# The Message of The Quran: Appendices

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Muhammad Asad, The Message of The Quran: Appendices, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> The Message of The Quran:
> 
> Appendices
> 
> Muhammad Asad
> 
> Dar al-Andalus Limited, 1980
> 
> Contents
> 
> Symbolism And Allegory In The Qur'an
> 
> Al-Muqatta'at
> 
> On The Term And Concept Of Jinn
> 
> The Night Journey
> 
> Appendix ISymbolism And Allegory In The Qur'an
> 
> WHEN studying the Qur'an, one frequently encounters what may be described as "key-phrases"
> that is to say, statements which provide a clear, concise indication of the idea underlying
> a particular passage or passages: for instance, the many references to the creation of man
> "out of dust" and "out of a drop of sperm", pointing to the lowly biological origin of the
> human species; or the statement in the ninety-ninth surah (Az-Zalzalah) that on Resurrection Day
> "he who shall have done an atom's weight of good, shall behold it; and he who shall have done an
> atom's weight of evil, shall behold it" - indicating the ineluctable{unavoidable} afterlife
> consequences of, and the responsibility for, all that man consciously does in this world; or
> the divine declaration (in 38:27), "We have not created heaven and earth and all that is between
> them without meaning and purpose (batilan), as is the surmise of those who are bert on denying
> the truth."
> 
> Instances of such Qur'anic key-phrases can be quoted almost ad infinitum, and in many varying
> formulations. But there is one fundamental statement in the Qur'an which occurs only once, and
> which may be qualified as "the key-phrase of all its key-phrases": the statement in verse 7 of
> Al-'Imran to the' effect that the Qur'an "contains messages that are clear in and by themselves
> (ayat muhkamat) as well as others that are allegoncal (mutoshabihat)". It Is this verse which
> represents, in an absolute sense, a key to the understanding of the Qur'anic message and makes
> the whole of it accessible to "people who think" (Li-qawmin yatafakkarun).
> 
> In my notes on the above-mentioned verse of Al-'Imran I have tried to elucidate the meaning of
> the expression ayat muhkamat as well as the general purport of what is termed mutashabih
> ("'allegorical" or "symbolic"). Without a proper grasp of what is implied by this latter term, much
> of the Qur'an is liable to be - and, in fact, has often been - grossly misunderstood both by
> believers and by such as refuse to believe in its divinely-inspired origin. However, an appreciation
> of what is meant by "allegory" or "symbolism" in the context of the Qur'an is, by itself, not enough
> to make one fully understand its world-view: in order to achieve this we must relate the Qur'anic
> use of these terms to a concept touched upon almost at the very beginning of the divine writ - namely,
> the existence of "a realm which is beyond the reach of human perception" (al-ghayb). It is this
> concept that constitutes the basic premise for an understanding of the call of the Qur'an, and,
> indeed, of the principle of religion - every religion - as such: for all truly religious cognition
> arises from and is based on the fact that only a small segment of reality is open to man's perception
> and imagination, and that by far the larger part of it escapes his comprehension altogether.
> 
> However, side by side with this clear-cut metaphysical concept we have a not less clear-cut finding
> of a psychological nature: namely, the finding that the human mind (in which term we comprise
> conscious thinking, imagination, dream-life, intuition, memory, etc.) can operate only on the basis
> of perceptions previously experienced by that very mind either in their entirety or in some of their
> constituent elements: that is to say, it cannot visualize, or form an idea of, something that lies
> entirely outside the realm of previously realized experiences. Hence, whenever we arrive at a
> seemingly "new" mental image or idea, we find, on closer examination, that even if it is new as a
> composite entity, it is not really new as regards its component elements, for these are invariably
> derived from previous - and sometimes quite disparate - mental experiences which are now but brought
> together in a new combination or series of new combinations.
> 
> Now as soon as we realize that the human mind cannot operate otherwise than on the basis of previous
> experiences - that is to say, on the basis of apperceptions{conscious perception} and cognitions
> already recorded in that mind - we are faced by a weighty question: Since the metaphysical ideas of
> religion relate, by virtue of their nature, to a realm beyond the reach of human perception or
> experience - how can they be successfully conveyed to us? How can we be expected to grasp ideas which
> have no counterpart, not even a fractional one, in any of the apperceptions which we have arrived
> at empirically?
