Perspective: A Quranic Hermeneutic of the Isra Wal-Mi'raj
The Isra Wal-Mi'raj occurred when the Muslims were must vulnerable. Derived from Surah Al-Isra's first verse (60:1), this article articulates a paradigm of healthy theocentric perspective for life.
In the 7-10th Quranic Year (after receiving revelation), the Prophet ﷺ and the early community of Muslims (and their patron family, Bani Hashim) were living under an embargo outside their hometown of Makkah that forced them into a famine. “The supply of food was almost stopped and the people in confinement faced great hardships … they had to eat leaves and skins. Cries of little children suffering from hunger used to be heard clearly.”1 The year after the ban was lifted, as the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslim community hoped for a sense of relief, both AbuTalib (the Prophet’s paternal uncle and patron to the early community) and Khadijah (first of 25 years and mother to his children) died within a few months of each other. Additionally, the Prophet ﷺ was dejected from the city of Taif after seeking refuge from their leaders. This year, Quranic year 10, is historically known as ‘Aam Al-Huzn (The Year of Sorrow). After these repeated horrendous experiences, in the next year—the 11th Quranic year and just 1 year before the Hijrah—the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ night journey, Isra Wal-Mi’raj, took place.2 Allah describes this momentous occasion in the Quran, “Glory to Him who made His servant travel by night from the sacred place of worship to the furthest place of worship, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him some of Our signs: He alone is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.”3
Believing the Prophet’s night journey ﷺ, that it literally happened in a physically awakened state (not a dream or metaphor), is a point of theology for Muslims.4 In addition, I believe the Isra Wal-Mi’raj is a perfect metaphor for us to use in our lives today, particularly the perspective we think and view our individual journies to Allah. This metaphorical perspective is precisely what this paper seeks to articulate.
“Glory be to He …”
The goal of any journey is to reach the destination in a good state—frequently prioritizing time but always focused on the physical and emotional well-being of the traveler. Even if expectations are set incredibly low, most people would agree that running out of gas before reaching our destination is extremely anti-climatic, and not hedging our plan appropriately is nonsensical (and perhaps even irresponsible). The greater the trip’s importance, the more realistic our preparation needs to be. What is the ideal route to our destination, and what means will we use to get there? But, before we get carried away, spending hours down a tangential rabbit hole researching the best nonessential item we can bring, our first step is assessing what we have in a state of gratitude.
Allah is The Creator and Provider of everything, and our lives are no different. Because of, and through, His divine mercy, we have everything in our lives. His blessings require having the presence of heart (to recognize them) and actively praise Him (for them), as I have elucidated in a previous article. Gratitude is not merely something said but, actually, a state of being. Saying “Al-Humdulillah” (hallelujah) with our tongues is relatively easy, it just rolls off the tongue, but acting accordingly is an entirely different endeavor. For example, our ability to read this article alone—the fact that we can read this article, as 37% of the world does not have internet access,5 16% does not have electricity,6 and 14% is illiterate7—is something we should be grateful for and ensure we are using each of these blessings (i.e., our internet access, electricity, and ability to read) responsibly.
Allah created us to worship Him and will hold us accountable for the extent we use our lives to achieve that purpose. As servants of Allah, we have our destination—where we are trying to go and what we are trying to achieve—and nothing is more important in our lives. It is not merely a matter of reaching the destination at an appropriate time—there is, despite not knowing when, nonetheless, a profound urgency because we will all die someday—but we must be concerned with the fashion in which we do so. Therefore, we must live earnestly. Unlike a travel expedition, where we are predominantly concerned with our physical being (i.e., body, clothes, etc.), in the journey of our lives, we are concerned with the condition of our hearts.
“Indeed Allah does not look at your bodies or your deeds, but rather what’s in your hearts”
–Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Riyadh As-Salihin
“Travel by night”
When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ went on the Isra Wal-Mi’raj, it was during the night, and I cannot imagine how he must have felt. In the comparatively rural 7th-century desert city of Makkah, the night is dark and full of the unexpected; so, for anyone else—being woken out of the comfort and safety of their home and then taken atop a magical beast on a journey (with no clue as to where they are going)—it would be anxiety-inducing at the very least. Yet, the Prophet ﷺ did just that, traveling a month's journey in just one night from his hometown of Makkah to the foreign city of Jerusalem.
As we journey through our lives—souls carried by magical beasts (i.e., our bodies)—we, too, exist in a metaphorical darkness. The future is entirely unknown (to us, not Allah), and so much lies outside our control. Nevertheless, we must not be paralyzed by this; Allah commanded us, “Take action! God will see your actions.”8 Our responsibility is to what lies within our sphere of influence. Abdullah b. Amr b Al-Aas, a sahabi (companion) of the Prophet ﷺ, said, “Work for your life down here as if you’ll live forever, and work for the next life as if you will die tomorrow.”9 What lies beyond our sphere of influence we leave to God because, ultimately, from Allah we come, and to Him we shall return.
