The Prophet’s Heavenly Ascension (Al Isra Wal Miraj)

The Prophet's Heavenly Ascension: Al-Isra Wal-Mi'raj

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

The Sacred Months and Rajab

Three of the sacred months are in succession: Dhul-Qa'dah, Dhul-Hijjah and Muharram. And the fourth, Rajab, is separated from the others by several months. To mention that the Prophet encouraged the believers to fast during the sacred months, and Rajab being one of the sacred months is a month where we're encouraged to fast.

I say that because the proof of fasting during the sacred months of which Rajab is one is stronger than the proof to isolate Rajab for fasting. So this is why we mention this. And this night, which is recognized by many as the night of Isra and Mi'raj, is a part of Rajab and therefore it's an opportunity to fast as a part of this sacred month.

But again, the evidence to isolate this night in a fast is nothing that comes from the Prophet that's strong. The hadith that Imam Ghazali and others mention about Laylatu-Isra being the 27th, but there's nothing, and that hadith is da'if, there's nothing concerning fasting. But, as we said, fasting during Rajab and during the generality of the sacred month is something that's encouraged by the Prophet.

Rajab as Preparation for Ramadan

Rajab is one of the harbingers of Ramadan. So this is the time for us to begin to prepare for Ramadan. Abu Bakr al-Warraq al-Balkhi mentioned, he said, that Rajab is the month for cultivating the crop. And the month of Sha'ban is the month to irrigate the crop. And Ramadan is the time to harvest the crop. In other words, don't wait till Ramadan to start fasting. Don't wait till Ramadan to start praying.

To an extra extent, start now during Rajab. And then try to increase a little bit during Sha'ban. And then when you reach Ramadan, you reach Ramadan with the running start.

He also said, Abu Bakr al-Warraq al-Balkhi, may Allah have mercy on him, he also mentioned that the likeness of Rajab is like the wind. And the likeness of Sha'ban is like the clouds. And the likeness of Ramadan is like the rain. So in other words, the blessing of Ramadan begins in Rajab. So the winds start to blow. And then Sha'ban, there's an increase. Now the clouds start to form. And then in Ramadan, the rain falls. So Rajab is a preparation for Ramadan.

Differing Opinions on the Date of Isra and Mi'raj

Now concerning the issue of Isra and Mi'raj being in the month of Rajab, this is an opinion from many different opinions. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in Fath al-Bari mentioned some of the opinions that Isra and Mi'raj is in Rabi al-Awwal. Some of the opinions are in Rabi al-Akhir. Some of the opinions are in Shawwal. Some of the opinions are in Ramadan. And naturally, some are of the opinion that it's in Rajab.

From the Malikis, Ibn Abdul Barr says that it's in Rajab. He's one of the greatest Maliki scholars, Ibn Abdul Barr. Some of the opinions are in Rajab. And from the Shafi'is, Imam Nawawi has a very strong opinion that it's

in Rajab.

The Itna'ashariyya from the Shi'a reject the opinion that it's in Rajab. And they say specifically the 27th isn't the night of Isra and Mi'raj. It's the night of Maba'ath when the revelation was first revealed. So there are different opinions in that regard. As we said, Imam Nawawi from the Shafi'i, has a very strong opinion that it's in Rajab. Ibn Abdul Barr from the Malikis has an opinion that it's in Rajab. So there are opinions, strong opinions, that it's in Rajab.

The Quranic References to Isra and Mi'raj

Isra and Mi'raj. We know the verses of Isra in a chapter that bears that name and the verses of Mi'raj in Najm, another chapter. So Isra and Mi'raj are both referred to and referenced in the Quran but not together in separate chapters. We'll focus on the verses of Isra.

The Meaning of Subhan

In those verses Allah says:

So glorified, subhana. So subhana means to be far distant and far elevated. So Allah is far removed from anything inappropriate for his majesty and his might and his honor as the creator and master and lord of all that exists. So distancing.