> 
> The answer is self-evident: By means of loan-images derived from our actual - physical or mental -
> experiences; or, as Zamakhshari phrases it in his commentary on 13:35, 'through a parabolic
> illustration, by means of something which we know from our experience, of something that is beyond
> the reach of our perception" (tamihilan li-ma ghaba 'anna bi-ma nushahid). And this is the innermost
> purport of the term and concept of al-mutashabihat as used in the Qur'an.
> 
> Thus, the Qur'an tells us clearly that many of its passages and expressions must be understood in an
> allegorical sense for the simple reason that, being intended for human understanding, they could not
> have been conveyed to us in any other way. It follows, therefore, that if we were to take every Qur'anic
> passage, statement or expression in its outward, literal sense and disregard the possibility of its
> being an allegory, a metaphor or a parable, we would be offending against the very spirit of the divine
> writ.
> 
> Consider, for instance, some of the Qur'anic references to God's Being - a Being indefinable, infinite
> in time and space, and utterly beyond any creature's comprehension. Far from being able to imagine Him,
> we can only realize what He is not: namely, not limited in either time or space, not definable in terms
> of comparison, and not to be comprised within any category of human thought. Hence only very generalized
> metaphors can convey to us, though most inadequately, the idea of His existence and activity.
> 
> And so, when the Qur'an speaks of Him as being "in the heavens" or "established on His throne (al-'arsh)",
> we cannot possibly take these phrases in their literal senses, since then they would imply, however vaguely,
> that God is limited in space: and since such a limitation would contradict the concept of an Infinite Being,
> we know immediately, without the least doubt, that the "heavens" and the "throne" and God's being "established"
> on it are but linguistic vehicles meant to convey an idea which is outside all human experience, namely,
> the idea of God's almightiness and absolute sway over all that exists. Similarly, whenever He is described
> as "all-seeing", "all-hearing" or "all-aware", we know that these descriptions have nothing to do with the
> phenomena of physical seeing or hearing but simply circumscribe, in terms understandable to man, the fact
> of God's eternal Presence in all that is or happens. And since "no human vision can encompass Him"
> (Qur'an 6:103), man is not expected to realize His existence otherwise than through observing the effects
> of His unceasing activity within and upon the universe created by Him.
> 
> But whereas our belief in God's existence does not - and, indeed, could not depend on our grasping the
> unfathomable "how" of His Being, the same is not the case with problems connected with man's own existence,
> and, in particular, with the idea of a life in the hereafter: for, man's psyche is so constituted that it
> cannot accept any proposition relating to himself without being given a clear exposition of its purport.
> 
> The Qur'an tells us that man's life in this world is but the first stage - a very short stage - of a life
> that continues beyond the hiatus called "death"; and the same Qur'an stresses again and again the principle
> of man's moral responsibility for all his conscious actions and his behaviour, and of the continuation
> of this responsibility, in the shape of inescapable consequences, good or bad, in a person s life in the
> hereafter. But how could man be made to understand the nature of these consequences and, thus, of the quality
> of the life that awaits him? - for, obviously, inasmuch as man's resurrection will be the result of what the
> Qur'an describes as "a new act of creation", the life that will follow upon it must be entirely different
> from anything that man can and does experience in this world.
> 
> This being so, it is not enough for man to be told. "If you behave righteously in this world, you will attain
> to happiness in the life to come", or, alternatively, "If you do wrong in this world, you will suffer for
> it in the hereafter". Such statements would be far too general and abstract to appeal to man's imagination
> and, thus, to influence his behaviour. What is needed is a more direct appeal to the intellect, resulting
> in a kind of "visualization" of the consequences of one's conscious acts and omissions: and such an appeal
> can be effectively produced by means of metaphors, allegories and parables, each of them stressing, on the
> one hand, the absolute dissimilarity of all that man will experience after resurrection from whatever he
> did or could experience in this world; and, on the other hand, establishing means of comparison between
> these two categories of experience.
