah is being. Allah's existence is completely non-contingent. Our existence is contingent upon Allah s.wt. In other words, we don't have to exist. If you didn't exist, the world would get along just fine. And people think when they die, that's the end of the world. When I die, oh, there's going to be so much turmoil. When you die, your next-door neighbor is going to wake up and have his bowl of cheerios and read his newspaper, and you're dead. And you're thinking, why isn't he caring about me? Life goes on. You're a contingent being. You don't have to exist. So people ask, where is God? People get into these fitna. Where is God? The question, where is God, is incorrect. The question is incorrect. You cannot answer an incorrect question. Right? Can you answer an incorrect question? What if I say, where do the whales fly? The whales, the humpback whale, where does it fly? Can you answer the question? Walillahi al-Mathil al-A'la. And with Allah is the greatest similitude. This is an example for you. That it's against the nature of God to reside in a place, just like it's against the nature of a whale to fly through the air. Where does the eagle swim? Right? So if you say, where is God? Where ainah, ain Allah? Ainah is Darf al-Maqan. There's no Maqan with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So there's no physical body sitting on this throne here when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam goes to the base of the Arsh. There's nothing made of germ, of matter. It doesn't have a space, time, directions. It's facing a certain way. No, no, no, no. None of these types of things. That's why many of the Jewish theologians in the Middle Ages, the most celebrated theologians, like Joseph Alba, Maimonides, and Bahia, they all wrote an Arabic because they took from Muslim theologians in Al-Andalusia via negativa, the way of negation. What does that mean? That means we can say more about Allah, about what Allah is not than what Allah is when we talk about the essence of Allah. We talk about the essence of Allah, we can only say what it is not, not what it is. That's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses negative statements in the Quran. There is not anything that resembles him remotely. And there is nothing that resembles him. And there is nothing whatsoever comparable under him. Right? Now in the Mustadrak of Al-Hakim, by Imam Suyuti in the Jalalayn, and Ibn Abbas, I saw my lord, the exalted and transcendent. This is a Hadith. How did it happen? Allah knows. Again, Ma-awha, this is ambiguous. Allah doesn't go into details. We'll never know exactly the extent of this Ma, whatever he inspired him with. We don't know. He mentions three things that were given to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam during this time. Only three things that we know of. But what is the reality? He says the prayer was given to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. It was made farad. The khawatim of al-Baqarah, the last two verses of Surah al-Baqarah, were given directly into the heart of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, without Jibril alayhi wa sallam. Because Jibril alayhi wa sallam is not in this place at the base of the Arsh in this maqam at this station. It's only the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The end of Surah al-Baqarah, which actually contains our essential creed. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said about these ayatain, that these are from the treasures from underneath the throne of God. Amenar rasoolu bima'un zillahi ni rabbihi wal mu'minun. And to the end of the Surah, this contains our essential creed that was given directly to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam into his heart by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala without any type of intermediation from Jibril alayhi wa sallam. And then a wad for the mu'mineen of Jannah, a promise to the believers of Paradise. Three things were given to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam during this time. The prayer, the salawat was made farad. The khawatim of al-Baqarah, which attains our essential creed, one of my teachers said he went to some Islamic center and they said, brother, what's your aqeedah? And he said, khawatim al-Baqarah. And he said, that's not good enough. Well, that was good enough for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He said, no, you need to tell us more. And he said, hadith Jibril, not good enough. Give us something more. He said, Surah al-Ikhlas, not good enough. The khawatim is a third of the Qur'an. Hadith Jibril is an exalted hadith. What do you want me to say? No, tell us what we mean. What's your aqeedah, brother? Anyway. So then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he begins a descent and he goes by the seventh heaven and he goes to the sixth heaven and he sees Musa alayhi sallam and Musa alayhi sallam says, bima umirt. What were you ordered? Why does Musa alayhi sallam say this and not Ibrahim alayhi sallam? The ulamas say, that's because Musa alayhi sallam experienced something like this, but on a smaller scale. Musa alayhi sallam was called up to Ture Sina, Mount Sinai. And he was there for 40 days. Musa alayhi sallam knew when he went to the mountain something would be given to him, the mitzvot, the commandments of God, the Torah was revealed to him. So Musa alayhi sallam knows when a prophet is ascending like this something is going to be given to him, right? So they said, what were you ordered? And this really shows the tafdeel of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. That Musa alayhi sallam climbed a mountain called Sinai on earth, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, he was on the Sinai on high, if you will. Sorry, I have bad jokes. 