So Allah is far removed from attributes and characteristics of his creation. Allah is far removed from any injustice. All my servants, Allah informs us in Hadith Qudsi : (يَا عِبَادِي إِنِّي حَرَّمْتُ الظُّلْمَ عَلَى نَفْسِي وَجَعَلْتُهُ بَيْنَكُمْ مُحَرَّمًا فَلَا تَظَالَمُوا - Ya `ibadi inni harramtu al-dhulma `ala nafsi wa ja`altuhu baynakum muharraman fala tazalamu) (Sahih Muslim 2577). I've forbidden oppression for myself. So I've made it forbidden amongst you to not oppress one another.

Understanding Suffering and Divine Justice

Now an obvious question arises, especially in our day and time, when people are obsessed with themselves, that, well, if Allah doesn't oppress, why does he let tsunamis wipe out people? That's a rahmah. That's a mercy. Because through the suffering, hardship, difficulty, or possibly the martyrdom of those people, they all go into jannah. They're on the fast track into jannah.

So they're just cruising in. We're out there in the lanes where all the backup is, waiting our turn, looking for change. And they're just... And so people who ask those sort of questions forget the reality of our situation. This world isn't our end. If this was the end, you could ask that question. But the end is jannah. The end is paradise.

And so if suffering in this world is our path to paradise, there's no injustice in that. Because for our suffering, we're recompensed by Allah al-Shakur. So Allah al-Shakur, man yu'ti thawaban jazeelan ala amalin qaleel. The one who gives a great reward for a little action. So anything we suffer in this world, relative to eternity and paradise, is very small.

So if we didn't get that great reward, everything we suffer, the sticking of a thorn, leads to our sins being wiped out from us. So anything we suffer is an expiation of our sins. And a cleansing. So we're just asked to be patient in the face of suffering. And not to be like people who don't believe in Allah. Who question Allah in the face of suffering. Or they just curse who knows what. Because they don't even believe in God. And many more so, it

just becomes a constant complaint. And a constant sense of victimization. Why me? Why me? Why me?

Whereas the believer says, why not me? (لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ - La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah)

So Allah is far removed from any actions associated with the creation.

The Night Journey: Analyzing the Verse

So glorified, exalted is the one. The one is Allah. الَّذِي هُوَ اللهُ أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ . Who has carried his servant by night.

Every isra occurs at night. So isra is the journey at night. So this isra is sometimes called the night journey. So when Allah mentions سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا . If every night journey, every isra is at night, why mention لَيْلًا So the commentators, Imam Fakhruddin al-Razi and others, mention that this is to emphasize Allah's power that he took his Prophet in a small part of the night.

أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا . He took his Prophet in a small part of the night. And it's related that when the Prophet left the house of Umm Hani, so the dominant opinion that مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ from the sacred masjid, was directly from Mecca, but specifically from the house of his cousin Umm Hani bint Abi Talib.

And when he left, the door started swinging. So you know you go out and the door is swinging. When he came back, the door hadn't stopped swinging. سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا. So this is to emphasize the power of Allah.

And we're going to come back to this issue, inshallah.

The Honor of Servitude

أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ with his servant. And so this goes back to what I was just mentioning about the believer and the orientation of the believer in his or her relationship with Allah. It's a relationship of servitude. And we are honored with servitude. Those who don't believe in Allah, they don't practice this religion, or any religion for that matter, they've been denied the opportunity of servitude.

But the believer's been honored with servitude. And the fact that we're honored is associated with in this station, where the Prophet was taken, where no human being has ever gone in this world. And honored with that station, to be brought into the Divine Presence. He's taken there under the description of his slavehood, his servitude.

سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى Allah didn't say أَسْرَى بِنَبِيِّهِ. أَسْرَى بِرَسُولِهِ أَسْرَى بِحَبِيبِهِ. With his beloved, his Prophet, his Messenger. أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ . Because the actualization of our servitude before our Lord is the highest station a human being can attain to.

