Yasir Qadhi – Isra and MiRaj – When Did It Happen
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The conversation covers the history and importance of the Prophet sallahu alayhi, including the lack of actual events and publicity, the spread of rumors, and the importance of history as a means to prove the date. The speakers also discuss the use of "has" in writing and the potential for internal inconsistencies. They stress the importance of history as a means to prove the date and note that the event is a blessing for the Prophet and a way to extract Fawa'id.
AI: Summary ©
So we are now winding down the very
last days of the month of Rajab and
one of the Differences of opinion amongst the
ummah that we find predominant is the 27th
of Rajab and the issue of Isra wal
mi'raj taking place on the 27th and
Whether one should do some special, you know
Ibadat or dhikr or Siyam or coming together
and discussing The the incident of Isra wal
mi'raj or whether these types of issues
are to be avoided.
So that is one discussion I have spoken
about this in other lectures of mine today.
Actually I'm the type of person I like
to I'm very interested in the realities of
how things happened So I am interested in
where did the notion come that 27th of
Rajab is Isra wal mi'raj and how
authentic is this date?
And do we have other opinions as well?
Because the fact of the matter is that
the earliest books of seerah don't mention this
date So where did this date come from
and what is the more?
Probable or realistic date of Isra wal mi
'raj if it has other dates than this
one And so once we get to the
initial question, when did Isra happen?
Then we can get to the secondary question.
Should we do anything on that day?
That's actually a secondary question.
The initial question is wal mi'raj, which
is of course, I mean nobody denies Isra
wal mi'raj We all believe it happened.
Anybody who denies it denying the Quran.
Surah al-Isra itself mentions Subhanalladhi asra bi
abdihi, right?
And I recited surah an-Najm and in
surah an-Najm Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala mentions
that laqad ra'a min ayati rabbihil kubra.
He saw Allah's major Miracles and Allah mentions
fakana qaba qawsayni awadna and Allah mentions that
he went to sidrat al-muntaha So all
of this is explicit two places in the
Quran Allah references Isra and mi'raj or
to be more precise Isra is referenced in
surah al-Isra and mi'raj is referenced
in surah an-Najm, right?
So that's to be more precise.
So everybody agrees it happened The issue is
when did it happen?
So when you go back to the earliest
and the most authoritative book of the seerah,
which book is that?
Everybody should know please tell me Seerah ibn
Hisham, right?
And when did seerah ibn Hisham, what is
it based on?
Everybody should know this too Ibn Ishaq, when
did Ibn Ishaq die?
Because let's get let's get academic.
Let's get real scientific Let's find out who
is saying what when did Ibn Ishaq die?
What year?
I'll tell you 150.
So Ibn Hisham We don't have Ibn Ishaq's
book.
It was written too early.
We have Ibn Hisham's summary So Ibn Hisham,
even though he died 240, Ibn Hisham is
basically taking Ibn Ishaq who is 150 hijra
Okay, let's open up Ibn Ishaq Ibn Ishaq
Very strangely does not have any date of
Isra ul Mi'raj, not a single date
He actually usually has dates for incidents.
He's very good in this when it comes
to Isra ul Mi'raj He does not
have any date.
It just mentions the chapter of Isra ul
Mi'raj However, very interesting where he puts
this chapter indicates a rough idea He puts
this chapter before the deaths of Abu Talib
and Khadija radiallahu anha and This is not
in accordance with how many people later on
assume the Isra takes place after the death
of Abu Talib and Khadija.
In the seerah of Ibn Ishaq He places
Isra ul Mi'raj a few chapters before
The death of Abu Talib and Khadija and
then the beginnings of the discussion of hijra
that happens afterwards So Isra ul Mi'raj
according to this chronology Happened maybe four years
five years before the migration.
He doesn't have a date.
No month.
No day.
No year Okay.
Now recently in the last five years Amazingly,
we discovered not one not two will the
last ten years three Very early books of
seerah and these are now printed when I
did my long series of seerah These three
books had not been printed.
I didn't have access to them So literally
in the last few years three very early
books of seerah have been discovered each one
is only one manuscript edited and printed the
first of them is the Maghazi of Musa
Ibn Uqba who died 141 earlier than Ibn
Hisham We discovered a partial manuscript.
It is printed.
You can buy it in Arabic Maghazi of
Musa Ibn Uqba the second of them is
just as you know important the seerah of
Ma'mar Ibn Rashid who died 153 hijra and
the third of them is the seerah of
Suleiman Ibn Tarkhan who died 143 hijra So
three books all written Roughly hundred and forty
hundred fifty hijra Excellent you look up you
open you find lo and behold each one
of these three Does not even mention Isra
and Mi'raj and the reason being these
are all treatises They're not like big volumes,
right?