> 
> Thus, explaining the reference to the bliss of paradise in 32:17, the Prophet indicated the essential
> difference between man's life in this world and in the hereafter in these words: "God says, 'I have
> readied for My righteous servants what no eye has ever seen, and no ear has ever heard, and no heart of
> man has ever conceived" (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi). On the other hand, in 2:25 the Qur'an speaks thus
> of the blessed in paradise: "Whenever they are granted fruits therefrom as their appointed sustenance,
> they will say, 'It is this that in days of yore was granted to us as our sustenance' - for they shall
> be given something which will recall that [past]": and so we have the image of gardens through which running
> waters flow, blissful shade, spouses of indescribable beauty, and many other delights infinitely varied
> and unending, and yet somehow comparable to what may be conceived of as most delightful in this world.
> 
> However, this possibility of an intellectual comparison between the two stages of human existence is to
> a large extent limited by the fact that all our thinking and imagining is indissolubly connected with
> the concepts of finite time and finite space: in other words, we cannot imagine infinity in either time
> or space - and therefore cannot imagine a state of existence independent of time and space - or, as the
> Qur'an phrases it with reference to a state of happiness in afterlife, "a paradise as vast as the heavens
> and the earth" (3:133): which expression is the Qur'anic synonym for the entire created universe. On the
> other hand, we know that every Qur'anic statement is directed to man's reason and must, therefore, be
> comprehensible either in its literal sense (as in the case of the ayat muhkamat) or allegorically (as
> in the ayat mutashabihat); and since, owing to the constitution of the human mind, neither infinity nor
> eternity are comprehensible to us, it follows that the reference to the infinite "vastness" of paradise
> cannot relate to anything but the intensity of sensation which it will offer to the blest.
> 
> By obvious analogy, the principle of a "comparison through allegory" applied in the Qur'an to all references
> to paradise - i.e., a state of unimaginable happiness in afterlife - must be extended to all descriptions
> of otherworldly suffering - i.e., hell - in respect of its utter dissimilarity from all earthly experiences
> as well as its unmeasurable intensity. In both cases the descriptive method of the Qur'an is the same. We
> are told, as it were: "Imagine the most joyous sensations, bodily as well as emotional, accessible to man:
> indescribable beauty, love physical and spiritual, consciousness of fulfilment, perfect peace and harmony;
> and imagine these sensations intensified beyond anything imaginable in this world - and at the same time
> entirely different from anything imaginable: and you have an inkling, however vague, of what is meant by
> 'paradise'." And, on the other hand: "Imagine the greatest suffering, bodily as well as spiritual, which
> man may experience: burning by fire, utter loneliness and bitter desolation, the torment of unceasing
> frustration, a condition of neither living nor dying; and imagine this pain, this darkness and this despair
> intensified beyond anything imaginable in this world - and at the same time entirely different from anything
> imaginable: and you will know, however vaguely, what is meant by 'hell'."
> 
> Side by side with these allegories relating to man's life after death we find in the Qur'an many symbolical
> expressions referring to the evidence of God's activity. Owing to the limitations of human language - which,
> in their turn, arise from the inborn limitations of the human mind - this activity can only be circumscribed
> and never really described. Just as it is impossible for us to imagine or define God's Being, so the true
> nature of His creativeness - and, therefore, of His plan of creation - must remain beyond our grasp. But since
> the Qur'an aims at conveying to us an ethical teaching based, precisely, on the concept of God's purposeful
> creativeness, the latter must be, as it were, "translated" into categories of thought accessible to man. Hence
> the use of expressions which at first sight have an almost anthropomorphic hue, for instance, God's "wrath"
> (ghadab) or "condemnation"; His "pleasure" at good deeds or "love" for His creatures; or His being "oblivious"
> of a sinner who was oblivious of Him; or "asking" a wrongdoer on Resurrection Day about his wrongdoing; and
> so forth. All such verbal "translations" of God's activity into human terminology are unavoidable as long
> as we are expected to conform to ethical principles revealed to us by means of a human language; but there
> can be no greater mistake than to think that these "translations" could ever enable us to define the Undefinable.
