The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume I — Page 272
Seal of the Prophets - Volume I 272 that he was still resting in the Masjid-e-Ḥarām just as before. 1 In some narrations, in the account of the Mi‘rāj , it is mentioned that a horse-like animal named Burrāq was brought and the Holy Prophet sa performed his journey upon it, and that two or three cups of milk, alcohol, etc. , were presented before the Holy Prophet sa. However, research seems to tell us that these visions are actually connected to the Isrā’ , and as per the belief of various early scholars, 2 due to the error of narrators, it has been mixed with the account of the Mi‘rāj. ُ وَاللّٰه ُ اَعْلَم The second occurrence is of the Isrā’. Isrā’ is also an Arabic word which means to take someone from one place to another by night, or to travel. Since the Holy Prophet sa was made to perform this journey by night, it has been named the Isrā’. The following has been mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān with regards to the Isrā’ :. . . . . . . Meaning, “Glory to that God who carried His servant from the Sacred Mosque to the Distant Mosque during the course of one night, the environs of which We have blessed, that We may show Our servant some of Our Signs. No doubt, God is All-Hearing and All-Seeing………This was the same time when, O Messenger, We said to thee, ‘Surely, thy Lord has encompassed the people. ’ And We made not the vision which We showed thee but as a trial for men. ” 3 1 * Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, Kitābuṣ-Ṣalāt, Bābu Kayfa Furiḍatiṣ-Ṣalawātu fil-Isrā’, Ḥadīth No. 349 * Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, Kitābu Bad’il-Khalq, Bābu Dhikril-Malā’ikati. . . , Ḥadīth No. 3207 * Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, Kitābut-Tafsīr, Tafsīru Sūratil-Najm, Bāb 1/1, Ḥadīth No. 4855 * Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, Kitābut-Tauḥīd, Bābu Mā Jā’a fī Qaulihi Azza wa Jalla wa Kallamallāhu Mūsā Taklīmā, Ḥadīth No. 7517 * Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitābul-Īmān, Bābul-Isrā’i bi-Rasūlillāhi sa ilas-Samāwāti wa Farḍiṣ-Ṣalawāt, Ḥadīth No. 411 2 * Sharḥul-‘Allāmatiz-Zarqānī ‘alal-Mawāhibil-Ladunniyyah, By Muḥammad bin ‘Abdul-Bāqī Az- Zarqānī, Volume 8, pp. 95-102, Al-Maqṣadul-Khāmis fī Takhṣīṣihī ‘Alaihiṣ-Ṣalātu was-Salāmu bi- Khaṣā’iṣil-Mi‘rāj wal-Isrā’, Dārul-Kutubil-‘Ilmiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (1996) 3 Banī Isrā’īl (17:2,61)