MUHAMMAD'S NIGHT JOURNEY

No Muslim can deny the importance of Mohammed's night journey in Islam, because this flight is credited with determining the Islamic rituals of praying five times a day, and performing ablution - or washing before prayer. In other words Mohammed's night journey is supposed to impact the lives of 1.5 billion Muslims all over the world - five times - each and every day.

Surah 17.1 Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things).

Mohammed's one-night journey is said to have covered the 766 miles from Mecca to Jerusalem, included a leg up to heaven and a return to Mecca by morning, and is described in part as follows:

Sahih Muslim, Book 001, Number 0309: It is narrated on the authority of Anas b. Malik that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: I was brought al-Buraq Who is an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place his hoof a distance equal to the range of vision. I mounted it and came to the Temple (Bait Maqdis in Jerusalem), then tethered it to the ring used by the prophets. I entered the mosque and prayed two rak'ahs in it, and then came out and Gabriel brought me a vessel of wine and a vessel of milk.

So Mohammed flew on al-Buraq to the temple in Jerusalem, tied it up to a ring "the prophets" had used, and went on into the Temple to pray. Because of the fantastic nature of Mohammed's claims, some 21st century Muslims try to suggest that this was a vision or dream, but according to perhaps the most highly regarded transmitter of Islamic tradition Ibn 'Abbas:

Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 5, B58, #228: Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: The sights which Allah's Apostle was shown on the Night Journey when he was taken to Bait-ul-Maqdis (i.e. Jerusalem) were actual sights, (not dreams). And the Cursed Tree (mentioned) in the Quran is the tree of Zaqqum (itself).

Additionally, the rock enshrined in the Dome of the Rock on the temple mount, is supposed to be where Mohammed launched from, for the leg of the trip to heaven. So it would be untenable to suggest that Mohammed's journey was a dream or vision, while at the same time claiming that he launched from a very much physical and tangible rock, on the temple mount.

There were many skeptics when Mohammed recounted the details of his trip the morning after his night journey on the flying animal. As Dr. Rafat Amari points out in the introduction to "Islam: In Light of History", Abu Bakar (the first assistant of Mohammed who became his first Caliph) confirmed Mohammed's descriptions of the temple he had visited, because Abu Baker claimed he had once taken a journey to Jerusalem and had seen the temple himself, and remembered it to be just as Mohammed had described it.

There is, however, a little difficulty with their accounts. The temple had been torn down over 500 years before their claims of having made personal visits to it. Indeed if Mohammed had actually hitched his flying animal anywhere near where the temple had been, to the "ring" he suggested "the prophets" had hitched theirs, at the time in history that his night flight was supposed to have taken place, he would have found that the temple mount was being used as a garbage dump. The Muslim's own Caliph Omar would have observed this when he marched into Jerusalem in 639 AD, not many years after Mohammed offered his account detailed above.

While Mohammed and Bakr didn't need to be concerned about their largely illiterate followers traveling the 766 miles from Mecca to Jerusalem, to scrutinize their accounts, what excuse do today's followers of Muhammad have in this 21st century information age?

* In light of the fact that both the Quran and the Islamic traditions contain this historical error, how can you trust either source to provide you with reliable information on the life of Muhammad and the first Muslims?

* Does not the fact that the Quran mentions a Mosque which was only erected in AD 691 prove that there were Muslims who unashamedly and deceitfully added stories to the Quranic text and passed them off as revelation from God?

Flying camels, or baraqs, were nothing new to Islamic "tradition". It was how they explained away the transportation impossibilities that resulted from the fictional history the Islamic "historians" had created.

For example some claimed it was one of these mythical flying animals that enabled Abraham who lived in Hebron, to pay visits to his son Ishmael in Mecca, a 1200 kilometers away. Some of Islam's "historians" claim it was a baraq that enabled Ishmael to attend his father Abraham's funeral in Hebron. Are we beginning to get the picture? Any time the thousand kilometers between Mecca and Israel demonstrates the conspicuous geographical impossibility, of any suggestion that Abraham or Ishmael were ever within 1,000 kilometers of where Mecca was eventually settled in the 4th century AD, simply break out the flying donkey-mule!