> 
> And, as the Qur'an makes it clear in the seventh verse of Al-Imran, only "those whose hearts are given to
> swerving from the truth go after that part of the divine writ which has been expressed in allegory, seeking
> out [what is bound to create] confusion, and seeking [to arrive at] its final meaning [in an arbitrary manner:
> but none save God knows its final meaning."
> 
> Appendix IIAl-Muqatta'at
> 
> ABOUT one-quarter of the Qur'anic surahs are preceded by mysterious letter-symbols called muqatta'at
> ("disjointed letters") or, occasionally, fawatih ("openings") because they appear at the beginning of
> the relevant surahs. Out of the twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet, exactly one-half that is,
> fourteen - occur in this position, either singly or in varying combinations of two, three, four or five
> letters. They are always pronounced singly, by their designations and not as mere sounds - thus: alif
> lam mim, or ha mim, etc.
> 
> The significance of these letter-symbols has perplexed the commentators from the earliest times. There is
> no evidence of the Prophet's having ever referred to them in any of his recorded utterances, nor of any of
> his Companions having ever asked him for an explanation. None the less, it is established beyond any
> possibility of doubt that all the Companions - obviously following the example of the Prophet - regarded
> the muqatta'at as integral parts of the surahs to which they are prefixed, and used to recite them accordingly:
> a fact which disposes effectively of the suggestion advanced by some Western orientalists that these letters
> may be no more than the initials of the scribes who wrote down the individual revelations at the Prophet's
> dictation, or of the Companions who recorded them at the time of the final codification of the Qur'an during
> the reign of the first three Caliphs.
> 
> Some of the Companions as well as some of their immediate successors and later Qur'an commentators were
> convinced that these letters are abbreviations of certain words or even phrases relating to God and His
> attributes, and tried to "reconstruct" them with much ingenuity: but since the possible combinations are
> practically unlimited, all such interpretations are highly arbitrary and, therefore, devoid of any real
> usefulness. Others have tried to link the muqatta'at to the numerological values of the letters of the
> Arabic alphabet, and have "derived" by this means all manner of esoteric indications and prophecies.
> 
> Yet another, perhaps more plausible interpretation, based on two sets of facts, has been advanced by some
> of the most outstanding Islamic scholars throughout the centuries:
> 
> Firstly, all words of the Arabic language, without any exception, are composed of either one letter or a
> combination of two, three, four or five letters, and never more than five: and, as already mentioned, these
> are the forms in which the muqatta'at appear.
> 
> Secondly, all surahs prefixed by these letter-symbols open, directly or obliquely, with a reference to
> revelation, either in its generic sense or its specific manifestation, the Qur'an. At first glance it might
> appear that three surahs (29, 30 and 68) are exceptions to this rule; but this assumption is misleading.
> In the opening verse of surah 29 (Al-'Ankabut), a reference to revelation is obviously implied in the saying,
> "We have attained to faith" (amanna), i.e., in God and His messages. In surah 30 (Ar-Ram), divine revelation
> is unmistakably stressed in the prediction of Byzantine victory in verses 2-4. In verse 1 of surah 68
> (Al-Qalam) the phenomenon of revelation is clearly referred to in the evocative mention of "the pen" (see
> note 2 on the first verse of that surah). Thus, there are no "exceptions" in the surahs prefixed by one
> or more of the muqatta'at: each of them opens with a reference to divine revelation.
> 
> This, taken together with the fact that the muqatta'at mirror, as it were, all word-forms of the Arabic
> language, has led scholars and thinkers like Al-Mubarrad, Ibn Hazm, Zamakhshari, Razi, Baydawi, Ibn Taymiyyah,
> Ibn Kathir to mention only a few of them - to the conclusion that the muqatta'at are meant to illustrate
> the inimitable, wondrous nature of Qur'anic revelation, which, though originating in a realm beyond the
> reach of human perception (al-ghayb), can be and is conveyed to man by means of the very sounds (represented
> by letters) of ordinary human speech.