40 days, 40 nights for Musa alayhi sallam, one night. Subhanallah aladhi asrabi abdihi, laylan, one night, all of this happened, not 40. Musa alayhi sallam, he spoke directly to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, right? Through the shajrah, the burning bush as it's called, the bush in the sacred valley of Tua, and he had to remove his sandals, right? Whereas Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala spoke to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam beyond a bigger shajrah, right? And he kept his sandals on. These are some of the things that the Ulama mentioned. So Musa alayhi sallam, he knew. So he says, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam says, I was ordered, I was ordered 50 prayers. He says, go back to your Lord and ask for a reduction. He said, why? Because I dealt with some people. I have dealt with some people and they're never not even close. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, according to, there's a hadith in Imam Ahmad that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, when he heard that from Musa, he looked at Jibril for permission, like he was wanting some ishara from Jibril alayhi sallam, is that okay to do, right? And there's a great lesson here, that if someone gives you advice, even if it's a doctor, and it's a little troubling, you should always get a second opinion, right? So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, he looks at Jibril alayhi sallam, and I don't know, Jibril nodded or did something, gave him the thumbs up, Allah gave okay sign, you know? So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, he goes back up, and whether he went up in person or he made dua'a Allahu alam, and then this was cut to 40, we know the story 30, 20, 10, 5, right? So he goes back to Musa alayhi sallam, he says, what is it now? He said, five, irijit al rabbik, go back to your Lord because I've dealt with some people and they're not going to do that. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, he says, I asked my Lord until I was a little embarrassed, that's enough, five, right? And obviously Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knew that it was going to be five, and then a voice was heard according to the sound hadith, nada munadin, a voice was heard, this is the voice of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, am daitu faridati wa khaffafdu an'ibadi, my order has been established, I have reduced the burden of my servants, it is five but the reward is 50, it is five but the reward is 50, and this really shows the importance of the salat, that it was given to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam as fald, beyond asidiratul muntaha, and there are Muslims who don't even pray, if you're not praying five times a day, we have serious issues, if we're not doing the salawat, we're not doing them on time, fajr, it's 17 rak'at, some people say oh no you have to do the sunnah, then you have to do some nafila, then I have to do tahajjud, start with wudu, and do 17 rak'at, and then add the two before fajr, and then give yourself, be patient with yourself, but not too patient, you got to push yourself a little bit, if we're not doing the five daily prayers, there's something wrong with us, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said in the hadith, the difference between a kafir and a muslim is a salah, now most of the muhadithin say this is a qualitative difference, not an essential difference, meaning that a muslim who isn't praying has the qualities of a kafir, but he can still be a muslim, but Ahmad ibn humbal, he said no it's an essential difference, that if a muslim isn't praying, he's a kafir, so we have to be very careful about this, this is a big opinion, Ahmad ibn humbal, this is his opinion that we miss prayers were entered in the state of kufr, that's why he said that if a muslim wasn't praying until he was 19, 20 years old, he doesn't have to make up those prayers, do you know why, because he was a kafir, he didn't make up those prayers, so we have to be very very careful, this is a gift that was given to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, gave him the salah during this time, beyond the siddilatul wun tahab, what time do I have to stop, 10 of, it's already past that, 10 after, 10 o'clock, okay, I'll try to get through what I want to say here inshaAllah, maybe we'll go a few minutes over if that's okay with people, if not be gentle with me, so the Prophet sallallahu at this point, he goes to umhani and he tells her what happened, he says I'm going to go tell the quresh, we're sitting in the hijr, she says no don't go, they're going to make fun of you, he says no wallahi, I'm going to tell them now, he goes to the hijr ismail, he tells them what had happened and they're literally falling over each other, laughing at him, you know how you laugh so hard you can't even stand, right, and you start making noises like a donkey, this is what they were doing, this how hilarious it was to them, many Muslims actually apostated, Muslims in Mecca, there's no munafiqeen in Mecca, munafiqeen are in Medina, why, there's no hypocrites in Mecca, why, because in Mecca it doesn't pay to be Muslim, in Medina it might pay, there's ghanima coming into the city, you still have to make ghazwan things up, you make excuses, oh I can't go, I have a sick mother and blah blah blah blah, give me some of that ghanima and war booty and there's munafiqeen in Medina, but not in Mecca, not easy to be Muslim in Mecca, many of these people left and this is interesting, what did they do, they judged Allah's power against their own intellects, which is obviously erroneous because Allah SWT has power on everything, has power over all things, he has qudra mutlak, he has absolute and qualitatively infinite power, right, so Allah SWT can certainly do things that you cannot conceive of, Ibn Qayyim said one of the roots of all fitna is when we subjugate