Each one is like, you know a book
of this nature even smaller some of them
and the goal was just to preserve a
Skeletal outline to mention some incidents and for
whatever reason all three of them They just
did not mention Isra and Mi'raj at
all.
So we don't have any new information from
these new discovered books However, when you look
at other early books of history You find
other dates.
So of the earliest books of Islamic history
is the book of Ibn Sa'ad Ibn
Sa'ad wrote a book called the generations
the chronological Generations is called tabaqat by tabaqat
He means the first generation of sahaba and
then the sons of the sahaba and then
the tabi'oon and then the taba tabi
'oon That's what he means by tabaqat right
tabaqa after tabaqa.
So he has kitab at tabaqat and this
book It begins with a seerah but the
most of the book is about later people
but it begins with an entire volume about
the seerah and He is 230 hijra so
Ibn Sa'ad in his tabaqat he mentions
Two opinions about when Isra and Mi'raj
took place the first of them He said
the 17th of Ramadan Not Rajab the 17th
of Ramadan 18 months before the hijrah So
a year and a half before the hijrah
the Ramadan before the hijrah Takes place is
when Isra and Mi'raj took place and
he then mentions and some have said and
he mentions who says this so both of
these opinions He mentions an earlier authority The
second opinion mentions is the 17th of Rabi
'ul Awwal one year before the hijrah Because
the hijrah takes place in Rabi'ul Awwal
Right, so one year before the hijrah and
the second opinion one and a half years
before the hijrah Neither of them mentions which
month Rajab no, there's no mention of Rajab.
So Ibn Sa'ad mentions Ramadan and Rabi
'ul Awwal a year and a half or
a year before the hijrah the first reference
I have found and again I have done
a partial research Obviously if somebody finds more
please benefit us because in the end of
the day research is never ending I might
have missed something out there.
The first reference I have found about the
the the month of Rajab but without any
number is from another source, which is not
considered to be the most reliable it is
a book of Tafsir and It is written
by a scholar who has negative reviews along
with some positives with mainly negative the reason
being this person was more known to be
a Storyteller than an academic pause here footnote
in early Islam and in our times the
the the concept has always remained you had
Categories of preachers you had preachers who were
very interested in authenticity in making sure what
they say is accurate correct referenced and then
you have preachers who want publicity and When
they want publicity what generates publicity Stories Drama,
I mean if I point out YouTube and
what happens there who has the most popularity
in YouTube Is it you and scholars or
is it other categories of people right and
the same goes?
So you have another category of people they
were called Storytellers or sauce.
They weren't the ulama like Abu Hanifa Bukhari.
Oh, no No, these were storytellers and our
person here.
His name is Muqatir Ibn Sulaiman He was
more known to be a storyteller than an
academic and in his book Which is a
Tafsir, it's not a book of seerah He
has that the Isra and Miraj took place
in the Rajab of the year before the
hijra The Rajab the he doesn't say 27
simply has in Rajab one year before the
hijra this is the earliest reference I have
found of the month of Rajab now None
of these by the way, he does not
mention any authority at least Ibn Sa'ad
mentioned people ahead of him Ibn Sa'ad
mentions authorities two generations before him.
None of these authorities ever mentioned is a
companion No companion authentically has given us a
date or a month or a year The
earliest we have is around 150 or 200
hijra scholars of those generations are presuming or
attempting to extract when did Isra and Miraj
occur and All of these reports suggest a
timeline of a year and a half to
a year before the hijra Now when I
gave my seerah lectures back in Memphis, that's
what I had followed Ibn Ishaq and I
just went on with it, but even when
I gave those lectures my mind had a
Cognitive dissonance there was a contradiction and I
didn't know what to do But I just
I said what can I do?
I just quote Ibn Ishaq and I moved
on there was a problem that I had
but I didn't verbalize it back then and
That problem is there is an internal inconsistency
with the time frame.
There is a massive internal contradiction and that
internal contradiction goes back to Surah and Najm
which I recited right now Now what is
the internal contradiction understand this point?
There are two references to Isra and Miraj
in the Quran We said this right Surah
Al-Isra and Surah Al-Najm correct both
of these surahs reference what happened Correct.
Look at Surah Najm, which we which we
recited right Allah azawajal literally says he reached
Sirdur Al-Muntaha Allah literally says Allah literally
says Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says He's not
telling a lie.