“From the sacred place of worship to the furthest place of worship, whose surroundings We have blessed”
How we recollect the past impacts our perspective of the present and future. If the figurative bookmarks of our story, or the landmarks on our journey, predominantly highlight negativity, then it has a ripple effect on the rest of our lives. Alternatively, Ryan Holiday said in The Obstacle is the Way:
Remember: We choose how we’ll look at things. We retain the ability to interject perspective into a situation. We can’t change the obstacles themselves—that part of the equation is set—but the power of perspective can change how the obstacles appear. How we approach, view, and contexualize an obstacle, and what we tell ourselves it means, determines how daunting and trying it will be to overcome.10
We see this exemplified in how Allah refers to the Prophet’s journey ﷺ, “From the sacred place of worship to the furthest place of worship, whose surroundings We have blessed.”
Focusing on the goodness Allah has blessed us with, not the discomfort our challenges have caused us, is another form of showing humble gratitude to Allah. This theocentric perspective—focusing on Allah through the peaks of our blessing (bringing us closer to Him and serenity) instead of the dark valleys (of distance from Him and turmoil) we have inevitably felt—prioritizes our belief in Allah over our feelings.11 From this upbeat and optimistic perspective, not only are we following the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, but it lightens our burdens. Mark Seligman, the progenitor of positive psychology, found that simply recording what went well nightly for a week “produced large decreases in depression and large increases in happiness one month later” and, despite the effect fading three months later, “the degree to which participants actively continued their assigned exercises beyond the prescribed one-week period predicted how long the changes in happiness lasted.”12 Although Seligman is speaking about well-being theory in general, religion plays a significant roll in well-being. One study found “that two-thirds of religious Muslims scored higher on measure of subjective well-being (and lower on measures of mental illness) than other similar nonreligious Muslims did.”13
Can we view our lives through a theocentric perspective? Ideally, the goal is for our entire lives to be worship, intending nothing more than Allah’s pleasure, yet that does not mean it will be without challenge or difficulty.14 The Prophet’s entire life as a messenger ﷺ was filled with severe trials and calamities—year after year, relentlessly continuing after the Hijra, Allah tested him personally—yet we never see any effect of that in how he lived with and treated others.15 We must ask ourselves, where do we place our focus? Is it in the thorny valleys or the blessed peaks? Furthermore, how does our perspective aid us in our journey to earn Allah’s pleasure?
“To show him some of Our signs.”
The Isra Wal-Mi’raj—from the Prophet ﷺ traveling at night to Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, leading the other Prophets in prayer, ascending through the heavens (meeting other prophets along the way), to the first obligation to pray—was not a request of the Prophet ﷺ. Shaykh Muhammad Tahir b. Ashur (d.1393/1973) said when explaining this verse, “[Allah] initiated showing the signs to Muhammad ﷺ before he could request them to increase in status.”16 In one night the Prophet ﷺ miraculously traveled to Jerusalem (something no other prophet did), lead the other prophets in prayer, was raised to the highest level of Paradise (beyond where Jibreel (Gabriel) was permitted to go), and then be honored with a legislated means for his Ummah (nation) to worship Allah.17 Like Ibrahim (Abraham) before him, Allah showed the Prophet ﷺ “the wonders of the heavens and the earth, so he would be sure in faith.”18 Our life’s journey is no different; our experiences are not without purpose.
We believe Allah is the Al-Alim, Al-Hakim, Al-Mudabbir (All-Knowledgeable, All-Wise, and The Arranger of Affairs). Like the Prophet ﷺ, our journies are not haphazard but rather a means to see Allah’s signs. This requires a mental flip that only comes after we have controlled our emotions and can stand steadily, so we are not looking at the obstacle but the opportunity within it.19 Shems Friedlander (d. 2022) said about this:
Know yourself always and everywhere, and remember Allah. Whatever you see can be traced all the way back to Him. Here we have a glass vase. I don’t know who made this vase. Someone blew the glass into this shape. I can believe that someone blew the glass into this vase without ever knowing that person, without ever having seen him. Then why can't I believe that everything I see was created by Allah? When I look at a piece of sculpture, and I think, “What a nice piece of sculpture, the sculptor is a good artist” why then can I not take the thought further and realize that the sculptor himself was created by Allah? Can I battle my laziness? Must I always give in to my body’s desires? Well, I say, I have this thing to do, but first I'm going to take a little rest. Body, you're tired. I'll rest awhile, then I'll do it. Can't we say, No! First I'll do it, then I'll rest awhile. How far can we push ourselves? How can we reach the state of working with joy? A state of no reluctance to perform tasks, whether they be sweeping a floor, washing the dishes, painting a room, or anything that we are called on to do in this life. If we performed the task and remembered Allah in the process, then we have joy. But usually we do things in order to be rid of them as quickly as possible so that we can go on and do something else that we can be rid of as quickly as possible, ot maybe not do at all, or waste more time and energy in finding ways not to do things than it would take us to do them. Allah has given us free will. It is up to us to use it. No Sheikh can do that for you.20
We cannot outsource our salvation to anyone else. While we have very limited control over our life’s circumstances, we do have the responsibility for how we respond to them. Allah’s infinite generosity is providing us with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ—the opener of what was closed, the seal of what had preceded, the helper of the truth by the Truth, and the guide to Allah’s straight path.21 His life and example is the what we aspire to emulate, in times of ease and when challenged, and his Night Journey of the Isra Wal-Mi’raj is a primary example. We praise and are grateful to Allah for Islam, the Quran, and the Sunnah, and the humility to recognize that we are all servants of Allah on a journey throughout our lives (physical and metaphysical). We are entirely ignorant of what Allah wants from us or how the future will unfold, but our task is to orient our perspective to focus on His abundant blessings. We hope that through this we are able to comprehend His signs; more importantly, we pray that through our mujahada we raise in status and nobility with Allah.22
And, ultimately, with Allah is all success!
