سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلاً مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ
Blessed is the One who took His Servant during part of the night on a journey from Masjid Al-Haram to Masjid Al-Aqsa, whose precincts we did bless [TMQ 17:1]
We are in the later days of the month of Rajab, the anniversary of the Isra and Mi'raj will be in the coming days. Muslims around the world will think about the amazing incident that took place in the life of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw).
Usually when people in the subcontinent talk about Shab-e-miraj, they see it as a day to make extra prayers or fast, even though there is no text from the Quran and sunnah to support this.
We as Muslims must realise that we must never allow this incident of al-Isra to remain as a mere fantastical story separated from our lives, like the Christians and Jews who took their scriptures as stories and detached them from life. We cannot leave Islam on the shelf and on the pages of books. Rather we must as with the rest of Islam connect this incident to our lives.
Isr'a literally means a journey by night and Mi'raj literally means an elevator or a ladder, i.e., an instrument which lifts something up. But, In Islam, Isra' refers to a miraculous night-journey made by the last Prophet (saw) from makkah to Jerusalem, and Mi'raj refers to the vehicle which took the Prophet (saw) from Jerusalem, up to and out of the universe, through the seven heavens.As for its exact date, there is difference of opinion amongst the scholars regarding it. However, the majority of jurists are in favor of a date between 16-12 months prior to migration to Madinah.
There are many details regarding Isra & Miraj, however will only focus on some important lessons that we can draw from this great event.
Glorified be He who took his servant for a journey by night from the Masjid Al-Haram to the Masjid Al-Aqsa,the surroundings we have blessed, in order to show him some of Our signs. Indeed , He is the all-Hearing,the all-Seeing.(Surah Al-Isra [17], Ayah 1 )
This verse talks about the most remarkable miracles of Muhammad , the night journey
(Isra). This journey had two phases: The horizontal from the Kaabah in Makkah, to the
historic masjid in Jerusalem. The second was the vertical phase from Al-Aqsa to the divine
throne. The purpose of this journey we are told was to show him Our signs.
The hadith literarture gives graphic details of this momentous journey. The verse begins with one of the Divine attributes, Subhaan, then Glorified. Let us look at the significance of this:
The diameter of the universe according to the astronomers is 3 billion light years, an
incredible distance unimaginable, to the human intellect. The question is how could such a
fantastic distance be covered in such a short period of night? We need not search any
further, since the Glorious Quran tells us it was Subhaan who took His servant from the
sacred mosque to the furthest mosque. The Divine name Subhaan 'the one who is flawless
without defect or weakness, the Glorified, The Quran claims the One took His servant on
this miraculous journey is the one who is free from every kind of weakness.
The Lord of the universe, Who can create from nothing by the mere command of kun (Be) and fa-yakun (it becomes), by using the divine epithet Subhaan, the clouds of doubt vanish in the air ! Hence the denial of the Miraj is not the denial of the miraculous journey, but the power of Allah.
The Dome of the rock
http://amideastchangeofcourse.org/Dom...,_tb042403.jpg is the oldest Muslim building which has survived basically intact in its original form.
It was built by the Caliph Abd al-Malik and completed in 691 CE. The building encloses a huge rock located at its center, from which, according to tradition, the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven at the end of his Night Journey. In the Jewish tradition this is the Foundation Stone, the symbolic foundation upon which the world was created, and the place of the Binding of Isaac.
The Caliph Omar is said to have cleared the waste which had accumulated on the rock during the Byzantine period. The structure is octagonal and the dome is borne by a double system of pillars and columns. The walls, ceiling, arches, and vaults are decorated with floral images. The dome, on the inside, is covered with colored and gilded stucco. Abd al-Malik marked the end of the construction with a dedicatory inscription (still visible) which reads:
"This dome was built by the servant of God Abd al-Malik Ibn Marwan, emir of the faithful, in the year seventy-two" (Hejira 72 in the Muslim calendar is691/692 CE). Under the Abassid ruler, Caliph al-Mamun (r. 813-833), repairs were carried out, and the caliph also seized the occasion to replace the tiles bearing al-Malik's name with others bearing his own name as the building's founder.
The term the "farthest mosque" is considered in Islamic tradition as the general name for the precinct of al-Haram al-Sharif ("The Noble Sacred Enclosure") in Jerusalem, as well as the specific name for the congregational mosque located at its southern edge.
The contemporary congregational mosque of al-Aqsa is a result of different stages of construction and renovations. It is usually agreed upon that Abd al-Malik, the Umayyad Caliph who was the patron of the Dome of the Rock, started the construction of al-Aqsa Mosque at the end of the 7th century. A major building phase took place during the time of the Caliphate of his son, Abd al-Malik (709-715 AD). The building suffered from several major earthquakes and was renovated and reconstructed during the Abbasid period by Caliph al-Mahdi (775-785) and possibly by Caliph al-Mansur (743-75).
A further reconstruction was executed during the Fatimid period, in the 11th century. During the
Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem the mosque was considered as Templum Salomonis (the royal palace of Solomon) and it served as the palace of the Kings of Jerusalem and later as the dwelling place of the Knights Templars. At the same time the Dome of the Rock was regarded as the Templum Domini (The Temple of the Lord). Moreover, several major restorations are known to have taken place during the 14th and 20th century.
The mosque consists today of a seven bay hypostyle hall with several additional small halls to the west and east of the southern section of the building. Unlike most hypostylestyle mosques the building does not have a clearly delineated courtyard unless one considers the whole Haram as its court. It is capped with a silver dome, made of lead sheets, which together with the golden dome of the Dome of the Rock, formulate the icon of the Haram in Jerusalem