He speaks the truth.
He saw some major signs.
So Allah azawajal is Reinforcing the Prophet shallallahu
alaihi wasallam was blessed with Miraj.
He saw these things and he is speaking
the truth now This means Surah Al-Najm
is referencing Isra and Miraj When did was
Surah Al-Najm revealed We know from the
seerah.
We know from Sahih Bukhari's hadith from an
eyewitness Ibn Abbas is an eyewitness and others
are eyewitnesses and this hadith is in Bukhari
which is highest level the report goes that
When Allah reveals Surah Al-Najm the Prophet
shallallahu alaihi wasallam Recited the whole Surah like
I recited right now the whole Surah he
recited the whole Surah in Front of the
Quraish while he was in front of the
Kaaba.
This is an iconic Episode in the seerah.
In fact Ibn Mas'ud said this is
the first time The Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam
did Tilawa of a Surah in front of
all of the Quraish.
This is a historic Monumental incident in the
seerah where in the voice of the Prophet
shallallahu alaihi wasallam and all of the Sanadid
of Quraish means the VIPs of the Quraish
the leaders of the Quraish the nobility of
the Quraish all of the nobility of the
Quraish and Where is this in Mecca in
front of the Kaaba?
Can you imagine this scene subhanAllah what an
amazing scene to imagine and by the way
Surah Al-Najm is a Powerful Surah go
listen to any beautiful Qari go listen to
a Qari as the crescendo of the Surah
builds up as the as the ayaat build
up as the Momentum builds up and then
the very ending of it literally there's a
whole series of rhetorical question about describing Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala Challenging the people who reject
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and at the end
of the Surah Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says
what Fasjudu lillahi wa'budu said then you
had better do sajda to Allah and worship
Allah So hadith in Sahih Bukhari and the
Ibn Abbas is seeing this and others are
seeing this They say the eyewitnesses tell us
when the process and finished reciting the Surah
he immediately fell into sajda in front of
the Kaaba and Everybody was so moved They
all fell into sajda behind him Even the
kuffar of Quraysh Can you imagine the moment
and if you go read the Translation and
if you understand the power and the beauty
and the eloquence and the balaqa of this
Surah one of the most powerful Surahs in
the Quran Surah an-Najm, right?
And when he recited it, Allah says it's
a sajda.
We all have to do sajda I just
said right now.
He fell into sajda because he has to
do sajda All of the Quraysh fell into
sajda Ibn Abbas says except for one of
the elderly Evil people when he saw everybody
else he was arrogant He picked up some
pebbles and he put it to his head
and he goes this is enough for me
You guys do such that he may mocked
it basically So one person didn't but Abu
Jahl all of the Abu Lahab they all
did such that Abu Sufyan They all did
such that now what happened as a result
of this News spread and when news spreads
it becomes from this to this News spread
that the Quraysh have now accepted Islam and
Where did this news reach?
Habesha Abyssinia and Because of this rumor the
Muslims who had migrated to Abyssinia.
What did they do?
They came back now When so you understand
the chronology here, right you understand what's happening
Surah Najm is Has been revealed Surah Najm
References Israel Mirage the Quraysh do such that
after Surah Najm The rumor spreads all the
way to Habesha that oh the Quraysh are
all praying jama'a You know the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
They're all Muslims now and that Muslims of
Habesha are not there They're living a difficult
life financially Socio-economic, can you imagine going
to a foreign land and they don't speak
the language and the weather and the cuisine
and the people and they Are strangers and
everything.
So when this rumor reaches them, they're like
alhamdulillah Pack your bags.
Let's go back and We all know this
every book of Sira mentions this they came
back only to discover it was a rumor
However, it caused good in because what happened
was that the Muslims of Mecca heard?
Okay, the cuisine might be I'm making this
up.
The cuisine might be bland I'm making this
up the weather might be bad, but at
least we're not being killed.
So instead of 15 people 112 people migrated
to Abyssinia, right?
So Allah Azawajal has his way of doing
things that when those people came back everybody
heard Oh, we can worship freely halas.
Let's all go to Abyssinia, right now question
When did this incident happen because this incident
will demarcate what?
When Surah Najm comes down and Surah Najm
demarcates what?
It's on their art.
You guys following this, right?
Is everybody understanding this right?
We're being academic.
We're being very precise scientific we're trying to
understand when did this not happen and pretty
much almost all the early historians mentioned that
surah the Najm came down and I have
here exactly straight from Al-Waqidi who is
one of the earliest historians.