Al-Mubarakpuri, Safi-ur-Rahman. Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Maktabah Dar-us-Salam, 1996. 117-118.
Mohiuddin, Meraj. Revelation: The Story of Muhammad. Scottsdale, AZ: Whiteboard PRess, LLC, 2016. 163; IbnAshur, Muhammad Tahir. Tafsir Al-Tahrir wa Al-Tanwir. Tunisia: Dar Al-Tunisiya Publications, 1984. Vol 15, 10.
Quran 60:1.
IbnAshur, Tafsir Al-Tahrir wa Al-Tanwir, 23.
“Measuring digital development: Facts and figures 2021”. ITU Publications. December 12, 2021. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/FactsFigures2021.pdf.
Routley, Nick. “Mapped: The 1.2 Billion People Without Access to Electricity”. Visual Capitalist. November 27, 2019. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-billion-people-without-access-to-electricity/#:~:text=Access%20to%20electricity%20is%20now,living%20without%20this%20basic%20necessity.
Roser, Max and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina. “Literacy”. Our World Data. September 20, 2018. https://ourworldindata.org/literacy.
Quran 9:105.
Ibn AbiUsama, Al-Harith (d. 282/895). Baghiya Al-Baaith ‘an Zawaid Musnad Al-Harith. Compiled by Nuridin b. Ali Al-Haitimi. Madinah, KSA: Khidmah Al-Sunnah wa Al-Sirah Al-Nabawiya, 1992. Vol. 2, 983. Accessed via https://shamela.ws/book/13160/1739.
Holiday, Ryan. The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph. New York, NY: Portfolio, 2014. 37.
Undoubtedly, the Prophet ﷺ prohibited causing or reciprocating harm (Ibn Majah) and from the Maqasid Al-Shariah (objectives of the Islamic law). Thus, we must unequivocally stop and prevent any type of abuse or neglect.
Seligman, Martin E. P. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. New York, NY: Atria Paperback, 2011. 38.
Ghannam, Sara, and Kevin M. Gorey. “Islamic Religiosity and Subjective Well-Being in the West: Meta-Analytic Evidence of Protections across Diverse Muslim Diasporas.” Journal of religion & spirituality in social work 42, no. 1 (2023): 36–52.
We cannot remove the human element from our lives, including acts of worship. Ibn Jowzi (d. 597/1201) mentions explicitly this in Minhaj Al-Qasidin, in the chapter of knowledge, when speaking about the different dispositions of scholars. He said, “Some have argued because I crave to speak [publicly] then I will prohibit myself from its desire. This is a trick of Iblis (Satan) to prohibit the propagation of knowledge. If the nafs (self) enjoys leadership you cannot stop it [because] leadership is virtuous, as is being an Imam, and finding pleasure in intercourse that produces a child. The nafs inclination towards acquiring these things specifically is impossible to erase its effect from the nafs. So, whoever imagines they can have intercourse without pleasure or [public] speaking and not be pleased by position of leadership has imagined the impossible. Additionally, the presence of that does not harm the religion, rather it is incombent that our mujahada (spiritual struggle) in regards to seeking position be with arrogance and ostentation. As for leaving off knowledge, then no.” See IbnJowzi, Muhammad b. Naim. Minhaj Al-Qasidin wa Mufid Al-Sadiqin. Damascus, Syria: Dar Al-Towfiq, 2010. 70.
Jackson, Sherman. “Mawlid al-Nabi - Dr. Sherman Jackson”. Islamic Educational Center of Orange County. December 8, 2017.
IbnAshur, Tafsir Al-Tahrir wa Al-Tanwir, Vol 15, 21.
Lings, Martin. Muhammad: Life Based on the Earliest Sources. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2006. 101–104.
Quran 6:75.
Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way, 55.
Friedlander, Shems. When You Hear Hoofbeats Think of a Zebra. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1992. 12.
This wording is taken from the famous Salah Al-Fatih, a litany was reportedly transmitted by the Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Bakri, a descendant of Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him). See Sedick, Irshaad. “What Is the Virtue of Salat Al-Fatih”. Seekers Guidance. April 25, 2022. https://seekersguidance.org/answers/dhikr/what-is-the-virtue-of-salat-al-fatih/.
Quran 49:13.