And so the ulama, they describe this as تَحْقِيقُ الْعُبُودِيَّةِ Actualizing our servanship to our Lord تَحْقِيقُ الْعُبُودِيَّةِ And so we're living in a time where it's تَحْقِيقُ الْحُرِّيَّةِ . Actualizing our freedom from our Lord. Where we determine what's haram or halal. This can't be haram because I like it. MashaAllah, that's a wonderful standard for establishing Allah. It's like 9 billion people can have 9 billion rulings on one issue. Potentially.

All praise is due to Allah who has revealed the scripture to his slave servant. So the final revelation to come to a human being that came to Muhammad,

peace and blessings of Allah upon him, is mentioned in the context of his servitude.

The Relationship Between Servitude and Lordship

Because to the extent that we actualize our servitude to Allah then we actualize the Lordship of Allah. It's an inverse relationship. As our servitude humbles us, our reverence for our Lord is elevated. And as our rejection of our servitude is elevated, our magnification of our Lord is deflated. Until for those who have no share of servitude whatsoever, atheists. There is no Allah. There is no God. Because why? There is no servitude and there is no slavehood within them.

So we can literally translate that literally, I have not created the jinn or the humans except to be my slave servants. Not to each other, to Allah. And I have to say this because even though the people that are tweeting out right now, tweet controversy, but this is part of our deen. One of the reasons, I won't say it, you can ask me privately. People aren't ready for it.

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ

From Mecca to Jerusalem

أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِّنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ from Mecca, from the immediate environments of the sacred masjid, but specifically from the house of Umm Hani bint Abi Talib. إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى to the furthest masjid. So the furthest masjid in Quds, in Jerusalem. Masjid al-Aqsa.

And it's called aqsa, furthest, because of the great, great distance between that masjid and masjid al-haram in Mecca.

The Blessed Precincts

So then Allah says, الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ so whose precincts we have blessed. Precincts meaning bilad al-sham, or the Levant, what we call it today, the Levant. Palestine, Sham, Lebanon. So that whole area has been blessed.

It's been blessed with natural beauty. So what's at the very heart of it? Look at Palestine to the south, Lebanon to the north, Sham to the east. At the heart of it is a mountain they call Jabal al-Sheikh, the beautiful snow-capped mountain that irrigates the entire area. So from all of these lands, you can see Jabal al-Sheikh. Jabal al-Sheikh because he has white hair. Snow-capped. لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ

This land, and it's blessed because it's the land from which so many prophets emerged. May Allah preserve it, and may Allah return it to its sanctity. It's been blessed historically. So many great scholars have emerged from that area.

الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَاto show him some of our signs. لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا And so the prophet during this journey was shown signs of Allah's Qudra.

The Response to the Night Journey

And again, people weren't ready. They weren't prepared for those signs. The sign that he could go from Mecca to Jerusalem, ascend through the heavens, return in the time that the door didn't stop swinging. He witnessed

that. He was ready for that. Abu Bakr was ready for that. But a lot of the believers weren't, and they apostated.

We'll return to that issue in conclusion. The hypocrites and the kuffar, the mushrikeen, the idolaters, they were ridiculing the Muslim. Now look what he's saying. Now look what he's saying. He said he went from here to Jerusalem, ascended through the heavens, and came back during the same night.

The prophet, لا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ he was ready and he found great consolation in that. After the hardship, after the death of Abu Talib, after the death of Khadijah, radiallahu anha, after the humiliation at Ta'if, after all he suffered, after the boycott, the blockade, this was a consolation for him to let him know Allah is in control, and Allah will not forsake you.

So he was ready. Abu Bakr was ready. If he said it, I believe it. He became Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, the one who testifies to the truth. Al-Siddiq. He said it, I believe it. Because he said that a more miraculous occurrence, the descent of revelation, more miraculous than thisلَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ, قَدْ صَدَّقَ. He said it, I believe it.

