The Night Journey (al-Isra wal-Mi'raj)

These were hard years for the Prophet ﷺ. He had lost his beloved wife Khadija and his uncle Abu Talib, who had long shielded him. The leaders of Mecca had grown more hostile, and the message was meeting rejection on many sides. It was in this season of grief and pressure that the Night Journey took place. The Qur'an opens Surah al-Isra by glorifying the One who took His servant by night, and the believers have always read this as a mercy and a comfort sent at the very moment it was needed most.

The journey came in two parts. First was the Isra, the night travel from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to the Farthest Mosque in Jerusalem. Then came the Mi'raj, the ascent through the heavens. The reports in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim describe the Prophet ﷺ being raised up and meeting other prophets along the way, prophets whom God had sent before him to earlier peoples. In Jerusalem he led them in prayer. It was a reminder that he stood within one long line of messengers, all carrying the same call to worship God alone.

The heart of the night was the command to pray. According to the sound reports, the daily prayers were first given as fifty, and the Prophet ﷺ went back more than once asking for them to be lightened, until they were settled at five each day. Yet the reward of fifty was kept for the one who keeps the five. This is why Muslims everywhere treat the five daily prayers as a gift brought down on this very night, a direct link between the believer and his Lord.

When the Prophet ﷺ told the people of Mecca what had happened, many refused to believe him, since such a journey seemed impossible in a single night. For those who already trusted him, his word was enough. The night did not change the difficulty of the years still ahead, but it strengthened the Prophet ﷺ and the believers with him. It remains one of the most loved moments in his life, a sign that after hardship comes relief, and that the door to God is never closed to those who turn to Him.