Abdullah Hakim Quick – Islam And The World The Journey Of Al-Israa Wa Al-MiRaaj

AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the challenges faced by Muslims in the face of changes in the world and the importance of returning to familiarity with Islam. They also touch on the impact of the Prophet Muhammad's stance on politics and the rise of evil behavior. The journey of Islam begins with the seven levels of Allah's creation, and the importance of acceptance of their teachings is emphasized. The importance of the Prophet's three gifts and the importance of protecting the land from fire is also discussed. The importance of Jerusalem and being a Muslim leader is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
Wa usalli wa usallam ala Sayyidil Awwalin wal
Akhirin.
Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa
barak wa salam.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the Worlds.
And peace and blessings be constantly showered upon
our beloved Prophet Muhammad, the Master of the
First and the Last, his family, his companions,
and all those who call to his way
and establish his sunnah to the Day of
Judgment.
My beloved brothers and sisters, to our friends,
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.
Alhamdulillah, this is our continuation of our series,
Islam and the World.
And the intention is to bring Islam in
different dimensions, to be able to look at
Islam in different parts of the planet, in
different parts in history, and to be very
relevant to the situation that we are living
in today.
The last few months and days have become
very challenging for Muslims.
And people throughout the planet are going through
tremendous changes.
The younger generation, to a certain extent, because
of the social media, is in a state
of confusion.
People are not sure which way to go.
They are not sure what is real and
what is not real.
And this is where it is critical for
Muslims to return to our sources, to return
to the foundations that Allah blessed us with,
through the revelation, the final revelation, and also
with the final messenger, the leader of all
of the prophets, Muhammad ﷺ.
And when we are able to go back
to this, and to understand what it is,
it not only will strengthen our faith, but
it will also give us an understanding about
what is to come.
Because there are many claims that are being
made around the world, and especially we find
claims that are being made in the Middle
East, around the area of Masjid al-Aqsa.
It has become a confusion for people who
are reading the media.
And so therefore, we are thankful that Allah
has blessed us with this last and final
messenger.
And the more we understand about his life,
is the more we understand the power of
Allah ﷻ, and what we actually have in
our hands and in our hearts.
So because we are at the point of
the time in Rajab, around 27th of Rajab,
we want to look at al-Isra and
Mi'raj.
And this is the night journey, the famous
night journey, and also the ascension into the
heavens.
And just a few points as we go
into this.
Number one, that there is no unanimous position
about which day actually is, the day of
Isra and Mi'raj.
There are different opinions that scholars have.
Some scholars even said Rabi al-Awwal.
They thought that Isra and Mi'raj was
at that time.
But the overwhelming position and the stance that
Muslims have taken, the majority position, is that
it is the 27th of Rajab.
And with this understanding, we are going forward.
Secondly, that we have to realize, that to
understand Isra and Mi'raj, we need to
understand the circumstances surrounding it.
Because whenever we are looking at a verse
in the Quran, whenever we are looking at
a chapter in the Book of Allah, we
need to have what is known as Asbab
al-Nuzul.
And that is the reasons why, the circumstances
surrounding this particular verse, or this particular chapter.
In this case, we recognize that Prophet Muhammad
SAW, had been teaching the belief in one
God, for years in Mecca.
And it reached the point of, and this
was the 10th year, after the beginning of
the Prophethood.
He took a strong stance with Tawheed.
His followers took strong stance.
They were insulted.
They were killed.
They were driven out of their homes.
But they held on to the faith.
He even allowed them to make a hijrah.
He allowed them to travel to al-Habasha,
to Ethiopia, in order to escape the punishment
of the Quraysh.
But the Prophet SAW himself, was a pillar
of strength.
It was this particular year, is what is
known as Aam al-Huzn.
It is the year of sorrow.
And that is important for us as well
today.
Because Muslims are going through tremendous changes.
And it seems as though, the whole world
is against us.
That nobody cares for the true believers.
But this is an example, when a person
can be at the lowest depths, in sorrow
and sadness.
And then, the heavens open up for that
person.
