Transcription
Uh, before we begin, do the sisters want the lights on or off? How do you like it, on or off? Off, off. Okay. Some people prefer it on. Okay, inshallah.
Inshallah. So, last week, we had discussed in a lot of detail the incident of T. The incident of T, and we have mentioned, uh, many of the wisdoms, uh, the blessings, the hidden wisdoms that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala conferred upon the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And it is because of these incidents, the death of Khadijah and the death of Abu Talib and the incident of T, that the entire year was called, or the Year of Sorrow.
Now, as we have said many times before, and the Imams gave a few weeks ago as well, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised that He's never going to test or try us except that there will always be ease along with and also after that trial. Right? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has told us that those who are patient will taste the fruits of their patience. And therefore, after the lowest downs, if you like, in the life of the Prophet, the most traumatic incidents in the life of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, it was only natural that the Prophet would then be gifted by one of the all-time highs. And in some ways, uh, and in some ways, this is the all-time high. In some ways, because of course, there are many multiple victories of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
So after all of these personal losses and griefs and encounters, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed him with one of the greatest miracles. In fact, some scholars have said this is the greatest miracle that the Prophet has been given personally, not the miracle to his ummah, his personal miracle. And that is the incident of Al-Isra, the incident of Al-Isra. And this incident, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has referenced it twice in the Quran. Once He has referenced the Isra, and in another verse, He has referenced the Mi'raj.
So what is the Isra and what is the Mi'raj? The word Isra means to travel at night. This is the linguistic meaning of the word Isra, to travel at night. And therefore, Al-Isra means the travel that occurred at night. There's a specific travel that occurred at night. And of course, in Islamic terminology, or in Sirah terminology, Al-Isra means the night journey that the Prophet undertook from Makkah to Jerusalem. This is Al-Isra. Actually, means the, uh, if you like, item or the mechanism of rising up high, which is the, for those who understand Al-Isra, the instrument that you use to rise up. Okay. Okay. There is a mechanism of rising up. This mechanism, call it a lift, call it an elevator, right? Call it some type of spiritual, uh, creation of Allah that causes a person to ascend up. This apparatus is called, from which means to rise up. From which means to rise up. So Al-Isra, that which causes you to rise up. So Al-Isra is the actual apparatus, but we refer to it as the actual ascension, not the apparatus, but what the Prophet did, and that is to rise up to the heavens. And so Al-Isra is from Makkah to Jerusalem. Al-Mi'raj is from Jerusalem to the heavens. So Isra is one journey that is on Earth. This is a journey that happened on this Earth. Al-Mi'raj is a journey that has nothing to do with this world because it is an ascension, it is going up to the heavens. And this journey, as we said, is referenced both the Isra and the Mi'raj. And two separate Surahs reference them.
As for the, uh, Isra, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed an entire Surah, and the Surah is called Al-Isra. And the Surah begins by the famous phrase, "Subhanallahi." Allah is saying that He is worthy of being praised. Subhan. Subhan means exalted. Subhan means free of imperfection. Subhan means He has no evil, no defect. This is what Subhan means. So we say, "Subhanallahi," all glory be to the One. Why should glory be to Him? What is the reason why glory is to Him? Because He blessed His servant with the miraculous journey. In other words, Allah is saying that He is worthy of being praised because of this journey. He is worthy of being venerated because of this journey. He is worthy of being, because of this journey. That's how important, how miraculous, how grand the journey is that Allah is being praised because of it. "Subhanalladhi asra bi abdhihi." The One who took His servant. And here, uh, the word "abd" is the highest praise that Allah has given to our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Because when Allah says in the Quran, "I have created Jinn and mankind for no other reason except to worship Me," right? This is why I have created Jinn and mankind. So when our Prophet is being called, "abd," here means is the perfect worshipper. From, the perfect worshipper. So no one has perfected the worship of Allah, or the purpose of creation, like our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And therefore, as scholars say, that Allah generally calls our Prophet not by his name, but by his title to show his honor and rank. Because when you call somebody by name, of course, that's okay. But when you call somebody by title, that is even more, that is even more honorable, right? To call somebody by title. That's why even in, even in America, when we meet somebody, you know, "Mr. President," or "Mr. Senator," right? Or meet Ambassador, "Your Excellency." We don't mention names because there is a title that is given. Much less in Arab and Muslim lands. We have plenty of royalty there, you know. So we have plenty of sheikhs and princes and whatnot. So we refer to them. And this is the culture of, of mankind. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala refers to our Prophet sometimes by name, sometimes rarely, right? Generally, in the, Muhammad, twice Allah says this in the Quran. But more often than his name, Allah refers to him by his title, and that is Abdullah. It's not a name. Abdullah is not a proper noun. It is an adjective. It's a description that our Prophet wasallam is the one who has perfected the worship of Allah. Meaning, the Prophet, when the Prophet stood up, Allah praises Himself because He has done something for, to the Prophet. "All praise be to Allah who has sent the book to His servant." "All praise be to Allah," or "May Allah be exalted," because He has taken His servant in one night from the Masjid al-Haram to the Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. This journey, Allah is saying, "We have blessed the land around it." In this verse, Allah tells us why. Why? What's the wisdom? Allah says, "So that We may show him of Our wondrous signs." Singular. The entire journey of Isra was meant for sallallahu alaihi wasallam. The entire journey of Isra was meant for him. And that's why for us, we simply have to believe. We didn't experience it. We don't, we haven't seen it happen, right? We simply have to believe that it happened. Who was it for? It was for him.
And so this is the Isra. As for the Mi'raj, where does Allah reference the Mi'raj? Not, I was thinking somebody would say it's not referenced over there. Allah references the Mi'raj. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the, uh, the chest is not lying, the heart is not lying when it narrates what he saw. You are not saying, telling a lie. Are you going to doubt what he saw? "And indeed, he saw him for a second time." We'll talk about this. What is this reference here? "He saw him at the Sidrat al-Muntaha." What is Sidrat al-Muntaha? We'll get to that. "The eyes did not go beyond their mark. They didn't blink. They didn't become scared." I.e., the Prophet gazed with bravery. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam took in all of these sights that he saw. "He saw of the miraculous signs of his Lord." Notice, you see the parallel, right? And the exact same phrases, or roughly the same, right? "So that We can show him of Our magnificent signs." And in Surah An-Najm, Allah says, "And indeed, he saw of his Lord's magnificent signs." Both Surahs mention Isra and Mi'raj with one reason, and that is to show our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam the magnificent signs of Allah. And therefore, the entire journey of Isra and Mi'raj was a personal gift to sallallahu alaihi wasallam. It's a personal gift. This is yours for you. We just hear about it. We're not even, we're just, we're not even witnesses, right? We're just hearing about it as a blessing to sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And the timing here is perfect because we already said Allah never tries a person, and that person is patient, except that Allah rewards him. Allah never tests a person, and that person passes the test, except that he faces the, uh, fruits of that test immediately.
Now, the journey of Isra and Mi'raj is a little bit problematic from an academic perspective for many reasons. Realize, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, that the journey of Isra and Mi'raj has been narrated by the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in numerous Hadith. It has been reported by over 20 Sahabah alone. There are six companions who narrated portions of it. And in fact, now listen to this interesting fact here. If you were to compile all of the Hadith about the Makkan era, except for Isra and Mi'raj, and put it in a volume, and you were to compile all of the Hadith about Isra and Mi'raj, you will find more Hadith about Isra and Mi'raj than you will find about the entire Makkan era minus Isra and Mi'raj. In other words, there are so many narrations. Now, we will say, Alhamdulillah, great. Well, this leads us to some issues. First and foremost, this story has been taken up by storytellers in the earliest of times, and storytellers were known to be exaggerators and fabricators. They were called, in Arabic, *qussas*. They would just tell stories. And therefore, this journey of Isra and Mi'raj actually has been narrated in many obscure books, not the authentic books, with such vivid details and imagery, uh, that actually is not even true. It's not even true. So that's one problem that we have, that the academic scholar has to sift through all of these things.