"The Pahlavi Texts of the book of Dinkard are Zoroastrian canonical comments on the Avesta, considered part of the Zoroastrian scriptures. It mentioned KaiKhusrois, a mythological prophet who transformed Vae, the god of the air, into the shape of a camel. He then mounted him and went where the immortal mythological Persians dwelt."

Even more amusing is Islam's fable regarding King Solomon riding around on/under a giant flying platform that could accommodate his whole army! Covered in more detail on our Islam's fables page at this link.

"It should be pointed out to the reader, that from all the Hadith records as well as from the Quran, one can discern a pattern of behaviour as well as of relaying a message which shows that Muhammad was obsessed with doing all his deeds - or alleged deeds/events - at night, when there are no witnesses. Take for example, the following momentous alleged events:

17:1 Glory to (Allah) Who did take His Servant for journey by night [Asra/Travel] from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose precincts We did Bless in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the one Who heareth and seeth (all things)"

The first verse, represents Muhammad's alleged violent encounter with the angel Gabriel who 'revealed' to him the first verse of the Quran. Muhammad, the PURPORTED 'prophet', FORGOT on which night of the month of Ramadan, it took place.

In both cases, the 'miraculous events' occurred in the DEAD of NIGHT without WITNESSES, and only the words of Muhammad as evidence. These alleged 'miracles' are in contrast to those stupendous miracles performed by Moses in DAYLIGHT and in front of the whole of EGYPT and the ISRAELITES.

(URL) The interpretation of this Aya/Verse is found first and foremost in the biography of Muhammad written by Muhammad Ibn Ishaq (d 767; 140 years after the death of Muhammad) in his book Sirat Rassoul Allah (Re. A. Guillaume's sections 265/6 p183) which informs us with great honesty, on the authority of his wife Aisha, that his body never left her side and that he was only transported spiritually; this is corroborated by the Qarawiyun Library Manuscript in Fez, Morocco, where it repeats that Ibn Ishaq relates on the authority of Aisha the Prophet's wife and most intimate companion of his later years, who declared emphatically that "he was transported 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.

In another version in (section 267 p 184) , it is Hind, Umm Hani d. of Abu Talib that relates concerning the Night Journey: 'The apostle went on no Night Journey except while he was in my house. He slept that night in my house. He prayed the final night prayer and he slept and we slept there.….'"

Ibn Abbas added: The sights which Allah's Apostle was shown on the Night Journey when he was taken to Bait-ul-Maqdis (i.e. Jerusalem) were actual sights, (not dreams). And the Cursed Tree (mentioned) in the Qur'an is the tree of Zaqqum (itself).

So if Muhammad never left his bed, then the only claim the religion of Islam has to any part of the Holy Land of Israel, goes up in smoke. Simply more Islamic fiction. Which was already obvious to those of us who do not believe in flying donkey-mules.

Indeed, when seen in the light of the "Mecca" page of this site, what we learn is that every Muslim on earth, bows toward and is supposed to travel to and circumambulate, the very same black stone that the pagans circumambulated before Mohammed was ever born. Now we are told that the reason that Muslims prostrate themselves toward that black stone idol five times a day, and wash before doing so, is because Mohammed claimed to have taken a trip on a flying donkey-mule. Beyond the obvious questions about flying animals that even an 8 year old might ask, Mohammed's visit to, and prayer in, the temple in Jerusalem is not only a geographical but also a historical impossibility. Some suggest it was a reference to the mosque that was eventually built on the temple mount, but obviously no "prophets" ever tied camels up to that mosque because it wasn't built until 685 AD, long after Mohammed was dead and buried.

The actual reason Muslims pray five times a day and perform ablution, as well as prostrate in prayer, fast during Ramadan and wear long white robes, is most likely because Mohammed became deeply involved in the second century occult cult of the Sabians, by way of four of his relatives. This cult apparently had so much influence over Mohammed's daily life, that some in his own tribe referred to him as "the Sabian". In the Quran Mohammed lists Sabians right alongside Christians and Jews.

