Importance of Shab-e-Mairaaj
The Night of Ascension
27th Rajjab
A brief description of the Mairaj
Just one year before his exodus from Mecca to Madina, on the 27th night of Rajab, Prophet MuhammadPBUH had a unique experience in the history of all religions. The ProphetPBUH, accompanied by Angel Gabriel was taken for Night Journey-(ISRA) from Mecca to Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. There he led a congregation of the souls of all the earlier ProphetsPBUT. Then accompanied by Angel Gabriel he had the Ascension-(MAIRAJ) to Heavens. In the heavens he met again with the ProphetsPBUT individually. Then he was taken to see the Paradise and the Hell. He was shown what the fate of the humans would be after the Day of Judgment. How the Believers and the Righteous would be rewarded in the Paradise and also how the non-believers and the wicked would be chastised in the Hell. After seeing several important divine Signs (Ayaat) he was led by Gabriel to the Sid’rah (The Berry Tree).
Gabriel stopped there. The ProphetPBUH proceeded from there to the Divine Proximity. The ProphetPBUH had the Vision of Allah, Lord of the Universe. Five obligatory prayers were ordained by the way of Thanksgiving. The ProphetPBUH was brought back to the earth and to his own place before the Dawn prayers in the same night.
Importance of Shab-e-Mairaj
The most important things we believe about the Mairaj are noted below:
1) The night journey (ISRA) and the Ascension (MAIRAJ) both did not take place spiritually” nor they were merely in a “dream”, as a few people argue. They took place with the “body and soul,” and the ProphetPBUH was fully awake. Qur’an says that: “Glorified be He Who Carried His servant by night…….”
The word ‘Abad’ (servant) applies to a ‘person’ with his body and soul. Therefore, to say that the ascension was only spiritual is wrong. In fact it was with the body and soul and in full