Now, for those of you who are not aware, in early Islam, a phenomenon began. Before Islam, or before academic Islam flourished and became solidified, a phenomenon began of people, uh, preaching to the masses based on ignorance. Just, uh, they would go mosque to mosque. And, you know, stories are always the most enlightening of things to hear. Everybody loves to hear stories. And so these people made a whole profession of telling stories. Some of these stories were stories they heard from friends and peers of the local times and places. Some of these stories were stories of the prophets of old, complete fabrications. Some of these stories involved our Prophet. These were unscrupulous people who just wanted to, and after they told the stories, people would give them money. You know, just like in our times as well, we have people, they do things, and then they just get given money. So they would give them money. So the storytelling became very popular, especially in the second and third generation of Islam. And then the scholars of Islam rose up, and they preached against this, and they said that, uh, these types of things need to be stopped. So much so that a number of Imams banned the storytellers. They said, "This is not allowed anymore in the masjids." But during this interim, certain stories became very popular, and they entered into this literature. And therefore, the most popular story was the Prophet going up to the heavens, and all of these weird things happening that have no basis to them. So that's the first problem.
The second problem. Okay, even if we go through and find out which is authentic, which is not, and alhamdulillah, many people have done this, and I myself have spent a lot of time going over these. Once we even do that, we have another problem, which is even bigger. Because to sift through authentic and inauthentic, this is an exact science. We know exactly. We go through the chains, we figure out authentic, inauthentic. Once we get all of the authentic, what's the problem? We have pieces of a large puzzle, and there's nothing, or very little, to link these pieces together in a proper chronological order. You guys see the point here? The Prophet might have said, "I saw this. This happened." Said this to me. Phrases, right? Imagine, for example, you attended a whole day, uh, conference, or you saw whatever football match, whatever soccer match, basketball, whatever. When you come back, you're going to be talking about that for the next few days, maybe, right? And you'll be giving snippets to various people, right? The problem comes, how do you know if you were to compile all of these snippets, how do you know the actual order of the original, uh, thing that you saw? It's very difficult. And therefore, in one sense, it is, in fact, really, to be honest, it is impossible to absolutely verify the full chronological order of exactly what happened when. And in fact, and this is, uh, human nature, as the Sahabah reported. Again, let me give you an example that suppose one of you, even this lecture that I'm giving now, even this lecture I'm giving now, suppose one of you went back and tomorrow summarized it for somebody who wasn't here. You would maybe mention five, ten things, but you might not remember exactly which order I said it in. And you would narrate with your own wording. So the same thing has happened with the journey of Isra and Mi'raj. That all of these 20 Sahabah who narrated it, all of these 20 Sahabah, even if they're authentic, the ones that are authentic are 20. All of these 20 Sahabah, around 20 Sahabah, they're mentioning things. Sometimes those things contradict what another Sahabi said. For example, in order of detail. For example, in one version, Jibril comes to the Prophet while he is in the Masjid of Makkah, and he hands him the two vessels of milk and of wine, and he chooses between the two. In another version, Jibril hands him these two when he's taking them up to the heavens, and he's in the heavens, right? What does one do here? Because they're both authentic, and obviously one of the narrators kind of sort of mixed things up. Then how do we know? Some scholars said it happened twice. Others said, well, you know, we just have to figure out which one of the two is more authentic. So you see, this is another job that, uh, the scholars will always be engaged in. And therefore, I have to give this, uh, little bit of an introduction before I jump into, to illustrate to you some of the problems that we face in talking about the Isra and Mi'raj, and also to point out that, uh, even not just for this, uh, lesson that you're learning from me, but from any lesson that sometimes what I say might be a little bit different than what you'll find in some of the, you know, generic textbooks, right? Because there is, there are some differences within the Hadith and some details and some variants. So I want you to know this before we move on.
In fact, not to confuse you too much, because I try not to make the class too advanced in academics, but you should be, you should know that some scholars, because there are so many narrations of Isra and Mi'raj and so many different details, some scholars, very famous, including for example, Imam Shafi'i, felt this way that perhaps there were multiple Isra and Mi'raj. Perhaps it happened more than once. Why were they forced to say this? Because they're getting reports that they cannot reconcile. So Imam An-Nawawi, for example, in one fatwa that he has, you know, perhaps the Prophet, you know, had two, two Isra and Mi'raj, maybe. Right? Now, you know, for some of you, you've never heard this type of stuff before, but it actually was a very common opinion. Many famous scholars of the past, they actually felt there's multiple Isra and Mi'raj because why? Because there's so many narrations and they cannot reconcile them. However, in my humble opinion, and this is the majority opinion, this is the opinion all of you are aware of, it's only one Isra and Mi'raj because Allah clearly says, "Subhanalladhi," what's the next word? "Asra." It happened at one night, right? It happened at one night. Therefore, it's pretty clear that there's one Isra and Mi'raj. And if there are any discrepancies, we try to reconcile them. And that's what we have, inshallah, done. Because Isra and Mi'raj is so long, we're not going to finish today. We're going to take, uh, at least two, if not three, just to go over all of the Isra and Mi'raj weeks. So let us, inshallah, begin.
First question: When did it occur? When did the Isra and Mi'raj occur? We find in, uh, early, in early literature from the Tabi'in, that they're trying to put some dates on the Isra and Mi'raj, but we don't have any narration from a, any companion. So some of the early scholars said, "Isra and Mi'raj happened one year before the Hijrah." And this is the opinion of pretty much most of the early commentators and the early writers of the Sirah, including Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham. As we know, Ibn Ishaq is the number one authority. Other scholars said it happened a year and a half. Others said two. Others even said five years before the Hijrah. However, there's one very important clue that we can at least eliminate some of the more extreme opinions. And that clue is telling us something about Khadijah. Said about Khadijah, that Khadijah died before the Salah became Fard. What has that got to do with anything? So what if she died before Salah became Fard? Because Salah became Fard at Isra and Mi'raj. Okay? So the fact that Khadijah died before Salah became Fard clearly shows that Isra and Mi'raj happened basically in the last year and a half of Makkah, right? So we can eliminate all the other opinions. They say two years, five years, seven years, clearly incorrect. Because we have clearly authentically saying Khadijah died before Salah became Fard. Therefore, the Isra and Mi'raj occurred after Khadijah's death. And obviously, Khadijah's death and Abu Talib's death and the boycott were literally one after the other. So it makes complete sense, therefore, and this is the, uh, majority opinion, that Isra and Mi'raj occurred after these three incidents and before the Hijrah. And that's basically our timing when we're doing the Sirah class. I finished, uh, the Year of Sorrow, and now we move on to the incident of Isra and Mi'raj.
As for the month that the Isra and Mi'raj took place in, there are no opinions narrated from the early scholars of Islam. All the opinions began after the first 200 years. And this clearly shows, therefore, that we don't know which month it happened in. You know, some, some of these early scholars said, some said, some said. As you all know, the famous month in Muslim culture and lore is Rajab. Some said Ramadan, some said Sha'ban. These are the five opinions I found. I found five opinions about various early scholars. None of them have any authentic basis from the Sahabah. And therefore, the fact of the matter is, we don't know which month it occurred in. We don't know which month it occurred in. So automatically, anybody who celebrates a day and says, "This is the day of Isra and Mi'raj," when we don't even know the month, forget the actual day it occurred, this is simply, uh, an unknown, uh, time when it occurred in. And you know what? And the fact of the matter is, the fact that the Sahabah didn't preserve the date shows that they didn't care what day it occurred. What's important is the incident. See, the Muslims don't commemorate specific days of the year, uh, uh, when something happens on it. This is not of our culture. Allah gave us these two days of Eid. Remember those two days? The rest of this, the Sahabah did not record what exact date it happened on because they realized it's not important. What's important are the details of the story. So the first question, when did it happen? Probably the strongest position, around a year before the Hijrah. That's all we know. Around a year before.