> 
> However, even this very attractive interpretation is not entirely satisfactory inasmuch as there are many
> surahs which open with an exphcit reference to divine revelation and are nevertheless not preceded by any
> letter-symbol. Secondly - and this is the most weighty objection - the above explanation, too, is based on
> no more than conjecture: and so, in the last resort, we must content ourselves with the finding that a
> solution of this problem still remains beyond our grasp. This was apparently the view of the four Right-Guided
> Caliphs, summarized in these words of Abu Bakr: "In every divine writ (kitab) there is [an clement of]
> mystery - and the mystery of the Qur'an is [indicated] in the openings of [some of] the surahs."
> 
> Appendix IIIOn The Term And Concept Of Jinn
> 
> IN ORDER to grasp the purport of the term jinn as used in the Qur'an, we must dissociate our minds from
> the meaning given to it in Arabian folklore, where it early came to denote all manner of "demons" in the
> most popular sense of this word. This folkloristic image has somewhat obscured the original connotation
> of the term and its highly significant - almost self-explanatory - verbal derivation. The root-verb is janna,
> "he [or "it"] concealed" or "covered with darkness": cf. 6:76, which speaks of Abraham "when the night
> overshadowed him with its darkness (janna 'alayhi)". Since this verb is also used in the intransitive sense
> ("he [or "it"] was [or "became"] concealed", resp. "covered with darkness"), all classical philologists point
> out that al-jinn signifies "intense [or "confusing"] darkness" and, in a more general sense, "that which is
> concealed from [man's] senses", i.e., things, beings or forces which cannot normally be perceived by man but
> have, nevertheless, an objective reality, whether concrete or abstract, of their own.
> 
> In the usage of the Qur'an, which is certainly different from the usage of primitive folklore, the term jinn
> has several distinct meanings. The most commonly encountered is that of spiritual forces or beings which,
> precisely because they have no corporeal existence, are beyond the perception of our corporeal senses: a
> connotation which includes "satans" and "satanic forces" (shayatin - see note 16 on 15:17) as well as "angels"
> and "angelic forces", since all of them are "concealed from our senses" (Jawhari, Raghib). In order to make
> it quite evident that these invisible manifestations are not of a corporeal nature, the Qur'an states
> parabolically that the jinn were created out of "the fire of scorching winds" (nar as-samam, in 15:27), or
> out of "a confusing flame of fire" (marij min nar, in 55:15), or simply "out of fire" (7:12 and 38:76, in
> these last two instances referring to the Fallen Angel, Iblis). Parallel with this, we have authentic
> ahadith to the effect that the Prophet spoke of the angels as having been "created out of light"
> (khuliqat min nar: Muslim, on the authority of 'A'ishah) - light and fire being akin, and likely to manifest
> themselves within and through one another (cf. note 7 on verse 8 of surah 27).
> 
> The term jinn is also applied to a wide range of phenomena which, according to most of the classical
> commentators, indicate certain sentient organisms of so fine a nature and of a physiological composition
> so different from our own that they are not normally accessible to our sense-perception. We know, of course,
> very little as to what can and what cannot play the role of a living organism; moreover, our inability to
> discern and observe such phenomena is by no means a sufficient justification for a denial of their existence.
> The Qur'an refers often to "the realm which is beyond the reach of human perception" (al-ghayb), while God
> is frequently spoken of as "the Sustainer of all the worlds" (rabb al-alamin): and the use of the plural
> clearly indicates that side by side with the "world" open to our observation there are other "worlds" as well -
> and, therefore, other forms of life, different from ours and presumably from one another, and yet subtly
> interacting and perhaps even permeating one another in a manner beyond our ken. And if we assume, as we must,
> that there are living organisms whose biological premises are entirely different from our own, it is only
> logical to assume that our physical senses can establish contact with them only under very exceptional
> circumstances: hence the description of them as "invisible beings". Now that occasional, very rare crossing
> of paths between their life-mode and ours may well give rise to strange - because unexplainable - manifestations,
> which man's primitive fantasy has subsequently interpreted as ghosts, demons and other such "supernatural"
> apparitions.