And so this is our divine example, that
came through the life of Prophet Muhammad SAW.
This year, had followed two to three years,
of what is known as the boycott.
And that is where the Quraysh put sanctions,
like what they call sanctions today.
They boycotted the Muslims, to the point where
people had to go into a valley, and
they suffered inside of that valley, and it
had an impact on their life.
Finally the boycott was lifted.
But it affected the health of the believers.
And Abu Talib, the uncle of the Prophet
SAW, who was a pillar of strength, behind
Rasulullah, he became very sick.
And in that year, he passed away.
And this was a tremendous blow, to the
Prophet SAW.
Because this was his protection, in a sense,
it was a type of psychological protection, and
it was also a physical protection.
But to add to that, his beloved wife
Khadijah RA, she passed away somewhere around 40
days, after Abu Talib died.
And so you could imagine, the impact that
it had, on the Prophet SAW.
He felt as though, the whole world was
coming down on him.
He was overwhelmed with grief.
And the Quraysh, recognizing they had an opportunity,
intensified, their pressure upon the Prophet SAW.
And so, he looked to expand his horizons.
So now you have the depths, and instead
of going inside of yourself, he expanded.
And so he went south, to the city
called Ataif.
And Ataif is high in the mountains.
If you're in Mecca, and you go south
toward Yemen, you look at the map, you
think you're going down, but you're actually going
up.
Because the closer you go to Yemen, is
the higher you are in the mountains.
And so he took Zayd ibn Harithah RA
with him, and they went to Ataif, and
they spoke with the people there, gave them
dawah.
But unfortunately, the Banu Taqif, refused the message.
They rejected the message.
And not only did they do that, but
they ordered the urchins of the town, to
attack the Prophet SAW, and they stoned him,
and they stoned Zayd terribly, till it is
reported that the blood even caked, went down
his leg, and caked into his sandals.
This is a serious thing.
And so the Prophet SAW, left the city,
traveling with Zayd, escaping this terrible torture.
And he came across some orchards, and was
surprised to find that, the owners of this
orchards, was Utbah and Shaybah ibn Rabiah.
And they are Quraysh, they're his relatives.
So they saw him in this state, and
they offered him grapes, and offered him water.
And their servant, Adas, who was a Christian
man, from Nineveh.
This is Iraq.
So he was an Iraqi Christian.
And he came to the Prophet SAW, and
gave him the grapes, and offered to him.
And the Prophet said, Bismillah, and he ate.
And Adas was a sensitive person, and he
basically said, why are you saying this?
So the Prophet asked him, where are you
from?
And he said, I am from Nineveh.
That's Iraq.
And so the Prophet, peace be upon him,
then said, Nineveh, that is the home of
one of my brothers, in prophethood, Yunus ibn
Metta.
This is the home of Yunus.
And when Adas heard this, he went down
on the ground, trying to kiss the feet
of the Prophet.
Peace and blessings be upon him.
And when his masters came, they said, what
is this that you're trying to do?
And he said, only a Prophet could have
said this.
This man is a special man.
Following this, the Prophet and Zayd, and it's
a long story, I'm condensing it.
They went toward Mecca.
Jibreel SAW came with the angel of the
mountains.
And if you know the terrain in Yemen,
it's mountainous.
And so the angel said, we will destroy
these people between two mountains.
But the Prophet SAW said no, because maybe
from amongst these people, there would be somebody
who would worship Allah.
And so they continued on.
And they returned into Mecca.
It was not easy.
But they found one of the Quraish, he
gave them a place where they could literally
hide.
And they moved amongst their relatives.
And it is at this time, when he's
at the lowest point, that Allah SWT opened
up the world to him.
And this takes us about 12 to 16
months before the actual hijrah.
And this is al-Isra, which is the
night journey.
And then al-Mi'raj, which is the
ascension.
And it is described as the ascension to
the heavens.
But it's important to understand that there is
a difference between jannah, like sometimes we'd say
he wants to go to heaven, meaning paradise.