Second question: Where did it happen from? And here is where we get the first difference of opinion, because we have a number of different reports, all of them authentic. Two of them are in Bukhari itself. The first report says that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says that, "While I was sleeping in Al-Hijr." What is Al-Hijr? It is the semicircular region that is outside of the Ka'bah. Right? This is Al-Hijr. Al-Hijr used to be a part of the Ka'bah in the time of Ibrahim. And then the Quraysh, when they rebuilt the Ka'bah, I explained when I showed you that chart many months ago, they didn't have funds to build a full Ka'bah. So they said, "Let's build a half Ka'bah. When we get money, we'll build the full Ka'bah." Right? So they built a square Ka'bah rather than a rectangular one, as the original Ka'bah is rectangular. And ever since then, basically, uh, the, the Ka'bah has remained a square. And it was the wisdom of Allah that Al-Hijr remain open for everybody, because praying in Al-Hijr is basically praying inside the Ka'bah. Praying in Al-Hijr is praying inside the Ka'bah. And this is the wisdom of Allah that He let Al-Hijr open. So in this version, and this is the most authentic version, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that, "When I was in Al-Hijr, lying down, Jibril came to me." So this is the most authentic version. There is another version, uh, that says that the Prophet says that, "When I was in my house, I saw the roof open up and Jibril come to me." And then there are other versions that are not as authentic. Hisham says this shows that he was in his house, and Jibril first took him to Al-Hijr. And this makes sense, because why would he be sleeping in the open in Al-Hijr when he has a house in Makkah, right? So we see that not every contradiction is at face value, a full contradiction. In fact, it makes a good point that he was sleeping in his house, and Jibril came to him, and the first thing that he took him to was the Ka'bah to pray two rak'ahs over there, and then from there, Jibril then took him somewhere else. Okay? So this is how you reconcile sometimes, to take both of them at face value. The Prophet, in one story, he begins from Al-Hijr. In the other one, he begins from his house. And there's no contradiction, because from his house, he was taken to Al-Hijr.
And he says that in Al-Hijr, or in his house, "He opened up my chest, and He brought a bowl made out of gold that was full of." In one version, it says Zamzam. In another version, it says full of Iman. And again, there is no contradiction, because whatever is in that, it is going to give him Iman, and it was also Zamzam then. So again, there's no contradiction here. Full of Iman, or full of Zamzam. And He took out my heart, washed it, and put it back. And this was the second time, as we all know, that this happened. So the Prophet's heart was taken out twice. Once when he was four or five years old. But that time, there was a detail that is not mentioned here. What is that detail? Who remembers? Very good. A black spot was taken out. Right? Now, when this is happening, there is no black spot to take out. Obviously, because it's already been taken out, right? So there is no black spot. Then what is the purpose of washing the heart when it's already been washed, and it's already the black spot has been taken out? The purpose is to strengthen the Prophet for what he's about to see. Because he's about to see, he's about to see things. As Ibn Mas'ud says, that if another man were to have seen even a fraction of what the Prophet saw, he would have gone mad. He just saw a fraction of all of these wondrous, amazing things. He's entering a different world. He's entering, he's entering another dimension, if you like. If another man were to have done this, he would have gone crazy. Our Prophet, Allah says, "The eyes took everything in firmly." And so to fortify him, to strengthen his Iman, the Prophet's heart was washed. And that's why in one version, he says the bowl was filled with Iman. And another version, he says it was, it was filled with, uh, Zamzam.
Then he says, "Then Jibril brought me a Dabbah." Dabbah is a beast. It's an animal. It is smaller than a mule and larger than a donkey. So he's describing it with precision. So it's not as big as a horse. A horse is much bigger, right? It's smaller than a mule, bigger than a donkey. Pure white, and it was called Al-Buraq. And Al-Buraq, of course, comes from the root of lightning. Right? So it's lightning, lightning speed, right? This is the root of lightning. And the Prophet explained that, "It puts its hoof where the eye can see." Every hoof of this Buraq, it puts it as far as the eye can see. Now, uh, here's where some legends began. The, the image of Buraq with wings has not been narrated. Right? This Hadith clearly says that Buraq is a physical creature. It's not a mythical, it's not a spiritual. It is a Dabbah, flesh and blood, right? It's something that Allah created, that is a creature. And this creature, it can run much faster than a normal horse. So fast, it jumps as far as the eye can see. Now, can you imagine? We see, you know, sometimes eight, nine, ten miles in the distance. Every foot is like ten miles. Let's say the other foot is another ten. So within a millisecond, twenty miles, right? Within a minute, how much are you doing? So if every second you're going like twenty, thirty miles a second, imagine this is something way faster than anything that we know. But this is a physical creature. According to another report in Tirmidhi, the Prophet said, "It had a muzzle on it." You know what you put on the, the harness? It had a harness on it, and it had a saddle. So this is a physical creature. And so the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, Jibril was holding on to the, the, the harness, and the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam stepped onto Al-Buraq. He basically mounted Al-Buraq. What does an animal do that is mounted by a strange person? Jumps up. It neighs, right? So Buraq tried to do that, and Jibril basically smacked him. Jibril yanked the harness and he said, "Woe to you! Are you not ashamed? How dare you do this?" Right? So Jibril is rebuking Buraq. "How dare you do this? For no one has ridden you more blessed in the eyes of Allah than your current rider. No one has ridden you that is more blessed in the eyes of Allah than your current rider." What does that show, by the way? That Buraq has been ridden by other, whoever, whatever, we don't know, right? But Buraq has been ridden by other creations, other, Allah knows what they are, maybe they were not even humans, Allah knows, right? But this shows, by the way, this clearly shows that Buraq is a physical creature, right? Because it's acting like creatures act. It's acting like animals act. And when, when it became agitated, Jibril is rebuking. So Buraq understands. Buraq knows what's going on, but it's still an animal. So Jibril is rebuking him, "How dare you do this? You know, you're, this is the most noble rider that you have ever." And this also shows, it's just a glimpse that Allah has created things beyond our knowledge. You know, Allah says in the Quran that Allah has created that which you have no knowledge of. Last week, we talked about even the Jinn have beasts and creatures, remember we talked about this Hadith? Even the Jinn have Jinn animals, right? This is of the creation that is amongst us, we have no knowledge of them. So how about of the other world? Or how about even like Buraq, which is a physical creature that lives in the other world, and it's only brought down for these types of times and occasions, or maybe this was the only time it was brought in this world. We'll never know. This is a Dabbah.