Al-Waqidi says وَكَانُوا قَدْ خَرَجُوا فِي رَجَبْ
سَنَةَ خَمْسٍ They left Mecca in the month
of Rajab meaning the Muslims left Mecca in
the month of Rajab فَأَقَامُوا In Habesha, they
stayed in Habesha, Sha'ban and Ramadan and
then in the month of Ramadan Surah Al
-Najm was recited in front of the Kaaba
and so they came back to Mecca in
the month of Sha'ban فِي سَنَةِ خَمْسٍ
مِنَ الدَّعْوَةِ Five, not hijrah, but five of
the preaching.
The fifth year of the preaching Here we
have explicit evidence And by the way, even
if Waqidi doesn't have an earlier authority, everything
fits from other understandings For sure the Muslims
of Abyssinia did not return one year before
the hijrah For sure the Muslims of Abyssinia
came somewhat middle of the da'wah, right?
so There seems to be an indication That
Isra and Mi'raj actually took place not
one year before the hijrah But around five
years into the Meccan da'wah Now this
Solves the problem, but is there any evidence
for it?
And this is where again after I gave
my seerah lectures, so I did a lot
more.
I'm always doing research There is no end
to research.
We're all minor students of knowledge Nobody should
ever say I have solved the problem You
always learn and study and I've been doing
research even on the seerah to this day
I do research as well And so I
came across some new things that I hadn't
had access to back then and of those
things is that one of the things that
we find is that there is a famous
scholar who was Andalusian yet he had access
to Knowledge in Andalusia had traveled around the
world and he died in Egypt.
His name is Ibn Sayyidun Nas now He
dies much later on 734 hijrah and he
writes a book of history now in that
book.
He references earlier books that we no longer
have and Unfortunately, he references a fact from
a book where he doesn't quote us the
long chain and we don't have that book
anymore What is the fact that is so
interesting He narrates that Ibn Shihab Az-Zuhri
pause here Who is Az-Zuhri?
Az-Zuhri is one of the most iconic
figures in early Islam One of the great
scholars of early Islam and he dies when?
One hundred and twenty-four hijrah Az-Zuhri
They even say he saw maybe some of
the younger sahaba like Anas and definitely he
studied with the major tabi'un Az-Zuhri
according to Ibn Sayyidun Nas says and listen
to this Kana al-Isra.
Isra took place in the fifth year of
the preaching of Islam Explicit from Az-Zuhri
now unfortunately the reference that Ibn Sayyidun Nas
uses we don't have that reference anymore because
we have a lot of early books that
are missing here, but We have an attribution
to Az-Zuhri that it was in the
fifth year and I also found another Qadina
or a supporting evidence and that is in
a very early book as well written by
one of the scholars of hadith His name
is Ibn Abi Shaybah.
He is like of the generation of the
teachers of Imam Al-Bukhari Ibn Abi Shaybah
has written many books of hadith.
He's written the Musannaf.
He dies 235 hijrah So he's the generation
before Bukhari and he has a book called
Kitab al-Maghazi book of Sira Right now
listen to this in this book Kitab al
-Maghazi which we have now I have it
now and we have it in print He
doesn't have a date of Isra al-Miraj,
but he places Isra al-Miraj even before
the conversion of Umar In his Sira, in
his Maghazi, he has the beginning of the
da'wa.
He has the persecution that the Quraysh did
He has one or two other chapters Then
he has the chapter of Isra al-Miraj
and then he moves on to like the
conversion of Umar and other stories and then
He moves on to the beginnings of the
hijrah and whatnot.
So in his book The Isra al-Miraj
incident takes place once again around fifth six
year because that's before the conversion of Umar
So we have another evidence that another early
scholar put Isra al-Miraj much earlier on
and I also have a another small very
small minor Qareena if you like any supporting
proof and again, all of this is listen
It's not a big deal.
If I'm right or wrong somebody says how
dare you have that so big deal It's
just a date about Isra al-Miraj I
mean can calm down and have different opinions
and I'm giving my evidence if you don't
like it No big deal, but these are
all minor evidences here or some of them
are pretty clear Zuhri is explicit One evidence
that again also not just troubled me it
troubled many ulama of the past and that's
why they had to form an Interesting opinion
and that the issue is what else happened
in Isra al-Miraj that affects all of
us to this day Salah Salah By unanimous
consensus the five daily salawat was solidified when?
