Signs & Miracles · Signs Seen in Public

The night journey, and the test the next morning

Handle with care. Do not add details from popular retellings that the authentic reports do not contain, and do not turn the ascent into a science claim.

In short

• 1.He announced it in the morning, to a hostile city, knowing how it would sound.
• 2.The Quraysh included traders who had been to Jerusalem, so they demanded a description.
• 3.He described the sanctuary, and those who had seen it confirmed the details.
• 4.He also described a caravan on the road and when it would arrive — a claim that could have been checked within days.

The claim being examined

The Prophet said he had been taken by night to Jerusalem and then raised through the heavens. Mecca demanded he describe a city most of them had seen and he had not.

The Islamic position

It is stated in the Qur'an and reported in Bukhari and Muslim. The point to make is not the wonder but the risk: he was cross-examined on the spot.

Analysis

Q 17:1 refers to the journey to al-Masjid al-Aqsa; the ascent (mi'raj) is detailed in Bukhari and Muslim. Al-Bukhari records the Prophet saying that when the Quraysh disbelieved him he was shown Jerusalem and described it to them while looking at it. The apologetic value lies in the falsifiability of the claim in its own setting: the details were open to immediate contradiction by people with commercial experience of the city.

From the Qur'an

From the Sunnah

Sources

Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azim · Al-Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa · Q 17:1; Sahih al-Bukhari 3886; Sahih Muslim 172

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