But samawat, you have seven samawat, seven heavens.
So these are the different levels within Allah's
creation.
Jannah is in the seventh heaven.
So the heavens itself, as the scholars have
described, that the universe that we know, or
the galaxies we know, and the universe, they
are in the first heaven.
So this is where your stars and your
galaxies are.
But to go further now, you have to
go further into the atmosphere to go up
in the heavens.
And so it was that the Prophet SAW
was carried to this place.
Now this is a picture of the actual
grounds of the Masjid al-Aqsa.
And it's important to have an understanding of
this.
I don't have the time to go into
the details.
But I was fortunate to go with a
group from South Africa.
We went here and we went into all
the sections of that area there.
And generally speaking, people, when they talk about
this grounds, this is the wall going around
it.
Can you see my pointer?
So this is the wall.
Okay.
And this is the dome of the rock.
So people generally say that this is Masjid
al-Aqsa and this is the dome of
the rock.
That's a mistake.
This is really the Masjid al-Qibli.
This is where the Qibla is going towards.
But Masjid al-Aqsa is this whole area
here.
So that whole area is actually Masjid al
-Aqsa itself.
And you have on the wall, because when
the Prophet ﷺ reached this area, it did
not have the golden dome.
This Masjid here of Aqsa, the dome was
built in the Umayyad period.
After the death of the Prophet ﷺ by
Abdul Malik ibn Marwan.
And so, when the Prophet ﷺ reached this
area, it is described as Ard Fada.
It's an empty area.
There are some ruins of the walls that
were there.
But basically speaking, what the Muslims believe is
that this is Masjid al-Aqsa.
When you leave this and you go over
here to the side, and then you'll see
this wall here.
It is on that wall, this is where
he tied the Buraq.
So that is what is called Ha'it
Suleyman.
That is the wall of Suleyman ﷺ.
And this is where the Prophet ﷺ actually
tied the animal.
Now in the journey itself, because we have
al-Isra and al-Mi'raj, we have
to recognize the fact that this journey was
a physical journey.
And you'll get some discussions that scholars have
that the journey was actually spiritual.
It was a dream.
But the proof of that comes directly from
our sources itself.
When Allah ﷻ is telling us in Surah
al-Isra, right in the beginning, سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي
أَسْرَى بِأَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِنَ الْمَاشْتِرِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَاشْتِرِ
الْأَقْصَى أَلَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا إِنَّهُ
هُوَ السَّمِيلُ البَسِيرُ So in this chapter, it's
called Surah al-Isra, Allah says, Glory to
He who took His servant by night from
the Masjid al-Haram to the furthest mosque
whose surroundings we have blessed to show Him
our signs.
Indeed, He is all-hearing and all-seeing.
So the Arabic says, سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِأَبْدِهِ
So when you say, أَسْرَى بِي it literally
means, in Arabic, you take him on the
journey.
So this is not a dream.
It's clear in the Arabic that he was
taken on a physical journey.
And you will see that later with some
of the different issues that it was actually
a physical journey.
And so, the Prophet ﷺ then tied the
buraq and he prayed two rakats.
And when he turned and then recognized Allah
manifested and brought the Prophets to him.
And he prayed as Imam of all of
the Prophets.
And in some traditions it is said there
were over 124,000 Prophets and Messengers.
So this is an amazing thing.
Because these Prophets and Messengers, according to the
Quran, came to every nation and every tribe.
Not just the 25.
It's not just Semitic.
So there were Chinese Prophets, Indian Prophets, African
Prophets, European Prophets.
Remember, South American Prophets.
Every nation and every tribe.
وَلَقَدْ بَعَثْنَا فِى كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ رَسُولَ عَنِ أَبُودَ
اللَّهَ وَجْتَنِي وَالتَّغُوتِ Allah said, we have sent
to every nation a Messenger that they would
stay away from false gods.
They would worship Allah.
And so we prayed with the Prophets.
And Jibreel Alayhi Salaam offered Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam something to drink.
Two utensils, two cups.
One had wine and one had milk.