our revelation to our intellect, we subjugate the revelation to our intellect, akal intellect is extremely important, no doubt about it, we need to make sense of the world to establish justice on earth, we need the akal, no, there's no difference in opinion about that, akal is very important, but there are certain things that we believe in as Muslims that are called sam'iyat, these are suprarational events that are given to us in scripture that are binding upon us, part of our aqidah to believe in them, so if you say I don't believe in the isla because it doesn't make sense to my mind, are you saying Allah SWT can't do that, he can't take a man from Mecca and put him in Medina in one night, Allah can't do that just because you can't think of how that can happen, that means Allah can't do it, no, Allah can't do it, everything to him is very very easy, the aqal has a jurisdiction, it has a limit, if I think as hard as I can, I cannot think about, I cannot remember what I had for lunch two years ago from this night, what did I have for lunch, if I thought about it for two years it'll never come to me, that means my aqal is extremely limited, there's something there, no doubt about it, obviously there's something there, I pass business calculus, I gotta be minus though, but there's something there, there's not a lot there for me, but there's something there, but we never subjugate the revelation under the aqal, this is a Mu'tazilay type of thing, a rationalist belief, it doesn't make sense to me, it's impossible, it doesn't happen, so you know people who are post-modern, we live in this deconstructionist mentality, there are no miracles, there's no normative Islam, there's no objective morality, truth is all relative, I'm a progressive Muslim, I'm progressive, all the religions are equal in the same, there's no miracles, there's no moral objectivity, I'm progressive, well if you think progressive is placating human beings and disobeying Allah that's not progressive, that's very stupid, it's very ignorant, so here Muslims all the time, quoted a hadith one time, this Muslim came up to me and said, you just hadith you quoted, a lizard speaking, come on brother, this is ridiculous, that's what he said to me, how can a lizard speak, a tree trunk, the lizard speaking, there's weakness in that hadith, but the tree trunk crying, this is towatur, this is multiply attested hadith, the tree trunk was crying when the Prophet ﷺ had left it and was giving khutbah inside the masjid, towatur, multiply attested, you have to believe in it, say how can you believe in these things, this is ridiculous, Allah can't make a tree cry, Allah created a universe out of nothing, Allah created a universe out of nothing, he can't make a lizard speak, it's very easy for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to do that, so I told his brother, I said, you know, in qalahu faqad sadaq, you know, if the Prophet ﷺ mentioned something, then it's true, and who said this, Abu Bakr Siddique, because this is exactly what some of the mushrikim were saying to him, do you know what he's saying now, what are they saying, he went to Jerusalem last night, initially the Prophet ﷺ didn't tell him about the miraj, the urooj, he said, initially it was just the isra, so he's saying that, in qalahu faqad sadaq, if he said it, it's true, you know what else I believe, that's bigger than that, that an angel comes to him with words from the Lord of the seven heavens, isn't that bigger than making a night journey to some city a few thousand miles or a hundred miles away, what's greater, right, so in Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ, on the authority of Jabir ibn Abdullah, he says, he said, when the Quraysh belied me, I stood in the Hijr, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala manifested Jerusalem before my eyes, with the baytul makdis, the temple mount, the old city, the surrounding areas, it manifested before me, and he said, I began to describe it, while I was looking at it, I'm describing windows and doors and pillars and some of the men that were there had been to Jerusalem, so they confirmed the story, confirmed the description, and they knew the Prophet ﷺ had never been to Jerusalem when he was younger, and then the Prophet ﷺ, he said, you know, in a few days, there's going to be a caravan coming into Mecca, so a caravan always comes into Mecca, he said, yeah, but this one's missing a camel, this caravan is missing a camel, one of the camels bolted, because I was flying overhead, I noticed this camel bolted away, he said, ridiculous, so a few days later, lo and behold, here comes a camel, here comes a caravan missing a camel, so I'll end with this, inshallah, these are the verses that our teacher, Qadi Ahmad, may Allah preserve him, recited it in Surat al-Isha, in the first laka'a, so these verses are about the Me'araj of the Prophet ﷺ, Surat al-Najm, ayah number one, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, so Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala here, he's taking an oath, this is called an oath formula, a Qasam, when Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala takes a Qasam, an oath by something, that thing is extremely important, so you have to listen, one Najmi, so Najm here in Majrood, there's a Qasra, because this Wao is Qalwao Al Qasam, by the star, Itha Hawa, when it comes down, Imam Sayyuti said, this star is Thureya, this is the star constellation Pleiades, because this is a great ayah, min ayatillah, right, respected by the pre-Islamic Arabs, and something great, according to the Muslims, a great sign of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, but Imam At-Tustari says something interesting here, he says the Najm here is the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, by the star when it comes down, meaning when this star, when this Najm, when this