The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 538
CH. 17 BANI ISRĀ'ĪL PT. 15 when they returned to Mecca (Muir, Khaṣā'iṣul-Kubrā, vol. 1, p. 162). The Life of Mahomet, 1923, p. 80). Similarly, a tradition quoted by The reason which, according to Baihaqi on the authority of Ibn traditions, led to their early return Shihāb, relates that the Isrā' took was this. The Holy Prophet was one place a year before the Hijrah. day reciting chapter 53. When he Another tradition also quoted by came to the words, Rather prostrate Baihaqi places the Night Journey to yourselves before Allah, and worship Jerusalem six months before the Him (53:63), the Prophet and the Hijrah (Al-Khaṣā'iṣul-Kubrā, vol. 1, Muslims with him fell prostrate on p. 162). the ground. The disbelievers present on the occasion, being overwhelmed with the grand theme of the Surah and the solemnity of the occasion, also joined the Prophet in prostration. This gave rise to the rumour that the Quraish had converted to Islam. When this rumour reached Abyssinia, Muslim refugees hastened back to Mecca. This shows that the recitation of the Surah which led to this incident having taken place, must have been revealed in the fifth year of the Call or sometime prior to it. After a brief description of the Mi'raj or the Spiritual Ascension of the Holy Prophet and of the time when it took place, it may be noted here that the Isra' or the Night Journey of the Holy Prophet from Mecca to Jerusalem, with which the present verse deals took place in the eleventh year of the Call (Zurqāni, vol. 1, p. 306). Christian writers, however, put it in the twelfth year of the Call (Muir, The Life of Mahomet, 1923, p. 121). Traditions relating to this incident also corroborate the date referred to above. According to the traditions quoted by Ibn Merdawaih and Ibn Sa'd, the Isra' took place on the seventeenth of Rabi'ul-Awwal, a year before the Hijrah (Al- All these traditions go to prove that the Isrā' took place six months or a year prior to the Hijrah and it has been shown above that the Mi'raj took place about the fifth year of the Call. Thus the two incidents are separated from each other by an interval of six or seven years and therefore cannot be identical; the Mi'raj must be regarded as quite distinct and separate from the Isrā'. Irrefutable evidence which shows that the Mi'rāj and the Isrā' were two separate incidents is the fact that it was during the fifth year of the Call that the five daily prayers were enjoined upon Muslims. If the Mi'rāj be considered as identical with the Isra', then it will also have to be admitted that the five daily Prayers were enjoined upon Muslims in the eleventh or twelfth year of the Call which is evidently wrong because all traditionalists agree that the five Prayers were prescribed in the very early years of the Call. 1746 It may incidentally be stated here that the Mi'raj itself seems to have occurred twice. As it appears from the Ḥadīth, the first Mi'raj occurred in the beginning of the Holy Prophet's ministry when the foundation of the Shari'ah may be said to have been