So Buraq comes, and the Prophet sallallahu alaihi, uh, mounts him. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that, "I rode him, and he took me until we came to Masjid al-Aqsa." Until we came to Masjid al-Aqsa. Now, here we have to pause here. It's very interesting to note that at this time, there is no sanctuary at Masjid al-Aqsa. There is no structure at, there is no mosque, temple, or synagogue. Do you know why? Because the Christians wanted to make a point to the Jews that they have no respect for their, uh, heritage. Remember, Rome is a Christian country, Empire now, right? And they control Jerusalem. But, uh, the Christians historically were usually very anti-Semitic. They were always, there was this thing that they had, and this is historically well-known, that they've always had this type of thing. And so, uh, the Roman Emperor had basically decreed that this holy site of the Holy Temple should be converted into a trash, you know, gutter, like this sewer, basically. It was a filthy area. Okay. What this shows is, is that when the Prophet came here, he is seeing the Masjid al-Aqsa as it was, right? So Allah basically brought about the probably the original structure, or something, whatever it was, that he is praying there. Because as it is, it is a trash dump. This is not the, uh, the Dome of the Rock. That obviously, when the Prophet is coming there, there is no Dome of the Rock, right? There is no Masjid. All of this is, of course, later on.
So the Prophet said, "I came to Masjid al-Aqsa, and what clearly proves that there is a structure here that mankind cannot see is that he says, 'And I tied Al-Buraq to the animal post that is used by the prophets.'" Subhanallah. Buraq has to be tied up because if you don't tie him up, he's going to run away, okay? So Buraq has to be tied up. Not only that, but he ties up Buraq to the post that is used by the other prophets, which means what? The other prophets that used to pray there, right? They had a post that they would use to tie their animals to. From this, I joke, having an Imam parking is not anything that's wrong, that it's permissible to have Imam parking outside of the Masjid, because here we have the prophets coming to a special place, right? Outside the Masjid. Of course, that's a joke. Don't take it to heart. That's for horses. So we make Qiyas for our times, to cars, okay? We make Qiyas for our times. That's just, of course, a joke. But, uh, the point is interesting that the prophets had a special place to park their animals that they would put their animals, because that's what the Prophet said. So I tied it to the post that was used by the previous prophets. And this, by the way, again, clearly shows that he is seeing a structure that is not seen by men at this time, because obviously the post that Prophet Sulayman used is not going to be present, you know, for 3,000 years later, obviously, right? So Allah is basically showing him the original, and he is physically there, and this is Allah's capability, and this is beyond our understanding.
And then he says, "And I went inside and I prayed two rak'ahs." I prayed two rak'ahs. And of course, this is before Salah was legislated. So this shows us that the concept of, of when you enter the Masjid, you should pray, this is even before the Prophet was legislated it in Madinah, because that's when he legislated it. But he himself was practicing things in Makkah. This is before Salah is Fard, but he's still praying, and he's praying when he enters the Masjid. Now, here's where we get another minor, uh, narration difference. According to one narration, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam prayed two rak'ahs, and when he turned around, he saw all of the prophets lying behind him. So the impression we get from this narration, he didn't know that there were prophets behind him, okay? From the other narration that we have, the Prophet actually says that, "I saw myself with the other prophets, and there was Musa praying, and he was a strong and tall and strong and muscular man of a brownish color, as if he is a man from the tribe of Shanu'ah." We don't know what the people of the tribe of Shanu'ah look like in our times, but for the people who the Prophet is speaking to, he is saying, "Musa is like the people from the tribe of Shanu'ah." And I standing and praying. So there's one place Musa standing, another place Isa is standing. And the one who looks most like him is, once again, we don't know what Isa looks like, but for the Sahabah, there's a resemblance going on. He's trying to show them that, uh, this is what he looks like. Uh, in another version, the Prophet said, "He was, uh, whitish in color." Of course, the Arabic is "ahmar," as I said before, the Arabs called white people "red," just like the American Indians call white people pale-faced, right? So the Arabs would call red or yellow. They would call the, the white people either red or yellow, because that's how they perceived that type of whiteness as being reddish or yellow. So he said he was a, basically a Caucasian-looking or whitish-looking, and his hair glistened with water, as if he had come out of a steam bath. So his complexion is, uh, uh, it's, it's basically, you can imagine this. I don't know how else to describe it, but the hair is coming, it's glistening, uh, and he is a rather short man compared to Musa. So Isa is not as tall as Musa. And then he said, "And I saw," notice, "standing and praying. Musa standing and praying. Ibrahim is standing and praying." Right? As he enters the Masjid, all of them are standing and praying. And the one who resembles him the most is, "your own companion," meaning himself. Right? In another Hadith, he said, uh, "that I could not see anybody more closely resembling to Ibrahim than myself, and I could not see anybody more closely resembling myself to Ibrahim." In other words, Ibrahim and our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam were almost mere images of each other in their physical appearance. And then it came the time to, so I was put the Imam of them. So this version has it that he knew exactly what's going on. And this is again, one of those things that, well, it's difficult. I mean, how do you reconcile this? Allah knows best. Did he know? Did he not know? There's two versions. But the, the main point is, he is leading the, uh, and the prophets behind him. And what is interesting, uh, what is interesting is that all of the prophets he's seeing are already standing and praying. And this shows us the importance of Salah, that even after death, at least for Ibrahim and Musa, as for Isa, he's still alive, right? But even after death, the prophets are praying. And in fact, our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that, "When I was going to the heavens, I passed by the grave of Musa." So this means he passed by his grave, and then Allah took him to Masjid al-Aqsa, to, uh, Jerusalem, right? And then Allah took him to the sixth heaven. So he met Musa three times. So he said, "I passed by Musa in his grave. What was he doing then?" He gets to, now Musa doesn't need Buraq. Musa is already in the spirit form. Musa does not need Buraq to get to. So Musa was there. What's he doing? Standing and praying. Isa, he only saw him there for the first time. What's Isa doing? Standing and praying. Ibrahim, what's he doing? Standing and praying. This is enough of an indication of the blessings of Salah, that the Prophet is seeing all of these, even after death, they are standing and praying. Uh, it also, uh, shows, and of course, this is clearly understood, the fact that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam becomes the Imam of all, all of the prophets behind him, of all of the, and clearly shows that he is being given an honor that is unparalleled and unequaled. That not only is he, right, he is the Imam of all of the prophets. Not only this, but by extension, since every Prophet is the leader of his ummah, and the Prophet is leading the prophets who lead all the individual ummah, our Prophet Muhammad is the leader of every single ummah. I.e., as he himself said, he is the, the Sayyid, here means the leader, the master. He is the Sayyid of all of the children of Adam on the Day of Judgment. And then he said, "I'm not saying this to boast, to be arrogant. This is just a fact." And this incident clearly proves this, that by leading the prophets in prayer, and every Prophet is the leader of his ummah, so the leader of all of the ummah, therefore, is our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Another point here that the scholars have commented on is that because these prophets are obviously in a different, like they're in their spiritual form or whatnot, so there's no space barrier as it is anyway. They're actually all standing in one row. So there is no behind him. There's one long row that we can basically extrapolate is 120,000 and 317 or something people long, because we know there's 120,000 prophets. Remember a lecture long back, we spent a whole hour talking about prophets and messengers, remember that one long ago? And then we said that there's 120,000 prophets and 315 or so messengers. So in this Hadith, we learn the prophets are standing behind him. This means there's a row that is 120,000 and something people long, and they're all in the same Saf. And this proves another point, and that is in one version, in one Ayah, excuse me, that all the prophets are the same in one sense, and then in another sense, right? Some prophets we have preferred over others. So the Quran says, "No difference." And then the Quran says, "Yes, we have preferred some over others." How do we reconcile? We, they are all the same. They're praying the same prayer. They're praying to the same Lord, doing the same Ruku, and their message is the same. But amongst themselves, some are better than others. And our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is the best of all of them.