> 
> Occasionally, the term jinn is used in the Qur'an to denote those elemental forces of nature - including
> human nature - which are "concealed from our senses" inasmuch as they manifest themselves to us only in
> their effects but not in their intrinsic reality. Instances of this connotation are found, e.g.,
> in 37:158 ff. (and possibly also in 6:100), as well as in the earliest occurrence of this concept,
> namely, in 114:6.
> 
> Apart from this, it is quite probable that in many instances where the Qur'an refers to jinn in terms
> usually applied to organisms endowed with reason, this expression either implies a symbolic "personification"
> of man's relationship with "satanic forces" (shayatin) an implication evident, e.g., in 6:112, 7:38,
> 11:119, 32:13 - or, alternatively, is a metonym for a person's preoccupation with what is loosely described
> as "occult powers", whether real or illusory, as well as for the resulting practices as such, like sorcery,
> necromancy, astrology, soothsaying -, etc.: endeavours to which the Qur'an invariably refers in condemnatory
> terms (cf. 2:102 and the corresponding note 84; also 6:128 and 130, or 72:5-6).
> 
> In a few instances (e.g., in 46:29-32 and 72:1-15) the term jinn may conceivably denote beings not invisible
> in and by themselves but, rather, "hitherto unseen beings" (see note 1 on 72:1).
> 
> Finally, references to jinn are sometimes meant to recall certain legends deeply embedded in the consciousness
> of the people to whom the Qur'an was addressed in the first instance (e.g., in 34:12-14, which should be
> read in conjunction with note 77 on 21:82) - the purpose being, in every instance, not the legend as
> such but the illustration of a moral or spiritual truth.
> 
> Appendix IVThe Night Journey
> 
> THE PROPHET'S "Night Journey" (isra) from Mecca to Jerusalem and his subsequent "Ascension" (mi'raj)
> to heaven are, in reality, two stages of one mystic experience, dating almost exactly one year before
> the exodus to Medina (cf. Ibn Sa'd III, 143). According to various well-documented Traditions -
> extensively quoted and discussed by Ibn Kathir in his commentary on l7:l, as well as by Ibn Hajar in
> Fath al-Bari VII, 155 ff. - the Apostle of God, accompanied by the Angel Gabriel, found himself
> transported by night to the site of Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, where he led a congregation of
> many of the earlier, long since deceased prophets in prayer; some of them he afterwards encountered
> again in heaven. The Ascension, in particular, is important from the viewpoint of Muslim theology
> inasmuch as it was in the course of this experience that the five daily prayers were explicitly
> instituted, by God's ordinance, as an integral part of the Islamic Faith.
> 
> Since the Prophet himself did not leave any clear-cut explanation of this experience, Muslim thinkers -
> including the Prophet's Companions - have always widely differed as to its true nature. The great
> majority of the Companions believed that both the Night Journey and the Ascension were physical
> occurrences - in other words, that the Prophet was borne bodily to Jerusalem and then to heaven -
> while a minority were convinced that the experience was purely spiritual. Among the latter we find, in
> particular, the name of 'A'ishah, the Prophet's widow and most intimate companion of his later years,
> 
> who declared emphatically that "he was transported only in his spirit (bi-ruhihi), while his body did
> not leave its place" (cf. Tabari, Zamakhshari and Ibn Kathir in their commentaries on 17:1); the great
> Al-Hasan al-Basri, who belonged to the next generation, held uncompromisingly to the same view (ibid.).
> As against this, the theologians who maintain that the Night Journey and the Ascension were physical
> experiences refer to the corresponding belief of most of the Companions - without, however, being able
> to point to a single Tradition to the effect that the Prophet himself described it as such. Some Muslim
> scholars lay stress on the words asra bi-'abdihi ("He transported His servant by night") occurring in
> 17:1, and contend that the term 'abd ("servant") denotes a living being in its entirety, i.e., a
> combination of body and soul. This interpretation, however, does not take into account the probability
> that the expression asra bi-'abdihi simply refers to the human quality of the Prophet, in consonance with
> the many Qur'anic statements to the effect that he, like all other apostles, was but a mortal servant
> of God, and was not endowed with any supernatural qualities. This, to my mind, is fully brought out in
> the concluding words of the above verse - verily, He alone is all-hearing, all-seeing" - following upon
> the statement that the Prophet was shown some of God's symbols (min ayatina), i.e., given insight into
> some, but by no means all, of the ultimate truths underlying God's creation.