The Honafa’, or Ahnaf, was a small group started when four Sabians at Mecca agreed. Those four were Zayd bin Amru bin Nafil, Waraqa ibn Naufal, Ubaydullah bin Jahsh, and Uthman Bin al-Huwayrith.[xxxi][31]

The four founders of Ahnaf were all related to Mohammed. They were descendants of Loayy, one of Mohammed's ancestors. Furthermore, Waraqa ibn Naufal and Uthman Bin al-Huwayrith were cousins of Khadijah. We know this from Mohammed’s genealogy presented by Ibn Hisham.[xxxii][32] Ubaydullah Bin Jahsh was a maternal cousin to Mohammed. Mohammed married his widow, Um Habibeh. All this reveals the close connection between Mohammed and the founders of the group."

Before fundamental, Quran and Hadith following - true Muslims - received Western financing through oil purchase to expand their murder of innocents all around the world - with 2 million killed in the Sudan alone by the Islamic beast during this Islamic Second Jihad - the only thing most folks would have likely recalled knowing about Arabia would have been children's stories like Aladdin's lamp from which a genie emerged when it was rubbed, and Ali Baba and his magic flying carpet. Interesting to learn from Islamic sources, that after Muhammad came up with his tall tale many of his illiterate SW Arabian desert dwelling followers, had enough sense to leave Islam. So what on earth is up with the 1.5 billion people that follow Muhammad in this information age?