Then he says, "After he finished," as I said, this is one of those differences. In this version, Jibril comes to him right now and presents two, two utensils. In another version, Jibril does this when they ascend up to the heavens. Minor difference. It doesn't really matter that much. Uh, so what are these two utensils and what are they? What is inside of them? One of them has Khamr, and the other one has Laban. Right? So there's wine and there is milk. Now, remember, up until this time, wine has not been made Haram. Wine is still Halal. The Muslims of Makkah are drinking wine. Wine has been made Halal at this point. There is no prohibition. So Jibril hands him these two, and Jibril says, "Choose, and choose for your ummah." In other words, this choice will affect, will affect not just you, but will affect your ummah. So, so the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam chose the milk. And Jibril says, "You have chosen the Fitrah. You have chosen the right one." And that is the milk. And this is a huge symbolism here that again, I have to summarize, but I've spoken about this in my theological lectures in more detail. The difference between wine and milk is very profound, and it's very symbolic. Milk comes pure from the animal, as Allah says, "From between the filth and the blood, Allah says, We bring forth pure, wholesome milk for those who drink it." And in a Hadith, it says that, "Nothing substitutes for both food and drink other than milk." Nothing substitutes for both food and drink other than milk. So milk is a blessed delicacy that Allah mentions in the Quran, that the Prophet praised, that he is reported to have drunk many times. He used to drink milk. He used to love, uh, camel's milk and sheep's milk. Milk is pure, and it comes straight from the animal, and it is wholesome and healthy, and it is nourishing and nutritious. As you all know, we are instructed to drink, you know, at least a glass or two every day. Kids, even more than this, right? What is wine? Wine is corrupted, fermented, filthy. Wine is something that was pure, and then bacteria literally bacteria have infested it, right? And corrupted it. Wine stinks, literally it stinks, right? You smell it, and you feel disgusted. What is this? How can you, you know, alhamdulillah, I mean, it's not a praise. I have never drunk wine. I have never tasted alcohol. But I remember clearly the first time when I was a teenager, I passed by a group of, you know, young people partying with wine and whatnot, and I had, first time I smelt it, and wow, I thought that somebody had urinated on the street. Wow, I thought somebody had urinated on this tree. What is, what is this? My friend said, "Don't you know this smell?" "What is this?" He said, "This is, this is beer. This is what wine smells like. Alcohol smells like." It's disgusting just to smell it. It's disgusting, right? And then what does it do when you drink it? Is it wholesome? Is it pure like milk? Is it nourishing? No, it makes you lose your mind. It corrupts you. It makes you think strange and act strange and act foolish. And, um, one of the Sahabah said that, "Wow, even if wine had not been prohibited, any intelligent man would have avoided it." One of the Sahabah said that, "Even if wine had not been prohibited, any man with proper intelligence will understand how foolish it is." When you drink wine, you act like this, right? So compare and contrast. What is milk? What is wine? The Prophet chose that which is pure, comes from the pure, and sustains you purely, versus the wine that is corrupt, that is corrupted, and that corrupts the body, right? So the Prophet automatically chose the pure. And Jibril said, "This is for your ummah." I.e., your ummah will also be pure, and your ummah will be upon the Fitrah. And our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, "Look, Jibril called milk the Fitrah." And our Prophet said, "Every child is born upon the Fitrah." It's pure, it's wholesome, and it is a good child. It's a child that is good in it. The innate instinct of man is good and not evil. So the Prophet chose the milk, and that is when, uh, the, the, the Jibril came to him.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says, "The doors of the heavens opened up for me." This is the Mi'raj. Okay? So from Jerusalem, this is the Mi'raj. The doors opened up for me. So notice, the Dabbah, or Buraq, is still tied at the post, okay? So the journey is very simple. From Makkah to Masjid al-Aqsa, from Masjid al-Aqsa up to the heavens, then he's going to come back down, and then use Buraq to get back to Makkah, okay? So this is the journey of Isra and Mi'raj. So he says, "Jibril asked permission for the doors of the heavens to open." And the gatekeeper behind the door asked, "Who is it?" So Jibril says, "It is Jibril." And the gatekeeper said, "Do you have anybody with you?" Jibril said, "Yes, I have with me Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam." The gatekeeper says, "Has he been sent for? Does he have permission to pass?" Jibril says, "Yes." So then the doors open up. So this shows that there are doors that are locked, because Jibril cannot go through. There are doors that are locked. There's a special type of lock. It shows that every door has a doorkeeper, a gatekeeper. And it shows that the gatekeeper is not allowed to let anybody pass unless they have permission. And because these are angels, and angels cannot lie, what is the permission? You don't need a paper, you don't need a visa, you don't need a stamp. The angel simply says, "Allah has told me to do this." They don't lie, right? So the angel has to verify who is there, who is with you, does he have permission? That's all. And if the person says yes, or the Jibril says yes, permission is given. So for every single one of the seven heavens, the same story happens. They get to the second heaven, and it's closed. Jibril asks permission. The gatekeeper says, "Who is there?" Jibril says, "It's Jibril." He says, "Is anybody with you?" The same conversation. Every single one of the seven heavens.
Okay, now let's pause here. We need to explain what are these seven heavens. This is one of the biggest confusions that people have, that they confuse Samawat with Tabqat. They confuse Samawat with Tabqat. And these are two separate words and two separate concepts. Allah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that He is the One. Allah has created seven Samawat, one on top of the other. Samawat means in layers, means in layers, right? This is layer upon layer. And so Allah says, "And Allah has created a similar number of earths." That's a separate topic. We don't want to go into that tangent right now. It's confusing enough as it is. So there are seven Samawat. Samawat are physical heavens above us. And in my humble opinion, I think I've said this before, uh, uh, in this class, in my humble opinion, uh, everything that we see around us, the furthest star, hundreds of billions of light years away, all of the millions and billions of galaxies that we know, everything is the lowest heaven, i.e., Heaven number one, right? At the, or you can say, as the Quran refers to it, the lowest of the heavens. Beyond this, there is a sixth, beyond that, there is a fifth, beyond that, there is a fourth. And why do I say this? Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, "We have beautified the lowest heaven." And we know the lowest heaven is the first, because even in this report, it says, even in this report in Bukhari, the Prophet says, "Jibril took me until we finished to the first heaven." And then he asked permission for the door to open. So what is it?
Allah says in the Quran, "We have beautified the with its lamps and its lights," meaning, meaning what? The stars. So all the stars that we see. And if you study even the most basic astronomy, your mind begins to just lose track of how big this space is, right? If you study even the most basic lengths and distances and light-years, and the furthest galaxy is literally billions of light-years away, which means that it doesn't even exist anymore. What we're seeing was what it was, you know, billions of years ago. The mind just boggles. Every telescope mankind keeps on inventing, it keeps on looking further into the universe. We still have not discovered just what the physical eyes, with the telescopes, can see. You guys understand this? That this is unbelievable how large, your mind cannot comprehend how large this created universe is. We have no idea. We have no clue because everything we keep on creating. When we did the Hubble, the Hubble telescope is still sending us information we cannot digest. And every time we'll create a bigger one, I am sure that that bigger one will not be able to see, uh, you know, except to a distance, right? And all of this, just the lowest heaven. What is beyond that? We, we'll never really going to find out in this world. And in the next life, we wouldn't care about it anyway.
Okay, so that's of the creation of Allah subhana wa tala. So what are the samaat? Physical places, one of which is our universe, our everything that we know, our cause. Most beyond this, there are second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. Now, what are the janat? The janat are the heavens that are promised as the reward for the believers. This is different than jannah. Where are the janat? It appears there's two interpretations here. One of them says that the jat are in the seventh s, all of them. So the jat are hundreds and thousands of layers as well, right? And where do they occupy their place? The seventh heaven, right? So the seventh s is where all the jat are. This is one interpretation. Another, uh, interpretation, which is very similar, is that the jat began in the sixth, but then they work their way to the seventh. And there's evidences for both. And, you know, to be honest, this is, we're just trying to, trying to find bits and pieces here and there. But the bottom line is, the jat are at the top of the s, right? The jat are at the top of the s. And this is what we get from the Hadith.
