The Heavenly Journey

A few days ago, Muslims all over the world remembered the Prophet Muhammad's heavenly journey. Many spent the night in prayer and meditation, and it was an occasion to tell children the story based on the Prophet's biography and his own account.

It happened in the time of the worst persecution in Makkah. People were tortured and killed because they had turned away from the idols and towards the One God and moral responsibility. Especially slaves and poor people were suffering the most. There had been a boycot as an attempt to weaken the Muslims' determination. Two of the Prophet's strongest supporters had just died, his dear wife Khadija and his loyal uncle Abu Talib, and there were enemies who thought of killing him. It was a terrible time.

In one of those nights, the Prophet had a wonderful experience. He was taken from Makkah to Jerusalem, the home of the majority of all known prophetic personalities. At this stage of the journey, he met all earlier prophets and messengers at the place where the old sanctuary had been, and they prayed there together. Afterwards, Muhammad was taken through various spheres of heaven and shown the miracles of the spiritual world. Again he met the most important prophetic teachers like Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, each in his "home sphere". Beyond that, there was the indescribable encounter with the Creator of the Worlds.

Muslims generally enjoy one particular story of what happened on the way back. Among the things that the Prophet had been entrusted with was to prescribe fifty daily prayers for his community. On hearing that, Moses said to him, "They will not do that. Go back and ask for a reduction." Muhammad followed his advice and came back with forty, but Moses repeated what he had said before. There follows a humorous account of how Muhammad went back and forth between the sphere of Moses and the Highest Throne until the mumber was reduced to five. When Moses again said, "They will not do that. Go back and ask for a reduction," Muhammad replied, "Now I am too ashamed." This is how we ended up with five daily prayers.

I do not want to go into a lengthy traditional discussion of whether the Heavenly Journey was a physical or a spiritual experience, or if the Farthest Place of Worship, al-masjid al-aqsa, mentioned in the Qur'anic verse refers to the place of the al-Aqsa Mosque in the Prophet's account or, as some scholars have assumed, to the primordial sanctuary in heaven that is mirrored in all earthly places of worship. I rather want to focus on a remark that the Prophet made in this context:

"Prayer is the faithful person's heavenly journey."

The word salah for formal prayer literaly means "link", that is, between the human and the divine, similar to the Latin word religio. When used for the human side of it, it is usually translated as "ritual prayer" and when used for God it is often translated as "blessing". In fact it is not just a link between the individual and God but also has an important dimension of community and even humanity. This is expressed by facing the qiblah, the direction of prayer: we build up a connection with the "centre" or "origin" but also with our fellow human beings by making, as it were, a circle around the world for everyone to be part of it even when praying individually. In congregational prayer, of course, the communal aspect is further emphasized by standing closely together in straight lines and doing everything simultaneously.

Prayer is introduced by saying, "Allâhu akbar" (God is greater), the so-called takbīr al-ihrâm, a temporary renunciation of all that is not part of prayer. With this, we assume a kind of ihrâm, a state of dedication like the one we assume for the pilgrimage to Makkah. This is the start of a journey. For the elements of prayer, standing, bowing and prostrating, take us through various stages of life's pilgrimage. While standing, we become aware that we are standing in God's presence wherever we are. We listen to His words as we are reciting them from the Qur'an and become conscious of standing before His judgement seat. When we bow, we realize the responsibility that we are entrusted with as human beings. When we stand straight again with praises, we remember that glorifying God is what straightens us and keeps us upright in life. Prostration gives is a taste of how dependent and secure we are in God's hand from the time before we are born in this world until we return to Him. Finally we sit along with others who are God's guests on this pilgrimage. This is why we then share greetings with the truthful and sincere servants of God as well as the prophets including Muhammad. It is also the time to ask for blessings that transcend time and space. Coming "back to earth" at the end of this encounter, we give peace greetings to the beings around us, angels, human beings, animals and plants, sharing the peace we experienced through prayer and ready to work for it in life.

The Prophet's heavenly journey gave him the strength and confidence to persevere during those dark days of persecution and throughout emigration and the heavy task of building up the community in Madinah. It is through prayer that each of us is given a possibility to drink from that same source of strength and confidence every day before we again face the challenges that we encounter in our everyday lives.

Praise be to You, God. You are the Supporter of the heavens and the earth and of those who are in them.
Praise be to You. You are the Light of the heavens and the earth and of those who are in them.
Praise be to You. You are the King of the heavens and the earth and of those who are in them.
Praise be to You. You are true. Your promise is true. The encounter with You is true. Your words are true. The Garden is true. The Fire is true. The prophets are true. Muhammad is true. The hour of judgement is true.
God, it is to You that I surrender and in You I have faith and on You I rely and to You I return and with You I overcome and to You I turn for judgement. Therefore forgive me what I hasten and what I delay and what I conceal and what I reveal and that which you know better than I. You are the one who promotes and postpones. There is no god but You, and there is not god beside You.

The supplication was transmitted from the Prophet Muhammad.

(c) Halima Krausen, 2006