But there were believers who weren't. They left their faith, but they came back. Because the prophet, he gave proof. He said there's a caravan coming, here's the description of the caravan, and when they saw the caravan, they returned to their faith. And we don't know their names. This is how our scholars honor the sanctity of the believer. That they wouldn't associate them with apostasy and defile their names and their reputations because they returned to faith. So this is one of the lessons we can take from these occurrences.

The Signs Shown to the Prophet

So to show them some of our signs. Now, showing some of our signs, some of the ulama raise a theological question here. And that question is, why would not what Ibrahim was shown, alayhi salam وَكَذَلِكَ نُرِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ مَلَكُوتَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ (Quran 6:75) And we have shown, thus have we shown Ibrahim, the unseen, deeper realms of the heavens and the earth.

مَلَكُوتَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ . Whereas the Prophet لِنُرِيَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ مِنْ وَ مِنْ لِلتَّبْعِيضِ مِنْ is to partition off. So some of our signs, Ibrahim was shown the unseen dominions and the deeper underlying meanings in the heavens and the earth, the malakut, al-mulk al-ghayb, wal-ma'ani. The unseen realm, the realm of meanings behind this physical manifestation of things, the mulk.

So the ulama say no, the Prophet, what he was shown was greater because he was shown something of the jabarut. Jabarut with Abi Talib al-Makki هُوَ عَالَمُ الْعَظَمَةِ، يَعْنِي عَالَمُ الصِّفَاتِ، الْأَسْمَاءِ وَالصِّفَاتِ الْإِلَهِيَّةِ . So he was shown something of the divine realm.

When he was brought into the divine presence. So as they say, the malakut is the deeper meaning of the mulk. The mulk, the world of manifest things. The malakut, the world of unseen reality and the meanings of those manifest things. But the jabarut, the light from which those meanings emerge.

So the Prophet was shown something greater than what Ibrahim was shown because what he was shown was directly associated with Allah whereas what Ibrahim was shown was directly associated with the creation of Allah.

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلَّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ

Allah is the Hearing, the Seeing

(إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ - ʾinnahu huwa al-samīʿu al-baṣīr) (Quran 17:1). Verily he is the hearing, the seeing. So one of the commentators said (السَّمِيعُ بِأَقْوَالِ مُحَمَّدٍ - al-samīʿu biʾaqwāli muḥammad), one who hears the speech and the words of Muhammad.

And so this is of significance to us. We mentioned this this morning in fact to a group of students that our following of Muhammad, (فَاتِّبَاعُنَا لِسَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ قَوْلًا وَفِعْلًا وَحَالًا - fa-ittibāʿunā li-sayyidinā muḥammadin qawlan wa fiʿlan wa ḥālan). We follow him in his speech.

Following the Prophetic Speech

So we try to adorn ourselves with prophetic speech. We don't talk like everyone out there. We don't talk like people in the street unless we're talking to them. The Prophet, he would speak to people at their level. The Arabi came and dressed them one way. He responded accordingly.

The Himyari came from a tribe of Himyar who used alif-meem as opposed to alif-laam. They don't say (الْكِتَابَ - al-kitāb) they say (امْكِتَابَ - imkitāb). So one of them asked the Prophet: (هَلْ مِنَمِ الْبِرِّ امْصِيَامُم فِي امْسَفَرٍ ؟ - hal minami al-birri imṣiyāmun fī imsafar ?) Is it righteousness to fast while (هَلْ مِنَمِ الْبِرِّ؟ هَلْ مِنَ الْبِرِّ ؟ الصِّيَامُ، امْصِيَامُ ؟ فِي السَّفَرِ فِي امْسَفَرٍ ؟ - hal minami al-birri ? hal mina al-birri ? al-ṣṣiyāmu, imṣiyāmu ? fī al-safari fī imsafar ?) ?you're traveling?

(Sahih al-Bukhari 1946, Sahih Muslim 1115)

Is it not righteousness that you fast while you're traveling? So he knew all of the tongues.