Now, what happens? The prophet goes to the first door. The first door opens, and there is a man standing. The prophet described as being tall, huge. And Jibril says, "This is your father Adam. So say Salam to him." So the prophet said Salam, and Adam responded and said, "Welcome, oh Noble son, and oh, uh, Noble Prophet. Welcome, oh righteous son, and oh righteous Prophet." Then we went to the second heaven. And then the same conversation. This is a very long Hadith. It is in Bukhari. And this is the, uh, this Hadith only describes who's at each heaven and what happens at each heaven. So this paragraph of Jibril's conversation with the gatekeeper, multiply that by seven. That's you understand what's happening here. In the second heaven, there is, i.e., their two mothers were sisters, right? So Maryam and her sister, their two children are Yahya and Isa, or Isa and Yahya. And, uh, the prophet wasallam was told, "This is Yahya and Isa. Say Salam to them." And so I said Salam to them, and they said, "Welcome, oh Noble brother, and oh Noble Prophet." Adam said, "Oh Noble son, and oh Noble Prophet." They are saying, "Oh Noble brother, and oh Noble Prophet."
Then the third heaven. And in the third heaven was Yusuf. And the same thing, "Welcome, oh Noble brother, and oh Noble Prophet." And here is where the prophet said the famous phrase, "I saw Yusuf, and lo and behold, it was as if he had been given half of all beauty." Right? So this is where that famous phrase comes from. That in fact, this is the only time he saw Yusuf. And he goes, "I saw Yusuf, it was as if he had been given half of all beauty." Then I went up to the fourth Heaven. And the fourth was Idris. And Idris also says, "Welcome, oh Noble, uh, oh Noble brother, and oh Noble Prophet." Then I go up to the fifth heaven. And there is Harun. And the same, "Welcome, oh Noble brother, Noble Prophet." I go up to the sixth heaven. And there is Musa. And he described Musa as well as being stout, tall, muscular, and brownish color. Uh, and he goes again, the one narration says, "As if he's from the tribe of Shanu." And if anybody knows what somebody from the tribe of Shanu looks like, I would like to know. I don't know. Is there something still known? Or is it now, uh, gone from our times?
Then I went up. Musa began to cry. This has a story that the others don't have. Musa began to cry. So he was asked, "Why are you crying?" So Musa says, "I am crying because this young man who was sent after me shall have a larger following that will enter Jannah than my own." Um, I am basically jealous that this man, who is a young man. Musa called the prophet. Now, the prophet is how old now? 52, 51, 52, right? Musa is calling him. Some of you should be happy. And why is he being called gulam by Musa? Because Musa died when he was 130 or something years old, okay? So compared to Musa, this is a man half my age, right? And so Musa says, "This is a, right? It's a young boy, basically, right?" So he's allowed to describe the prophet in this manner because his own age is more than double that of the prophet when he passed away, okay? So he cries and he says that he's basically, uh, jealous in an Islamic manner, as we'll talk about, because this is a, a positive thing that you're jealous for more Hasana. He's not jealous against the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, but it's good to be jealous for more rewards, right? You should be jealous for the, of the Quran, the of the Quran, the, the generous, you know, rich man, you know, the Hadith, right? This is a positive jealousy. So this is what Musa is, that this is a positive jealousy. I wish I was like this, right? It's not a negative, "Why did he get it?" It's the positive that we're all supposed to, uh, have.
And then the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, after the seventh heaven. Notice, by the way, each one of these welcoming committees, welcoming parties, is after he enters the heaven, right? So he enters the first heaven, there is Adam waiting for him. Then he enters the second heaven, and then there is, there is Yahya and Isa. And then the third is Yusuf. So I wish I should memorize this, by the way. This is a quiz question. You should memorize the order from now on. So let's start again. The first is Adam. The second, Yahya and Isa. And the third, Yusuf. The fourth, Idris. The fifth, Harun. The sixth, Musa. Excellent. And then the seventh, we all know. And then he said that I went up to the seventh heaven. The same question back and forth with Jibril. And then I saw Ibrahim. And he was sitting with his back leaning on the. We're getting there. He was sitting on his back leaning on. And Jibril said to me, "This is your father Ibrahim. Alaihi Salam. Say Salam to him." And so the prophet said Salam to him. And Ibrahim responded the exact same way that Adam had responded. Notice the beginning and the end. The same response, right? The only two who said this, right, are Adam and Ibrahim. Because everybody else, they said, "Welcome, oh Noble brother," but, uh, Adam and Ibrahim were the only two who said, "Welcome, oh Noble son." They're proud of their son, Subhan Allah, right? This is natural. They're proud of their son. "Welcome, oh Noble son, and oh Noble Prophet."
Now, uh, so inshallah, today, what we'll do is we'll finish up with the wisdom of these ordering. And then we'll have to stop inshallah, because there is, appears to be some wisdom in this ordering. Why these prophets in this order? Realize that this order, common to popular misconception, this order has nothing to do with blessings of the prophets. No, this is not the case. Some people say that Adam was the lowest, and then no, that's not the case. That's not, does not seem to be the case. Um, and what appears to be is that these are basically, as I already referenced, some scholars have said, these are basically welcoming committees, welcoming parties that Allah subhana wa tala sent some of the noblest prophets and some of the most famous prophets to simply greet the prophet as he comes in. And Subhan Allah, this is a custom that we still have. You know, when a noble person comes, when the president or dignitary comes, the president comes out to meet him, or the dignitary comes out to meet him. This is the Sunnah of Allah, even in the creation. And so when our Prophet is coming up, he is basically being given the royal carpet welcome that every single heaven, every single s, there's going to be a welcoming party or a welcoming prophet to greet him and to then help him to move on to the next, uh, stage. And in each of these, uh, seven choices, there seems to be some, uh, some wisdom and some hidden reference. And each one of them, we can derive that. For example, Adam, it is befitting that he is the first to greet him because he is the father, not just of all the prophets, but the father of all of mankind. And by seeing Adam, what you remember is that he was a man whom Allah subhana wa tala chose with Jannah, but he had to leave Jannah, but eventually he shall be returning to Jannah. And there is a symbolism of leaving your security and comfort and leaving. If he left the holiest place in the next life, the prophet has to leave the holiest place in this world, and that is Mecca. But eventually he will return to that holiest place, just like our father Adam will eventually return to his holiest place, if, if Allah will. That Adam had to leave the holiest in the, in that world, our Prophet, just the next year, is going to have to leave the holiest of this world, and that is Mecca, because we know Mecca is the holiest city. So he will have to be expelled from Mecca like his father Adam was expelled from from Jannah. And the people who did it, Iblis did it there, and the evil people are doing it now, Abu Lahab and these others are doing it now. Okay? So there is that symbolism there. Seeing, uh, Isa and Yahya. Isa and Yahya are the perfect second candidate, second Jannah. Why? Because they are chronologically the closest to the prophet in time. In time, no prophets came after Isa and Yahya until the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So they are the closest contemporaries. They are the peers in terms of chronological order. And there's also a symbolism here that the Yahood, their own people, tried to kill the both of them. And, and they succeeded in killing Yahya, you know, John the Baptist. They actually cut his head off. Can you believe their own prophet? This is not, I'm not saying this. This is in the New Testament. I'm not the one saying this. This is in their own books, right? That they killed him. And what can I say? This is that's how Allah describes him. So they killed him. And this is John the Baptist, Yahya. They tried to kill Jesus. We all know the story, right? They even tried to kill. There's a clear symbolism here. You're not the only one who has been opposed. You're not the only one who people have rejected you, right? And if that doesn't bring the point home, let's move up to the third heaven. Yusuf. Who tried to harm him? His own blood brothers. His own blood brothers tried to harm him. But what happens? And here's the symbolism. His own blood brothers reaccept him back, and they accept his faith, and they repent, and they are guided. And therefore, there is a symbolism that your own people will return to your faith. Your own blood relatives who have expelled you shall come back. And Subhan Allah, what did our Prophet say? Or who did he quote when he conquered Mecca? Who did he quote when he's standing on the? Who did he quote when the people of Quraysh said, "What are you going to do? What am I going to do with you?" Right? And they said, "You are right." The brothers of Yusuf say the same thing that, you know, "We, oh brother, we wronged you. You know, you're our brother. We wronged you. Do something." So the, the Quraysh said this to the prophet. And what does the prophet respond? He responds by quoting Yusuf, just as he saw Yusuf. "Now, right? There is no sin on you today. Allah will forgive you."