Choose.
And he chose the milk.
And Jibreel Alayhi Salaam told him that your
choice, you have saved your nation.
It's the fitrah you are on and you
have literally saved your people.
So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is not
only just the Imam of the Prophets, but
he is actually the Savior of the last
Ummah until the Day of Resurrection.
And so, from there, the Isra itself begins.
Now, when you go to the grounds of
Masjid al-Aqsa itself, I'll just go back
here again.
When you go inside the Dome of the
Rock, when people make Jummah, there's so many
people, it gets crowded all the way to
here.
Many times the sisters pray actually here and
the whole area can be filled for Jummah.
If you go inside of the Dome of
the Rock, and inshallah all of you will
get this opportunity, you will see an actual
rock itself.
So the place where he went in Mi
'raj, where the Ascension went from, is still
preserved inside of this particular area itself.
And from there, Angel Jibril alayhi salam then
took him up.
There are some discussions about a type of
stairway, but they're not really, that's not clear,
it's not a stairs like we know stairs.
But somehow he, with divine intervention, was able
to go up from this rock and he
reached into the first heaven.
So there in the first heaven, he met
with Adam alayhi salam.
And these are the different seven heavens and
the levels that they went to.
And he described Adam as a huge man.
And the description that comes about Adam is
that he is there and on the right,
there are souls on his right and there
are souls on his left.
And when he would look to the left,
he would cry.
When he looked to the right, he would
smile.
Because these are the souls of people on
the right will enter paradise.
And the souls on the left are those
who would enter into hellfire.
And Adam alayhi salam told him, Marhaban bin
Nabi al-Saleh.
Ibn al-Saleh said Marhaban to him.
Welcome.
And he welcomed him in.
In the second heaven, this is the second
level now.
These levels are not made according to the
ability of the Prophet or the rank.
It's not the rank of the Prophets.
Okay, and scholars have tried to understand what
is it about these particular Prophets?
Why they were chosen?
Because if you were just choosing by rank,
you have ulul azam and al-rusul that
included Nuh alayhi salam, Ibrahim, Musa, Isa, Muhammad.
These are the mighty Prophets.
Nuh is not in this.
But many of the scholars have deduced that
these Prophets, number one, they suffered tremendous hardships.
They were punished.
They felt pain.
And they had to migrate.
They were put under a test and they
had to migrate.
And if you look at the lives of
these particular Prophets, and we don't have the
time, you can see these elements.
The element of suffering, going through hardships, and
having to migrate.
Adam alayhi salam, you could imagine what he
went through, because he actually had to go
through a lot of changes.
He was tested by the Shaytan.
And he had to migrate.
His migration was from Jannah to Earth.
So that was a serious migration.
In the second heaven, there he met Prophet
Yahya, John the Baptist alayhi salam, Yahya, and
Prophet Isa alayhi salam.
And when he described Isa alayhi salam, he
described him as a person of a tannish
look, whose hair was, it had sort of
a wet look to it.
But he was a tannish person.
He was nothing like the Jesus Christ that
you see written, you know, on the Christian
churches, or in the movies.
And Yahya went through a lot of changes.
Finally he was beheaded.
And Isa alayhi salam, it's clear, they tried
to crucify him.
He went through tremendous changes.
Now one of the scholars made a very
interesting point.
After Adam itself, Isa is in the second
heaven.
And the second heaven, after the first one,
which that includes all the different solar systems,
that's the closest heaven to come back to
Earth.
Because Isa alayhi salam is alive.
You remember, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
raised up Isa, and so he will be
returning to Earth.
He is in a state of life to
return back to the Earth.
And so being in the second heaven puts
him in a position to easily be brought
down to Earth.
The third heaven brought him to Yusuf alayhi
salam.
And the Prophet ﷺ said the beauty of
Yusuf alayhi salam, it is like he has
half of the beauty of the Earth.
He was rejected by his people, his brothers
threw him in the well.
And so he was carried all the way
to Egypt.
So Yusuf alayhi salam, you can see that
same theme coming in his life.