But in our speech with each other and in our speech with our family members we try to elevate each other by emulating the dignified prophetically defined, divinely oriented speech of the Prophet. So not just his actions, but his speech. And we should cringe when we hear a Muslim just profanity.

The Lowering of Standards

Everyone uses these words, they're not profane anymore. That's what you think. They're not profane anymore because our standards have been lowered so low by shaitan. When television, some of you are old enough to remember when television first came out. I don't want to point to anybody. You know who you are.

If someone said a four letter word people would go and protest at the television station. When a woman wore slacks people were protesting. Mary Tyler Moore, the first female to wear pants on television. People were protesting. Up then, gradually, not just slacks. The slacks got shorter and shorter and the language got more foul and more foul. Until now television, anything goes. Anything, literally. But it didn't start out that way.

The bar was lowered, the bar was lowered, the bar was lowered, the bar was lowered, and we all got used to jumping over the low bar. But as Muslims we should keep the bar high and just make sure our legs are strong so we can jump over it. We strengthen our legs with our salah and our zakah and our prayer and our night prayer and our Quran, our wird, our adhkar.

So we jump over the high bar and don't lower the bar and then be proud of our weak legs. Look, I can high jump six inches. Mashallah. You should try out for the Olympics. No, I can high jump six foot five, six foot six. Mashallah. You must have some strong legs. Islam wants us to have strong legs, not a low bar. So don't lower the bar. Strengthen your legs.

Striving for Spiritual Heights

We should try to begin to approximate the prophetic states. We should begin. My sister, alhamdulillah, is great. Sister, you have a PhD. That's wonderful. That's not haram. That's not blameworthy. But some sisters should be striving to be like Rabia or Nafisa.

We talked about this a few weeks ago, a couple weeks ago. You know, should be striving for the spiritual heights as much as our sisters strive for the professional heights. Again, nothing wrong with that. Sisters, don't get mad at me. I'm not trying to insinuate anything. I'm just saying. We said shouldn't, shouldn't, right? Spiritual heights.

Arifatu-l-Khair. It was Arifatu-l-Khair. She was a woman in Andalusia who memorized the Ashr Qira'at and taught them in her house behind a veil. At one time, there were 5,000 women in Andalusia at one time that had memorized Sahih al-Bukhari. That's when Andalusia was strong.

So we should have brothers and sisters trying to memorize al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Sittah (لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ، لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ - lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu, lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu). My wife's teacher in Damascus, his sister memorized Sahih al-Sittah, Quran, had a degree from Abu Noor in Jamiat Damascus, and Ma'had al-Fath. That's Allah. He's too old for you. His eyes are lighting up. Really? Could I meet him? But Allahu Akbar. Striving in their deen (لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ - lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu)

The Purification of Actions

So to show him some of our signs (إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ - ʾinnahu huwa al-samīʿu al-baṣīr) the hearing, the seeing. So we mentioned, and then he said, (السَّمِيعُ السَّمِيعُ بِأَفْوَالِ مُحَمَّدٍ الْبَصِيرُ بِأَفْعَالِهِ خَالِصَةً عَنْ شَوَائِبِ الرِّيَاءِ مَقْرُونَةً بِالصِّدْقِ وَالصَّفَاءِ - al-samīʿu al-samīʿu biʾafwāli muḥammadin al-baṣīru biʾafʿālihi ḫāliṣatan ʿan šawāʾibi al-riyāʾi maqrūnatan bi-l-ṣidqi wa-l-ṣafāʾi), okay purified from any corrupting dissimulation showing off and joined with honesty and purity. (مَقْرُونَةً بِالصِّدْقِ وَالصَّفَاءِ - maqrūnatan bi-l-ṣidqi wa-l-ṣafāʾi)