Moving up to the fourth Heaven. The only thing we know about Idris is what Allah says in the Quran, and that's all we need to know. "We have raised him to a high place." That's the only thing we know about him. And so the prophet is meeting someone whom Allah has described as in a high place. And by the way, he's in the fourth Heaven out of seven. That's a high place, right? And so our Prophet is being told, "We have raised your own rank as well, right?" Harun and Musa both have similar reasons. Uh, and in that Harun, uh, was despised by his people and then accepted. And Musa is the one prophet that has the most similar experiences to our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And he has the second largest, uh, after our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So his experience is unrivaled amongst the prophets. And when the prophet met Musa, Musa had a lot more experience than him because the prophet is still in the middle of his Dawah. Plus Musa has six decades, seven decades more than the prophet. And so Musa is being shown as some type of role model. And how many times did our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam say, and this is an authentic Hadith, that when something happened that harmed him, that irritated him, he said, "Indeed, Musa was hurt more than I was, and he was still patient." He kept on reminding himself of Musa, right? "Indeed, Musa was harmed more than I was by his own people, and he kept his cool, he kept his, uh, patience."
And of course, in the highest Heaven, uh, and remember, these are heavens and not Jannah. So don't think that Adam is in the first Jannah and then, no, these are not Jannah. All the prophets are in the highest of Jannah, right? So this is the common confusion that Adam is in the lowest Jannah. No, he's not in the lowest Jannah. He's in the lowest s. And the two are not the same. As we said, they have been taken from their places and they have been brought to the s to be welcoming parties for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, right? Now, they're not in Jannah because Jannah has not been occupied since Adam has left it, right? Jannah is not occupied until after the Day of Judgment. So wherever the prophets are, and they are, as our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, in their graves, standing and praying, because he saw Ibrahim in his grave standing and praying. The only exception to all of this is of course, because Allah says that, uh, sorry, that "I will raise you up to myself." So the only one who is physically, uh, had to come down to meet the prophet was Isa, right? And this is a symbolism that he will come down again, because that's the whole point of him coming down towards the end of time. That he's come down once to meet the prophet, and then he will come down again to meet his ummah at the end of times. And that's what's going to happen.
So by, by, uh, showing Ibrahim, of course, the prophet is being shown his own ancestor, uh, and the highest of all the prophets, because Musa was indeed very high, but he was, and is, the one whom you speak to. Ibrahim was higher because he was, and our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and Khaleel means close friend, confidant. And our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, "Allah has only taken me and Ibrahim as a Khaleel." The only people that Ibrahim, that Allah has taken as a Khaleel, is basically Ibrahim and myself. There's only two people that have reached that status, that title of Khaleel, and that is Ibrahim and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And the fact that Ibrahim is sitting with his back on is of course completely, uh, appropriate. What is Allah subhana wa tala mentions? It's in the Quran. Literally means the frequented house. Means the frequented house. And we only have basically one Hadith about that is authentic with different versions, but one Hadith, that's all we have. No other information about it. And if you hear anything else, then trust me, it is fabricated or weak. The only information we have about it is that the Prophet said, "It is a house, similar to the Kaaba in one version. It is the Kaaba of the heavens. Just like there's a Kaaba on Earth. In another version, it is above the Kaaba on Earth, such that if it were to fall, it would fall on the Kaaba on this Earth." So it is above the Kaaba of this Earth. And every single day, since Allah has created the creation, so way before the Kaaba was here, every single day, 70,000 angels enter to basically do Tawaf and pray. And those 70,000 never return. And every single day, this happens. Do the math. After 10 days, you get 7 million. After, so you do the math. And after a while, your brain starts spinning. Every day, 70,000 angels who have never come before, and they're never going to come again. Since the beginning of time up until now. And Ibrahim is there because he is the one who built the Kaaba on Earth. So he deserves to be associated with the Kaaba in the heavens. And we know the reward will be in accordance with what you have done, right? What you sacrificed, what you did, Allah will reward you in the same category as what you did. And so when Ibrahim built the Kaaba on Earth, he was rewarded by being associated with the Kaaba in the heavens. And that's why the prophet saw him with his back to resting and relaxing over there. And if the angels are not allowed, are not allowed to come back, Ibrahim is over there, Subhan Allah. He has a higher status, right? If the angels can only come once, Ibrahim Alaihi Salam is peaceful and content and relaxed that he is in the.
Our time is up. We said probably another three lessons, maybe at the rate we're going, Subhan Allah. Maybe three, or maybe we'll see if we can do it in two, uh, of Hadith. And as we said, this is, we have a lot of incidents and a lot of Hadith. And inshallah, we'll continue, uh, next week. Uh, before I open the floor for Q&A, some announcements. Uh, firstly, what's the announcements? Firstly, the program this weekend. I hope that inshallah, all of you are as excited as, as I am about this program. We're having, uh, somebody who's a specialist in child, uh, psychiatry. Someone who, uh, was the head child psychologist at the UT Medical Center in Houston, very prestigious position. He was there for many years, and now he's dedicated more of his time to the Muslim ummah. He's a licensed, uh, uh, counselor, a licensed medical practitioner. And, uh, we will be doing, uh, a program that deals with, uh, dealing with teenagers, basically. And therefore, on Saturday, starting at 10:30. What time? 10:30. Uh, Saturday at 10:30. Uh, this will be for, uh, a session just for the teenagers. And by teenagers, we basically mean 11 and, and 12 and up. So, 11 and 12. And if you feel that your son who's maybe 10 is mature enough, then that's fine. But do realize that these are going to be topics that you understand teenagers face with. So, you know your son better, and you know your daughter better. There will be very frank talk. And you understand what this frank talk is. You know, it's not going to be that explicit, but at the same time, uh, it's going to be some very explicit questions are going to be asked. And anonymous surveys are going to be done because we want to hear from them what are their problems. You know, they can't come to us. They're too scared to come to us directly. Let them come to us indirectly. Then let them fill out the forms, you know, anonymously. And there's going to be surveys, there's going to be open Q&A, there's going to be, uh, just chilling out time. Of course, there's going to be lunch included as well. So, uh, you know, have your kids dropped by 10:30. No adults allowed. This is a private, you know, for the, for the teenagers, basically. And, you know, Dr. Shah is going to be here. He's our guest, and he'll be, uh, he has plenty of experience, especially with Muslim teenagers. So he'll be here, uh, up until what's the end timing? 10:30 to 3:30. 10:30 to 3:30. And there will be lunch and some chilling out time. It's not just going to be all lectures and stuff. Some games and activities. So 10:30 to 3:30. Saturday night at 6:30, there's a, uh, lecture for the converts, but it's open for everybody. But it's going to be geared towards the converts about, uh, marriage, uh, in Islam. And basically, some of the issues they need to know, the Fiqh of getting married, for example, some basic stuff for them. And inshallah, Dr. Shah will also be our guest, but I will be the main speaker. But he has a lot of experience, by the way, in marriage and in in youth. He has a lot of experience. But we wanted to emphasize one, we're doing a marriage thing with another speaker in two months, as you know. So that's on Saturday. Two events on Saturday. On Sunday, 10:30 to 3:30, will be the same session, but for the adults. For the adults. No teenagers allowed. And especially if your teenager came on Saturday, you really need to come on Sunday because we will share with you the results of our surveys. Your own teenagers have filled out forms, of course, we don't know who is what, they're not going to be with names, but the, the comments that they have said, the concerns that they have expressed, we will hear them. And you will hear perhaps your own child speaking to you indirectly. And if it's not your child, it's the child of your brother or sister in this Masjid, right? So this is something you need to be very familiar with. Do not think this is only a children's event. If you are a parent, you need to send your child. And you just show up yourself. If your children are too young, then you just show up yourself. You know, to learn about teenagers. If you've already gone through the teenage years, I don't know, it's up to you if you want to come or not. I don't know what to say. Okay, I'm sure some of you have gone through the teenage years and you've already, your kids are already, Masha'Allah, adults. It's up to you if you want to come or not. I'm not, uh, you know, saying anything. Or maybe we can benefit from your wisdom. How about this, right? We'll benefit from your experience because believe me, I need to know. And I think many of us need to know. We need to benefit from your wisdom and experience. So this is going to be Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 to 3:30. However, we need to cater. We need to make sure the chairs are set up. We have to have appropriate lunch. So please register. The registration forms are with Brother H. Are you going to hand them out? Just, uh, just, uh, register for it so that we know how many people will be coming, inshallah. Uh, and if you want to take a form for somebody, or you can do it online, if you know somebody who has not registered, do tell them to show up, inshallah. We'll try to accommodate, but lunch, we need to know how many people are coming. So, uh, do try to do that, inshallah.