Rejection, hardship, hijrah.
Rejection, hardship, hijrah.
And Yusuf alayhi salam, a mighty messenger of
Allah.
Idrees, in the fourth heaven, he meets Idrees.
And Idrees, and we don't have the time
to go into the details.
But Idrees alayhi salam went through a lot
of different changes and was wondering what time
it was, how much time he had left
on Earth.
And he was brought up to the fourth
heaven.
And as he was being brought up, raised
up, the Malik al-Mut, the angel of
death saw him.
And according to our traditions, he said, now
is your time.
So he died in the fourth heaven.
And he also went through the same changes
of rejection, hardship, and hijrah.
Harun alayhi salam, who went through tremendous changes,
rejected by his people.
He had to go down and see them
worshiping the calf.
And he had to make hijrah with Musa
alayhi salam.
In the sixth heaven, Musa alayhi salam.
And this, of course, is such an important
prophet.
He said, marhaban bin nabi salih wal akhir
salih, marhaban to you.
He welcomed the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
but he started crying.
And when the Prophet asked, why is he
crying?
He said, because Musa said, here is a
young man who will have an ummah greater
than mine.
The greatest of all of the ummahs.
In the last heaven, he met Ibrahim alayhi
salam, who, of course, rejection, hardship, hijrah was
his whole life.
So this is a theme.
These are chosen prophets to be brought out
to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him.
And then he went further to the highest
stage.
Now when he went to the highest stage,
and time is against me, this is a
long discussion.
But it was in the 7th heaven, above
the 7th heaven, that he reached Sidrat al
-Muntaha.
And this is the Lot tree.
It is the boundary, the final boundary.
And he also saw in this area, 7th
heaven, Bayt al-Ma'mur.
This is the Kaaba of the angels.
Now imagine how many angels there are.
70,000 angels go to the Bayt al
-Ma'mur and make tawaf and pray in the
Bayt al-Ma'mur daily, every day, and they
never return.
So multiply 70,000 times all the time
that humans have been in existence.
And we can begin even, we can't even
imagine how many angels there are.
So the next time you're afraid, don't think
it's the jinni that's around you.
Because there are angels too, right?
Angels are all over the place.
But they have haya, they have modesty.
And so, the Prophet ﷺ went further, Jibreel
stopped.
And he had a blessed meeting with Allah
ﷻ.
And they asked the Prophet, did you see
Allah?
And his answer was, there was a veil
of light.
There was a veil of light.
So no human being has seen Allah ﷻ.
And that is something that can be manifested
inshallah, in paradise, in the next life.
And so Allah ﷻ gave three gifts.
Three special gifts to the Prophet.
And these are blessings in this ummah.
Number one, the institution of five salats.
A way to communicate with the Creator.
It started actually with 50 salats.
Okay, the institution of 50 salats.
But when the Prophet ﷺ was returning, Musa
said, go back to your Lord.
They're not going to make 50 salats.
I know my people.
I know your people.
And he kept going back, according to some
scholars, five times at least, until it turned
into five.
And it was said, that you will pray
five times, but get the blessing of 50
salats.
The second gift was the final verses of
Surah al-Baqarah.
The last two verses of Surah al-Baqarah.
This is a special gift.
And it's good to review it and to
memorize it.
The third gift is that Muslims, it was
a promise that every Muslim will eventually live
in paradise.
This is a special promise.
And so once we have the Kalima, that's
why our Kalima is so important.
That every person, even if the Muslim was
disobedient, they will go to * fire for
a period of time.
But because of this Kalima, the promise is,
every Muslim will eventually enter paradise.
But that doesn't mean that we can do
what we want to do like we're a
chosen people.
Because a person might burn in * for
20,000 years.
To get purified.
Then, because of the Kalima, enter paradise.
So the Prophet ﷺ then returned to Mecca
and very anxious.
He was very anxious.
Abu Jahl found him in this state.
And when he told Abu Jahl, who was
the enemy of Allah, about his journey, Abu
Jahl exposed him.