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In other words Mohammed's night journey is supposed to impact the lives of 1.5 billion Muslims all over the world - five times - each and every day. Surah 17.1 Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things). Mohammed's one-night journey is said to have covered the 766 miles from Mecca to Jerusalem, included a leg up to heaven and a return to Mecca by morning, and is described in part as follows: Sahih Muslim, Book 001, Number 0309: It is narrated on the authority of Anas b. Malik that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: I was brought al-Buraq Who is an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place his hoof a distance equal to the range of vision. I mounted it and came to the Temple (Bait Maqdis in Jerusalem), then tethered it to the ring used by the prophets. I entered the mosque and prayed two rak'ahs in it, and then came out and Gabriel brought me a vessel of wine and a vessel of milk. So Mohammed flew on al-Buraq to the temple in Jerusalem, tied it up to a ring "the prophets" had used, and went on into the Temple to pray. Because of the fantastic nature of Mohammed's claims, some 21st century Muslims try to suggest that this was a vision or dream, but according to perhaps the most highly regarded transmitter of Islamic tradition Ibn 'Abbas: Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 5, B58, #228: Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: The sights which Allah's Apostle was shown on the Night Journey when he was taken to Bait-ul-Maqdis (i.e. Jerusalem) were actual sights, (not dreams). And the Cursed Tree (mentioned) in the Quran is the tree of Zaqqum (itself). Additionally, the rock enshrined in the Dome of the Rock on the temple mount, is supposed to be where Mohammed launched from, for the leg of the trip to heaven. So it would be untenable to suggest that Mohammed's journey was a dream or vision, while at the same time claiming that he launched from a very much physical and tangible rock, on the temple mount. There were many skeptics when Mohammed recounted the details of his trip the morning after his night journey on the flying animal. As Dr. Rafat Amari points out in the introduction to "Islam: In Light of History", Abu Bakar (the first assistant of Mohammed who became his first Caliph) confirmed Mohammed's descriptions of the temple he had visited, because Abu Baker claimed he had once taken a journey to Jerusalem and had seen the temple himself, and remembered it to be just as Mohammed had described it. There is, however, a little difficulty with their accounts. The temple had been torn down over 500 years before their claims of having made personal visits to it. Indeed if Mohammed had actually hitched his flying animal anywhere near where the temple had been, to the "ring" he suggested "the prophets" had hitched theirs, at the time in history that his night flight was supposed to have taken place, he would have found that the temple mount was being used as a garbage dump. The Muslim's own Caliph Omar would have observed this when he marched into Jerusalem in 639 AD, not many years after Mohammed offered his account detailed above. While Mohammed and Bakr didn't need to be concerned about their largely illiterate followers traveling the 766 miles from Mecca to Jerusalem, to scrutinize their accounts, what excuse do today's followers of Muhammad have in this 21st century information age? For many accounts of Mohammed's night flight by the chroniclers of Islam, please visit the following link to answering-islam.org. As they also inquire: "In light of all this, we ask the following questions: * What Temple did Muhammad visit, enter and pray at before ascending to heaven? * Seeing that the Quran mentions a journey to a Mosque that did not exist during the lifetime of Muhammad, how can you consider the Quran to be 100% the word of God? * In light of the fact that both the Quran and the Islamic traditions contain this historical error, how can you trust either source to provide you with reliable information on the life of Muhammad and the first Muslims? * Does not the fact that the Quran mentions a Mosque which was only erected in AD 691 prove that there were Muslims who unashamedly and deceitfully added stories to the Quranic text and passed them off as revelation from God? * If you cannot find an answer to this historical problem within the Quran, why do you still remain a Muslim?" For a look at historical accounts of other cults with similar ascension stories to Mohammed's please click here. _________________ Flying camels, or baraqs, were nothing new to Islamic "tradition". It was how they explained away the transportation impossibilities that resulted from the fictional history the Islamic "historians" had created. For example some claimed it was one of these mythical flying animals that enabled Abraham who lived in Hebron, to pay visits to his son Ishmael in Mecca, a 1200 kilometers away. Some of Islam's "historians" claim it was a baraq that enabled Ishmael to attend his father Abraham's funeral in Hebron. Are we beginning to get the picture? Any time the thousand kilometers between Mecca and Israel demonstrates the conspicuous geographical impossibility, of any suggestion that Abraham or Ishmael were ever within 1,000 kilometers of where Mecca was eventually settled in the 4th century AD, simply break out the flying donkey-mule! But then the flying steed wasn't invented by Muslim historians but had been in mythology from long before. It was utilized in Persian Zoroastrian mythology. Quoting Dr. Amari "The Pahlavi Texts of the book of Dinkard are Zoroastrian canonical comments on the Avesta, considered part of the Zoroastrian scriptures. It mentioned KaiKhusrois, a mythological prophet who transformed Vae, the god of the air, into the shape of a camel. He then mounted him and went where the immortal mythological Persians dwelt." And of course we are all familiar with Pegasus, the flying horse, of Greek mythology. Even more amusing is Islam's fable regarding King Solomon riding around on/under a giant flying platform that could accommodate his whole army! Covered in more detail on our Islam's fables page at this link. _________________ From inthenameofallah.org regarding Surah 96:1 (encounter with a spirit) and 17:1 (night journey) "It should be pointed out to the reader, that from all the Hadith records as well as from the Quran, one can discern a pattern of behaviour as well as of relaying a message which shows that Muhammad was obsessed with doing all his deeds - or alleged deeds/events - at night, when