So we should be striving to be people of honesty. (إِنَّ الصِّدْقَ يَهْدِي إِلَى الْبِرِّ وَإِنَّ الْبِرَّ يَهْدِي إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ - ʾinna al-ṣidqa yahdī ʾilā al-birri wa ʾinna al-birra yahdī ʾilā al-jannah) (Sahih al-Bukhari 6094, Sahih Muslim 2607). Honesty leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to jannah. (وَالصَّفَاءِ - wa-l-ṣafāʾi)

We should strive, we should be striving to be people of purity. Which means the impurities of the world that we bring into our heart via our eyes things like pornography and all this thing via our ears corrupting music. When I came back from Syria this was like the early 2000's I was like I almost went crazy. Unfortunately I took it out on some people. Most of the young people in the masjid they listen to 50 Cent.

I'm like, what 50 Cent? These are Muslim kids! And so a lot of you listen to 50 Cent so you know what he was saying. Don't pretend otherwise. I'm like these are Muslim kids listening to this stuff. I was really I was going crazy. Because when I left there was no 50 Cent. There wasn't even a dime, there wasn't 10 Cent. And like within 6 or 7 years went from no dime to 50 Cent (لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللهِ - lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata ʾillā bi-llāhi)

Now think about it. Where's the safaa? Where's the purity? When that's what's coming into our hearts. (لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ - lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata ʾillā bi-llāhi)

Benefits and Lessons from the Mi'raj

So some fawa'id. We took a different approach going through the hadith and the prophet saw this and the prophet saw that. You all know that I think we did that last time. You can look it up online. But what are some

fawa'id we can take from this?

First Benefit: Foundation of Muslim Spirituality

Number one, the mi'raj is the foundational event in the seerah for Muslim spirituality. Because this is the event where the prophet was brought into the divine presence (الْحَضْرَةِ الْإِلَهِيَّةِ - al-ḥaḍrati al-ʾilāhiyya). And the aspiration of every spiritual seeker is to enter into the divine presence.

And so we know it's possible because it was attained by our prophet. (وَلَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ - wa laqad kāna lakum fī rasūli-llāhi ʾuswatun ḥasanatun) (Quran 33:21). And the prophet is the most excellent example for us.

The Obligation of the Five Daily Prayers

One of the things that did happen during the mi'raj, the ascension, the prayers were made obligatory. Five prayers, originally fifty, but Allah is merciful. Imagine fifty prayers like fajr, then post fajr, then post fajr, fajr, and pre duha post duha. And they're all obligatory. He gave us five and then gave the multiply each by ten and we get the reward of the fifty, but we only do the five. (حَسَنَاتٌ وَعَشْرُ أَمْثَالِهَا - ḥasanātun wa ʿašru ʾamṯālihā) (Quran 6:160).

But the greater point here is there is a saying some says hadith but the ulama question that but it's a saying that has circulated amongst the ulama and so we give weight to it because they don't speak just idly. (الصَّلَاةُ مِعْرَاجُ الْمُؤْمِنِ - al-ṣalātu miʿrāju al-muʾmin). That the salah is the mi'raj of the believer, the salah is the ascension of the believer. In other words, there is no spiritual elevation for a believer without salah.

So people, they don't pray and they're sitting around they're smoking hashish and they're reading Ibn Arabi in English translation and Rumi. There is no spirit, that's just entertainment. That's spiritual tourism. A tourist, right, you go somewhere and then you come home. You don't stay. So you're just getting these feelings and then you go back to whatever you're doing. You don't stay.

The journey is based on salah. (الصَّلَاةُ مِعْرَاجُ الْمُؤْمِنِ - al-ṣalātu miʿrāju al-muʾmin). And without that foundation nothing else is of any benefit. Without that foundation of the salah nothing else is of benefit in terms of spiritual ascension. This is one benefit that we take. And so as we said probably the most significant legislative event of that ascension is the legislation of the five daily prayers.