> 
> The most convincing argument in favour of a spiritual interpretation of both the Night Journey and
> the Ascension is forthcoming from the highly allegorical descriptions found in the authentic Traditions
> relating to this double experience: descriptions, that is, which are so obviously symbolic that they
> preclude any possibility of interpreting them literally, in "physical" terms. Thus, for instance, the
> Apostle of God speaks of his encountering at Jerusalem, and subsequently in heaven, a number of the
> earlier prophets, all of whom had undoubtedly passed away a long time before. According to one Tradition
> (quoted by Ibn Kathir on the authority of Anas), he visited Moses in his grave, and found him praying.
> In another Tradition, also on the authority of Anas (cf. Fath al-Bari VII, 158), the Prophet describes
> how, on his Night Journey, he encountered an old woman, and was thereupon told by Gabriel, "This old
> woman is the mortal world (ad-dunya)". In the words of yet another Tradition, on the authority of Abu
> Hurayrah (ibid.), the Prophet "passed by people who were sowing and harvesting; and every time they
> completed their harvest, [the grain) grew up again. Gabriel said, 'These are the fighters in God's
> cause (al-mujahidun).' Then they passed by people whose heads were being shattered by rocks; and every
> time they were shattered, they became whole again. [Gabriel] said, 'These are they whose heads were
> oblivious of prayer.... Then they passed by people who were eating raw, rotten meat and throwing away
> cooked, wholesome meat. [Gabriel] said, 'These are the adulterers.'"
> 
> In the best-known Tradition on the Ascension (quoted by Bukhari), the Prophet introduces his narrative
> with the words: "While I lay on the ground next to the Ka'bah [lit., "in the hur"], lo! there came
> unto me an angel, and cut open my breast and took out my heart. And then a golden basin full of faith
> was brought unto me, and my heart was washed (therein) and was filled [with it]; then it was restored
> to its place..." Since "faith" is an abstract concept, it is obvious that the Prophet himself regarded
> this prelude to the Ascension - and therefore the Ascension itself and, ipso facto, the Night Journey
> to Jerusalem - as purely spiritual experiences.
> 
> But whereas there is no cogent reason to believe in a "bodily" Night Journey and Ascension, there is,
> on the other hand, no reason to doubt the objective reality of this event. The early Muslim theologians,
> who could not be expected to possess adequate psychological knowledge, could visualize only two
> alternatives: either a physical happening or a dream. Since it appeared to them - and rightly so - that
> these wonderful occurrences would greatly lose in significance if they were relegated to the domain of
> mere dream, they instinctively adopted an interpretation in physical terms and passionately defended
> it against all contrary views, like those of 'A'ishah, Mu'awiyah or al-Hasan al-Basri. In the meantime,
> however, we have come to know that a dream-experience is not the only alternative to a physical
> occurrence. Modern psychical research, though still in its infancy, has demonstrably proved that not
> every spiritual experience (that is, an experience in which none of the known organs of man's body has
> a part) must necessarily be a mere subjective manifestation of the "mind" - whatever this term may
> connote - but that it may, in special circumstances, be no less real or "factual" in the objective sense
> of this word than anything that man can experience by means of his physiological organism. We know as yet
> very little about the quality of such exceptional psychic activities, and so it is well-nigh impossible
> to reach definite conclusions as to their nature. Nevertheless, certain observations of modern
> psychologists have confirmed the possibility - claimed from time immemorial by mystics of all persuasions -
> of a temporary "independence" of man's spirit from his living body. In the event of such a temporary
> independence, the spirit or soul appears to be able freely to traverse time and space, to embrace within
> its insight occurrences and phenomena belonging to otherwise widely separated categories of reality,
> and to condense them within symbolical perceptions of great intensity, clarity and comprehensiveness.
> But when it comes to communicating such "visionary" experiences (as we are constrained to call them for
> lack of a better term) to people who have never experienced anything of the kind, the person concerned -
> in this case, the Prophet - is obliged to resort to figurative expressions: and this would account for
> the allegorical style of all the Traditions relating to the mystic vision of the Night Journey and the
> Ascension.