celebrity, because you know even today we call our celebrities stars, he's a movie star, he's a football star or whatever you want to say, but the star and Najm is the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, by the star when it comes down, by this great illuminating light, when it came down from the heavens, Allah's taking an oath by the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and coming down from the heavens, the nuzul of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, your companion is neither astray nor being misled, this is called the Jawab Al Qasam, right, so you have the Qasam and the Jawab, you have the oath and then the answer, if I say for example, I swear to God, you'll say what, what do you swear to God, I have to give a Jawab, I swear to God that I prayed for your own time, for example, right, that's the Jawab Al Qasam, so he's saying your companion, your sahib, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, is neither astray nor being misled, he does not speak from Hawa, this is a fi'l-mudarir, yantiku is a present tense verb, in perfect tense, in perfect tense in Arabic is usually negated with la, la yaf'al for example, la ashrabu kahwatan, but if you say ma, this means never, never, ma yantiku, never does he speak from his Hawa, not just when he's reciting Quran or on occasion, never, la yakhruju minhu illa l-haq wa la di nafsibi yadi, I swear by the one who holds my soul in his hand, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, nothing comes out of this except the truth, nothing, he doesn't speak from his Hawa, and notice Hawa in the first verse is a verb, right, when najmi is a Hawa, ma dhala sahibakum ma ghawa, wa ma yantiku anil Hawa, this is now a noun, what does Hawa mean? Hawa is like, you know, his caprice, his desire, Hawa, you go to a place, there's a, there's a, there's a state called Hawa'i, right, people go there for vacation, you want to go to Umrah? No, let's go to Hawa'i, the land of desire and air and let's go over there and live out our Hawa, right, the land of Hawa'i, right, the, the, the place of caprice and desire, there was an Arab Muslim walking in Hawa'i, he said, huna lulu, huna lulu, Pearl Harbor, huna lulu, I'm serious, in hua illa wahyu yuha, this is a negation, right, this is called, ifbaad ba'da nafi, strong negation, a strong toki, a strong emphasis, like you say, la ilaha illallah, strong emphasis, it is nothing except Wahi that comes to him, it is not except Wahi that comes to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa la alaihi wa sallam, allamahu shadeedu al qua, he is taught by one, mighty in power, the possessor of strength for he appeared in stately form, this is jibil alayhi sallam, he appeared in stately form, wa hua bil ufuk al a'la, this is a Jumlatul halia, wa la hua alam, a circumstantial sentence, while he was in the highest horizons, this is the first appearance of jibil alayhi sallam to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, after the lady tul qadr, when he appeared in the way that in which Allah s.w.t created him with 600 wings, when the Prophet exited the cave, he looked up on the horizon, filling the horizon, jibil alayhi sallam, wa hua bil ufuk al a'la, thumma danafa tadalla, and here the ulama say, some of them say this is a reference to beyond the siddilatul muntaha, then he approached and came closer, fa kana qaba qauseni aw adna, and he was within two bow lengths, a bow, two of these, 12 feet from his lord, this is majaz, this is not literal, this is figurative, right, this is a figure of speech in arabic, qaba qauseni, that means you're really really close to something, really really close to Allah s.w.t, in no anthropomorphic way, fa awha ila abdihi ma awha, and then he conveyed the inspiration to a servant, whatever he conveyed, the only three things we know about are the salah, the khwatim of baqarah, and the waad, and the promise given to the mu'mineen of jannah, ma kebabal fuadu ma ra'a, the Prophet's heart and mind did not falsify what he saw, fuad is heart and mind, the Prophet's heart and mind, how do you see with your heart, his heart ra'a saw, his mind ra'a, it did not falsify it, la fatumarunahu ala ma yara, will you dispute with him concerning what he sees, notice here the fi'al mudarib, is ilti fat, it went from ra'a to yara, meaning that what is fi'al mudarib, nihayadhu la tu'lam, imperfect tense, meaning the action has not been completed, he's seeing he's a perfect tense, wa allahu alam, wa la qadra'ahu nazlatan ukra, indeed he saw him a second time at the Siddilat al-Muntaha, near the loat tree of the outermost region, the Siddilat al-Muntaha, right, the end of the seventh heaven, at the jannah al-Ma'wa, near it is the garden of abode, the garden, the jannah begin in the seventh heaven, according to many of the Ulama. When the Siddilat was enveloped by whatever it was enveloped, right, we talked about the alwan, the colors, rolling over the Siddilat, the firash, the malaika, the tuyur of the birds as well, the butterflies, the angels, right, when that happened, ma'a-zaqa al-basaru wa ma'a-taqaa, the Prophet's sight never swerved, nor did it transgress. Verily he saw of the signs of his Lord the greatest, the greatest ayat, he saw al-Anbiyah, Jibreel al-Alayhi salam, Bayt al-Ma'mur, al-Siddilat al-Muntaha, he saw jannah in Nahr, there's many, many other things that he saw, salallahu alayhi salam, but we have to stop, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala increase our knowledge, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala teach us the true significance of these events and give us the ability to implement, implement the fard salawat in our lives every day and give us a tawfiq to be strict about our prayer times and give us a tawfiq, the providence to teach our children to pray on time five times a day, insha'Allah ta'ala may Allah bless all of you.