Second Benefit: Allah's Power Transcends Human Reason

The second is that the qudra or the power of Allah isn't limited and confined to what we consider to be intelligible. So the power of Allah transcends human reason. When they got the satellite photographs of Saturn, they saw some of the rings were braided. They have no explanation, physicists can't explain it. There are inexplicable things in this creation physically. They're physically inexplicable.

And so at a deeper level there are realities that transcend our human reason because Allah (فَعَّالٌ لِّمَا يُرِيدُ - faʿʿālun limā yurīdu) (Quran 85:16), does what he desires. And we can't do what we desire. Some people think they can but they'll come to know.

So the ability to take his prophet on this journey isn't deemed impossible because rationally we can't comprehend it, how could that happen like that. When Allah desires something he says (كُن فَيَكُونُ - kun fa-yakūnu) (Quran 2:117), be and it is. The end. It is. And so it's not confined to what we consider to be rational and reasonable.

Now there are rational proofs in our religion but ultimately there are realities that transcend our intellect and this event was one of them. And this event affirms it.

Third Benefit: Spiritual Elevation is a Gift from Allah

The third is that the spiritual elevation built on the salat, that's what we undertake but ultimately the gift of reaching our destination is a gift from Allah. He took his slave servant on this journey by night. (.أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا - ʾasrā biʿabdihi laylan) (الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ - allaḏī bāraknā ḥawlahu) this journey we blessed these precincts, we showed him some of our signs. (لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا - linurīhu min ʾāyātinā)

So this is all from Allah, it's a gift from Allah. So what we do is necessary but it is not, you guys are supposed to say sufficient. The salat is necessary, the dhikr is necessary, the sohbah keeping company of righteous people is necessary, controlling what we see, what we hear, our tongues is necessary. But sufficiency is provided by the grace of Allah.

So why does Fakhr al-Din al-Razi mention Allah hears his speech and the excellent speech and Allah knows his pure and sincere actions? So he rewarded him with this gift of ascension. And so we strive to purify ourselves and we strive to be honest and we strive to be sincere and we pray Allah rewards us with the gift of ascension. But we have to do the work, but the work is not sufficient. It's necessary but not sufficient. So that's what we do.

Those who struggle and strive for our sake, we will guide them to the paths. (سُبُلَنَا - subulanā). We will guide them to our paths, the paths leading to us. And so the striving is necessary but the sufficiency in terms of the hidayah is a gift from Allah, which linguistically makes sense because hidayah and hadiyah, the guidance and the gift are from the same root.

Welcoming New Muslims

Inshallah, I understand there's a couple people that took shahadah folks raise your hand, the new Muslims, where you at? New Muslims, assalamu alaykum my brother. I know the feeling man, I converted also. You made the right move, this religion is amazing. I'm telling you it never ceases to amaze but it's a marathon too, it's not a sprint. It's like 10 seconds, it's over, like a long and you every single foot of the 26 miles is amazing. Allahu Akbar. So it's a gift from Allah.

Fourth Benefit: Palestine is a Blessed Land

Fourth fa'idah, benefit, Palestine is a blessed land. Masjid al-Aqsa in Palestine is a blessed land and Allah is going to protect that land from those who through their greed through their arrogance through their enmity are defiling that land. Allah is going to bless that land. Allah has already blessed it and Allah is going to purify it of all defilement just as He blessed (الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ - allaḏī bāraknā ḥawlahu) whose precincts we are blessed. May Allah help them.

Fifth Benefit: Protecting the Honor of Believers

And we mentioned the murtad, the ulama, (الْكُلُّ مُسْلِمٍ حَرَامٌ دَمُهُ وَمَالُهُ وَعِرْضُهُ - al-kullu muslimin ḥarāmun damuhu wa māluhu wa ʿirḍuhu) (Sahih Muslim 2564). Every believer has a sanctity associated with himself or herself. In other words, an invaluable nature that cannot be transgressed against: their life, their property, their honor.

And so to protect the honor of those people who apostated when they returned back to Islam, the ulama didn't mention their names so their honor wouldn't be lessened by even a temporary association with disbelief. So