> 
> At this point I should like to draw the reader's attention to the discussion of "spiritual Ascension"
> by one of the truly great Islamic thinkers, Ibn al-Qayyim (Zad al-Ma'da II, 48 f.):
> "'A'ishah and Mu'wiyah maintained that the [Prophet's) Night Journey was performed by his soul
> (bi-ruhihi), while his body did not leave its place. The same is reported to have been the view of
> Al-Hasan al-Basri. But it is necessary to know the difference between the saying, 'the Night Journey
> took place in dream (manaman)', and the saying, 'it was [performed] by his soul without his body'.
> The difference between these two [views] is tremendous.... What the dreamer sees are mere reproductions
> (amthal) of forms already existing in his mind; and so he dreams [for example] that he ascends to heaven
> or is transported to Mecca or to [other] regions of the world, while [in reality] his spirit neither
> ascends nor is transported...
> 
> "Those who have reported to us the Ascension of the Apostle of God can be divided into two groups -
> one group maintaining that the Ascension was in spirit and in body, and the other group maintaining
> that it was performed by his spirit, while his body did not leave its place. But these latter [also]
> do not mean to say that the Ascension took place in a dream: they merely mean that it was his soul
> itself which actually went on the Night Journey and ascended to heaven, and that the soul witnessed
> things which it [otherwise) witnessses after death [lit., mufaraqah, "separation"]. Its condition on
> that occasion was similar to the condition [of the soul] after death.... But that which the Apostle of
> God experienced on his Night Journey was superior to the [ordinary experiences of the soul after death,
> and, of course, was far above the dreams which one sees in sleep.... As to the prophets [whom the
> Apostle of God met in heaven], it was but their souls which had come to dwell there after the separation
> from their bodies, while the soul of the Apostle of God ascended there in his lifetime."
> 
> It is obvious that this kind of spiritual experience is not only not inferior, but, on the contrary,
> vastly superior to anything that bodily organs could ever perform or record; and it goes without
> saying, as already mentioned by Ibn al-Qayyam, that it is equally superior to what we term "dream-experiences",
> inasmuch as the latter have no objective existence outside the subject's mind, whereas spiritual
> experiences of the kind referred to above are not less "real" (that is, objective) than anything which
> could be experienced "in body". By assuming that the Night Journey and the Ascension were spiritual
> and not bodily, we do not diminish the extraordinary value attaching to this experience of the Prophet.
> On the contrary, it appears that the fact of his having had such an experience by far transcends any
> miracle of bodily ascension, for it presupposes a personality of tremendous spiritual perfection - the
> very thing which we expect from a true Prophet of God. However, it is improbable that we ordinary human
> beings will ever be in a position fully to comprehend spiritual experiences of this kind. Our minds can
> only operate with elements provided by our consciousness of time and space; and everything that extends
> beyond this particular set of conceptions will always defy our attempts at a clear-cut definition.
> 
> In conclusion, it should be noted that the Prophet's Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, immediately
> preceding his Ascension, was apparently meant to show that Islam is not a new doctrine but a continuation
> of the same divine message which was preached by the prophets of old, who had Jerusalem as their
> spiritual home. This view is supported by Traditions (quoted in Fath al-Bari VII, 158), according to
> which the Prophet, during his Night Journey, also offered prayers at Yathrib, Sinai, Bethlehem, etc.
> His encounters with other prophets, mentioned in this connection, symbolize the same idea. The well-known
> Traditions to the effect that on the occasion of his Night Journey the Prophet led a prayer in the
> Temple of Jerusalem, in which all other prophets ranged themselves behind him, expresses in a figurative
> manner the doctrine that Islam, as preached by the Prophet Muhammad, is the fulfilment and perfection
> of mankind's religious development, and that Muhammad was the last and the greatest of God's
> message-bearers.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views3329 views since posted 2023-11-18; last edit 2025-02-01 10:38 UTC;
> 
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> — *The Message of The Quran: Appendices (Used by permission of the curator)*