there are no witnesses. Take for example, the following momentous alleged events: 96:1 "Proclaim! (or Read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher Who created man out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood…" 17:1 Glory to (Allah) Who did take His Servant for journey by night [Asra/Travel] from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose precincts We did Bless in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the one Who heareth and seeth (all things)" The first verse, represents Muhammad's alleged violent encounter with the angel Gabriel who 'revealed' to him the first verse of the Quran. Muhammad, the PURPORTED 'prophet', FORGOT on which night of the month of Ramadan, it took place. The second verse, represents the alleged Night Journey. In both cases, the 'miraculous events' occurred in the DEAD of NIGHT without WITNESSES, and only the words of Muhammad as evidence. These alleged 'miracles' are in contrast to those stupendous miracles performed by Moses in DAYLIGHT and in front of the whole of EGYPT and the ISRAELITES. (URL) The interpretation of this Aya/Verse is found first and foremost in the biography of Muhammad written by Muhammad Ibn Ishaq (d 767; 140 years after the death of Muhammad) in his book Sirat Rassoul Allah (Re. A. Guillaume's sections 265/6 p183) which informs us with great honesty, on the authority of his wife Aisha, that his body never left her side and that he was only transported spiritually; this is corroborated by the Qarawiyun Library Manuscript in Fez, Morocco, where it repeats that Ibn Ishaq relates on the authority of Aisha the Prophet's wife and most intimate companion of his later years, who declared emphatically that "he was transported 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. In another version in (section 267 p 184) , it is Hind, Umm Hani d. of Abu Talib that relates concerning the Night Journey: 'The apostle went on no Night Journey except while he was in my house. He slept that night in my house. He prayed the final night prayer and he slept and we slept there.….'" Some traditions assert that this may have been a spiritual ascent, while others suggest physical: "Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith 5.228 Narrated byIbn Abbas Regarding the Statement of Allah" "And We granted the vision (ascension to the heavens) which We made you see (as an actual eye witness) was only made as a trial for the people." (17.60) Ibn Abbas added: The sights which Allah's Apostle was shown on the Night Journey when he was taken to Bait-ul-Maqdis (i.e. Jerusalem) were actual sights, (not dreams). And the Cursed Tree (mentioned) in the Qur'an is the tree of Zaqqum (itself). Whose version should one trust, that of the wife who slept with him or of his companions who were not present?" So if Muhammad never left his bed, then the only claim the religion of Islam has to any part of the Holy Land of Israel, goes up in smoke. Simply more Islamic fiction. Which was already obvious to those of us who do not believe in flying donkey-mules. _______________________ Indeed, when seen in the light of the "Mecca" page of this site, what we learn is that every Muslim on earth, bows toward and is supposed to travel to and circumambulate, the very same black stone that the pagans circumambulated before Mohammed was ever born. Now we are told that the reason that Muslims prostrate themselves toward that black stone idol five times a day, and wash before doing so, is because Mohammed claimed to have taken a trip on a flying donkey-mule. Beyond the obvious questions about flying animals that even an 8 year old might ask, Mohammed's visit to, and prayer in, the temple in Jerusalem is not only a geographical but also a historical impossibility. Some suggest it was a reference to the mosque that was eventually built on the temple mount, but obviously no "prophets" ever tied camels up to that mosque because it wasn't built until 685 AD, long after Mohammed was dead and buried. The actual reason Muslims pray five times a day and perform ablution, as well as prostrate in prayer, fast during Ramadan and wear long white robes, is most likely because Mohammed became deeply involved in the second century occult cult of the Sabians, by way of four of his relatives. This cult apparently had so much influence over Mohammed's daily life, that some in his own tribe referred to him as "the Sabian". In the Quran Mohammed lists Sabians right alongside Christians and Jews. surah 2:62 Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day... surah 5:69 Those who believe (in the Qur'an), those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the sabians and the Christians... And guess what? The occult Sabian cult prayed five times a day, performed ablution, prostrated in prayer, fasted during the same month of Ramadan and wore long white robes. Excerpt from "Occultism in the family of Mohammed" "Waraqa was one of the founders of the group called Ahnaf. In the first narration of the life of Mohammed, written by Ibn Hisham in the 8th century A.D., we read: The Honafa’, or Ahnaf, was a small group started when four Sabians at Mecca agreed. Those four were Zayd bin Amru bin Nafil, Waraqa ibn Naufal, Ubaydullah bin Jahsh, and Uthman Bin al-Huwayrith.[xxxi][31] The four founders of Ahnaf were all related to Mohammed. They were descendants of Loayy, one of Mohammed's ancestors. Furthermore, Waraqa ibn Naufal and Uthman Bin al-Huwayrith were cousins of Khadijah. We know this from Mohammed’s genealogy presented by Ibn Hisham.[xxxii][32] Ubaydullah Bin Jahsh was a maternal cousin to Mohammed. Mohammed married his widow, Um Habibeh. All this reveals the close connection between Mohammed and the founders of the group." For more on the origins of the tradition of Ramadan please click here for "Ramadan and its Roots" by Dr. Rafat Amari Before fundamental, Quran and Hadith following - true Muslims - received Western financing through oil purchase to expand their murder of innocents all around the world - with 2 million killed in the Sudan alone by the Islamic beast during this Islamic Second Jihad - the only thing most folks would have likely recalled knowing about Arabia would have been children's stories like Aladdin's lamp from which a genie emerged when it was rubbed, and Ali Baba and his magic flying carpet. Interesting to learn from Islamic sources, that after Muhammad came up with his tall tale many of his illiterate SW Arabian desert dwelling followers, had enough sense to leave Islam. So what on earth is up with the 1.5 billion people that follow Muhammad in this information age? *