And the people began to laugh, to make
jokes.
How could you possibly go from Mecca to
Jerusalem in one night and return?
They went to Abu Bakr and they said,
what do you think?
And Abu Bakr said, oh that's all?
He's receiving revelation from above seven heavens daily.
So I believe that and more.
And Abu Bakr got the name al-Siddiq.
And so in conclusion, there are some lessons
from the many different lessons that we have.
Number one, we should never forget the importance
of our beloved Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ.
Never forget who your leader is and how
important it is to be his followers.
Two, that Salat is a great blessing.
We make our five Salat, we will get
the blessing of 50 Salats.
It's a blessing from Allah Azza wa Jal.
Number three, this again is more proof of
the Prophethood.
That this is not only the last Prophet,
he is the Imam of the Prophets and
the greatest of the Prophets.
Next, the importance of Jerusalem.
Because remember the verse is saying, الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا
حَوْلَهُ That Allah blessed the surrounding territories around
Masjid al-Aqsa.
This is a blessed land and this is
the responsibility of all Muslims to protect this
area.
And we should understand this Isra and Mi
'raj because people say, well what do you
Muslims have to do with Jerusalem?
You have Mecca.
This is a key place in this earth
and you will see the history of Masjid
al-Aqsa and Bilad al-Sham and Syria
as going to the Day of Judgment.
This is gonna be one of the key
areas going to the Day of Resurrection.
And so, I leave you with these thoughts
and I pray that Allah subhana wa ta
'ala would accept us to be followers of
the last Messenger ﷺ.
Whenever you get a chance as much as
you can say your salawat because the Prophet
said مَنْ صَلَّى عَلَيَّ وَحْتَى صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ
بِهَا عَشَرًا If you say salawat on me
once then Allah will bless you and bring
it back to you ten times.
اللهم صلى على عبدك ورسولك محمد وعلى آله
وصحبه وبرك وسلم والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
جزاكم الله خير Shaykh Abdullah Inshallah afterwards if
you have any questions you can connect with
Shaykh Abdullah later.
But we wanted to have a special recitation
by our Qaris Salim and Ziyad Inshallah And
we wanted to finish before Salatul Isha.
We may have to delay Salatul Isha for
a few minutes.
After Salatul Isha we have some snacks Inshallah.
So I have pleasure in calling Salim to
the microphone.
Salim is one of the imams for the
daily prayers here at IIT and he'll also
be one of the imams for Salat At
-Tarawih in the month of Ramadan and now
I have pleasure in asking Ridwan, sorry not
Ridwan, Ziyad to recite for us inshallah I
seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the
Merciful By the
star when it sets Your companion has not
gone astray, nor has he gone astray And
he does not speak out of desire He
is but a revelation revealed He has been
taught by the strong in power In the
name of Allah, the
Beneficent, the Merciful By the star when it
sets Your companion has not gone astray, nor
has he gone astray Your companion has not
gone astray, nor has he gone astray And
he does not speak out of desire He
is but a revelation revealed He
has been taught by the strong in power
He is but a
revelation revealed And he is in the highest
horizon Then he turned and went
down And he was as low as a
two-storied tower Then he
revealed to his servant what he revealed But
the heart did not disbelieve what it saw
He certainly saw it sent down again Near
the
endowed orchard When the orchard was full of
what was full But
the heart did not disbelieve what it saw
So you will blame him for what he
sees He certainly saw it sent down again
Near the endowed orchard Near
it is the garden of abode When the
orchard was full of what was full The
sight has not gone astray, nor has he
gone astray He certainly saw of the signs
of his Lord the Great The
sight has not gone astray, nor has he
gone astray He certainly saw of the signs
of his Lord the Great Near the
endowed orchard Near it is the garden
of abode When the orchard was full of
what was full The sight has not gone
astray, nor has he gone astray The sight
has not gone astray, nor has he gone
astray He certainly saw of the signs of
his Lord the Great God
Almighty
has spoken the truth After
the prayer we will have some light refreshments
inshallah