Isra al-Miraj now this represents a small
ishqal What's that ishqal?
there are numerous references in the Meccan surahs
to salah and These surahs were revealed way
before one year before the hijrah and This
has led some people to surmise.
This is an opinion.
Nobody of the Sahaba told us It's just
they try to say that Oh before Isra
salah was obligatory, but generically we didn't know
how we didn't have time frame and After
Isra salah was obligated the way that we
now know Now, okay, that is an opinion.
But if we were to make Isra much
earlier and Make it basically because when did
the dawah start being preached publicly the third
year?
When did Islam start being preached publicly the
third year and That's when persecution began fourth
year.
The Muslims migrated fifth year to Abyssinia if
we were to say Two years after beginning
the preaching that is when Allah legislated salah
It would actually solve a lot of other
problems and even from another this is a
very weak evidence I know it's a very
weak evidence, but still It it just doesn't
make sense To me and to many other
people that the salah would be delayed so
long When we know it is so central
to Islam We know how important salah is.
We all know this It's a defining characteristic
of Iman and to claim that for ten
and a half years.
There was no salah It just it makes
a lot more sense to bring Isra back
According to all these other evidences and say
yes salah also was legislated in the fifth
year Everybody had to start praying then so
in reality To claim that Isra and Miraj
takes place now What is the other evidence?
so the other evidence like I already told
you Ibn Sa'ad has these reports and
others and there's there's a Psychological evidence that
is used that psychological others.
I also used it when I gave my
seerah lectures back in Memphis I said the
same thing and that is Isra and Miraj
took place when the processor most needed it
after three tragedies number one the death of
Abu Talib number two the death of Khadija
and number three Ta'if and So Isra
was a boost to his Psyche and Iman
and that's a nice Point, but first we
have to prove that it happened at that
time frame If it didn't happen at that
time frame, you cannot use this as an
evidence You get my point here if we
know it happened then we can say yes
These are three wisdoms, but we cannot use
it as an evidence to establish the date
You understand my point here, right?
So just because it sounds nice that it
happened at this time frame It doesn't mean
it actually happened at this time frame.
So the reality wallahu ta'ala alam and
again, this just an opinion It really makes
a lot more sense that Isra and Miraj
took place much earlier on in Fact in
the fifth year of the preaching of Islam
and the fact that some people say Khadija
was not mentioned Okay, she wasn't mentioned Isra
and Miraj.
It doesn't mean anything.
It doesn't mean she was there doesn't mean
she was not there It's just okay.
She was not mentioned There's many other incidents
of the early Islam where Khadija was alive
and she's not mentioned in that incident Her
being mentioned or not being mentioned is neither
here nor there.
It's not an evidence either way So in
reality if we were to take Isra and
Miraj in the fifth year of the dawah
of the preaching it actually solves this internal
Inconsistency about Surah an-Najm and it actually
makes sense from so many other perspectives and
we have two early authorities Az-Zuhri explicitly
and Ibn Abi Shaibah Very implicitly very clearly
saying it took place middle Makkah not late
Makkah and to conclude then inshallah ta'ala
Before I finish off I wanted to also
mention that One of the points of Isra
and Miraj the fact is that well the
date that it happened is not really that
important whether it Was this day or that
day?
But the main point of Isra and Miraj
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is being gifted
a personal blessing In the hadith in Sunan
At-Tirmidhi and others the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam would make dua to Allah Ya Allah
show me Jannah and Nahr show me what
you are telling me is true in the
Quran there's literally an Explicit narration like this
in our books of Sunnah and so one
night Jibreel came and said your Lord has
responded to your dua come with me And
so he took him to the journey of
Isra and Miraj which indicates Isra and Miraj
was a personal gift to the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam and Surah an-Najm proves this
point because Allah is Praising the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam for having been gifted what nobody
else has been gifted And he saw what
nobody saw and his eyes did not flutter
and he did not blink and he saw
it all and Allah Azza wa Jal blessed
him to go to Sidrat al-Muntaha all
of this shows the maqam of our Nabi
sallallahu alayhi wasallam that he went even where
Jibreel did not go and it makes much
more sense to me given all these Evidences
that Isra actually takes place when the persecution
begins and not when it's ending in Makkah
when he needed it Then when but for
the very first time the sahabah are being
killed some sahabah have been left Forced to
go to Abyssinia and clearly the situation is
getting very dire actually even psychologically It makes
sense at that point in time for Isra
to happen in the end of the day
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala knows best It's just
an academic opinion and the main point is
to benefit from the story itself and to
extract Fawa'id and this is just one
academic detail You