With that, we have just two, three minutes for questions. And we break for Salah, inshallah. So questions for this. Uh, so Dr. Nadim says, "Can we derive from the Hadith of Isra, the benefits of organic milk versus hormonally changed milk?" It's a very valid question. Let me just say though, that we cannot compare organic milk versus with those modified to, to alcohol, right? So it's a bit of a stretch to compare there. Uh, you know, there is a movement now in America, it's very small, but there's a movement to drink fresh, unpasteurized milk. And I was actually very surprised when I heard this. But when I went to Houston this last summer, I was told that there's a place that the farmers, they come in the morning to sell the milk that they extracted one day ago, just literally, and it's unpasteurized to get the full. Now, I have never, uh, drunk that milk, but those who have have told me it tastes completely different than pasteurized. And then this hormonally modified, and I have no doubt personally that that is the case. Now, I have, I mean, I don't know what to tell you other than it makes sense. But to derive this from the kind of sort of, uh, Basan, a drink of it is the drink of F. But there's nothing that goes against boiling it for pasteurization. I was, as the drugs are being introduced, I have no doubt that if you try to genetically modify something, you're messing with the perfection of Allah. I have no doubt about that. So I mean, this is in the Quran, you know, that Shaitan will try to cause you to change the creation of Allah. So we, we can derive this directly from the Quran, to be honest.
Statement might be used by. We do not know any other authentic Hadith about Burak or who wrote him or his description. What we know is exactly what I have said: smaller than a mule, larger than a donkey, white, and its hoof goes where the eye can see. That's all that we know. That and there's a tether and there's a saddle. We don't know any other details about who has ridden Burak. But it is not surprising, wasting a that by the United States conference. I mean, you know, the source of that particular series used a book that is simply full of stories. And I, I am a little bit more academically inclined. I just don't just quote these. That the book that he quoted.
Okay, sister in the back, was a hand raised. Not going to be. Yes, I made a mistake. I, I said there's going to be a sisters' program two weeks ago, but I forgot that we had invited Dr. Arshad. So the sisters' Halqa will be, inshallah, sometime in, uh, you know, March, inshallah, we'll announce it. Sorry, sorry, February, not that. Sometime in February, inshallah, we'll announce it. So there's not going to be sisters' program on Sunday. Yes.
So going back to the, uh, the milk and the wine issue. Just like pork, why wasn't alcohol prohibited for earlier ummah? There's, there's no explicit reason given in our texts. But it is possible, some scholars have derived this, that because our Shariah was the perfect and the perfection of the Shariah of all Shariah, because Allah clearly says in the Quran that "We have given you this Quran that is that is going to supersede all other previous scriptures and Shariah," and Allah subhana wa tala says, of course, that "This is the religion that will be manifest over all other." So because of this, Allah gave us a Shariah that is the most perfect. And he might have allowed imperfections in other Shariah, maybe because the people were not qualified or they didn't deserve those perfections. And sometimes it was intentionally made difficult as a punishment for them, as what happened with the Bani Israel. And sometimes it was maybe because they were not, they didn't have enough Iman to live up to it. So these are the wisdoms that we can derive. Apart from this, we do not know why was it that Allah allowed the previous Shariah this issue, but he prohibited it upon us. Because it is true, the brother's fact is true, that the previous Shariah did not prohibit wine. However, we have references that the prophets of Allah never drank. So even if it was allowed for them, the prophets never did it. And this in itself shows the perfection. And Allah knows best. Still, there are some Christians that don't drink. Yeah, Baptists. Yeah.
Go ahead. The celebration of Isra, as we already said, there is no precedent for the date or the month that occurred. We have no clue. And therefore, to specify is really to speak from no knowledge, number one. Number two, to take this day as a day of doing extra things. And as we know, we we try to stick to our Prophet and the Sahaba's actions. They have the purest Islam, and they had the best knowledge. And if they didn't do it, then we really should avoid it. Uh, and there is nothing authentic to tell us to celebrate on, uh, you know, was the 27th of Rajab or the 15th of Sha'ban or all of these dates. Really, all of these dates, they, it's just simply best to avoid them. And Allah knows best.
Final question. I saw a hand raised here. Final question. Physically by his body, soul? Well, we will talk about this, uh, when we wrap up. But it is very clear that he went physically. Uh, and this is something that there is in Islam. No scholar ever said that he went only by the soul or imagination. Because, because if you say that he went by the soul or that it was a dream, there is nothing miraculous about it. Why? What's the big deal? And the next morning, when he woke up and he told the Quraysh, "Last night I went." We can go to the moon and back in a dream. Who's going to deny us, right? You know, we can go across the world, we can go to different lands. What's so strange? The very fact that the Quraysh found it strange and they said, "You expect us to believe this?" That's what they questioned him, right? And Abu Bakr was called because it's a physical journey. Had it been an imaginary journey, a journey of the mind, a dream, what's the point of, what's the point of why should we believe you, right? So there is unanimous consensus that Isra took place, that with the body and the soul, in the physical. And there are also reports and reports that show that the Prophet said that when he came back, his bed was still warm, right? Which means the entire journey took, you know, few minutes, 5, 10 minutes, because it's a different dimension. You know, Burak is going at the speed of light. His name comes from lightning. He gets there, he prays two rak'ahs, he then goes up. That's a different dimension. There is no time and space there. He comes back down, he comes back, and his bed is still warm. So all of these clearly show that it is a physical journey. And we'll talk about this in more detail, inshallah, uh, whenever we finish in with this.
We conclude for this week, inshallah. I'll see you. I have the, uh, this week, Friday. And then on Saturday, Sunday, I hope that all of you show up, inshallah, for our teenager thing.