The Night Journey and Ascension

As-Salāmu ‘Alaykum wa Raḥmatullāhi wa Barakātuh. A‘ūdhu Billāhi Minash-shayṭāni r-rajīm. Bismillāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm. Wa ṣ-Salātu wa s-Salāmu ‘alá Rasūlinā Muḥammadin Sayyidi l-Awwalīna wa l-Akhirīn. Madad yā RasūlAllāh, Madad yā Sādāti Aṣḥābi Rasūlillāh, Madad yā Mashāyikhinā, Dastūr Mawlana Shaykh Abdullāh al-Fā’iz ad-Dāghistāni, Shaykh Muḥammad Nāẓim al-Ḥaqqānī. Madad. Ṭarīqatunā aṣ-Suḥbah wa l-Khayru fi l-Jam‘iyyah.

This is the month of Rajab. May Allah ﷻ make it Mubarak for all of you and the Muslim world insha’Allah. To be Barakah and Hidayah (guidance) for others also to come to His ﷻ Door, Door of Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla.

‘ ’, ‘Wa-Llāhu yad‘ū ilá dāri s-salām’, ‘And Allah invites

to the Home of Peace (i.e. Paradise).’ (Qur’ān 10:25). Allah ﷻ is calling people to peace, House of Peace, to His ﷻ Paradise. He ﷻ is calling all people to it, but people don’t want good things. They are running after bad things. Allah ﷻ is not in need of anybody. If they are all coming, nothing will be more for Allah ﷻ. If nobody comes, also there will not be any effect for Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla. He ﷻ is not in need. We are in need of Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla, for His ﷻ Whole Mightiness. There is no limit for His ﷻ Mightiness. He ﷻ is asking us. Our planet is even like dust in this universe, and we are inside it. So what are we! We are not dust; we are nothing at all. And Allah ﷻ gave us value and asked you to come. And you are running away.

They say, “No. We do not believe.” If you do not believe, you’ll see later what you’ll lose. And there is no second chance for you. If you go from this Dunya without belief, there is no chance for you a second time. But here in Dunya, still until the end of your life, you can come back and Allah ﷻ accepts you; He ﷻ doesn’t refuse you. He ﷻ is very Merciful.

This month is His ﷻ month, the month of Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla. There are many things in this month. First Thursday, this Thursday Night is a holy, blessed night in which Allah ﷻ accepts praying, making Dua for what you want. You must ask on this night. You must be at least praying Isha, sleeping with Wudu’ (ablution), waking up for Fajr or before Fajr and making Dua. Allah ‘Azza waJalla said, “I accept this Dua.” This is the first night. The whole month is blessed.

The second one is the 27th of Rajab which is a very blessed night also. In which Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla invited Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam to His ﷻ Divine Presence. First from Makkah to Qudus, the Night Journey. This is the Night Journey. And after, to heaven from Jerusalem, Qudus. He ﷺ became Imam for all the Prophets in this night, and they were praying behind him ﷺ. He ﷺ is the most beloved one for Allah ﷻ. All Prophets salla Llāhu ‘alayhim wa-sallam like to be from his ﷺ nation. So all of them were praying behind him ﷺ. After this, Allah ﷻ ordered Jibril ‘alayhi s-salam. He took him ﷺ to heavens. This is a very long story. But from first heaven, second heaven, third heaven.. In each heaven there is one Prophet. And there are angels asking who came, they say Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam and they get happy welcoming him ﷺ. Then the second heaven, third heaven, fourth heaven, fifth, sixth, seventh.. until Sayyidina Jibril ‘alayhi s-salam said, “From here is your Maqam. Only you can go from behind this. I cannot go there. Allah ﷻ gave me no permission. If I go, I will burn.” After, he ﷺ was in the Divine Presence of Allah ﷻ in which we don’t know how, what happened, what it is, how it is. Nobody knows because this is only for Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. Because our imagination, our mind cannot reach this Maqam, this place at all. Nobody reached this place before. So Allah ﷻ made it special for Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

Then what happened is, as we said, somebody, some crazy people with a mind, a brain like a chicken’s brain; a small mind. They said, “This was in dream.” Everybody dreams. Many people dream many things. It is not impossible to dream. We may have every kind of dream. But these people, as we said, only have a very small brain and they said this. We don’t know what happened because this is forbidden. If it was forbidden for Jibril ‘alayhi s-salam, for us, it’s more forbidden to ask. We just say that Allah ﷻ gave Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wasallam this high Maqam that nobody can reach.

After this, of course, there is Hadiyya (gift) from Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla to the Ummah: praying 5 times. It was 50 times. But with Sayyidina Musa ‘alayhi ssalam, because he had experience from his nation – every time he came, they said: “Too much” they were bargaining; 45, 40, 35, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5. Every time they said less. Musa ‘alayhi s-salam’s nation is very clever with bargaining for Tijarah, for trading. He ﷺ said “5”, he [Musa] said, “O too much! Too much!” He was right because nobody prays 5 times in this time. So our Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam said, “No I cannot say. It is 5; 5 is okay.” So these 5 [prayers] were gift. And the last two Ayah of Surat Al-Baqarah: {‘Amana r-Rasulu} (Qur’an

02: 285-286). This also is Hadiyya for the Ummah from Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla, directly without Jibril ‘alayhi s-salam.

Another thing is that Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam saw Jahannam; all of what they are doing in Jahannam, how they are suffering. And he ﷺ saw Jannah also. Then he ﷺ came back. Some people ask how the time was like this. Because for Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla, time doesn’t affect Him ﷻ. He ﷻ created time. Time is a creation, but not a normal thing. Allah ﷻ created it for people. We have time. But for Allah ﷻ, if He ﷻ wants, he can make people see before, and see after this also. This is what Prophets had. This is the meaning of Prophecy: it is to see, to tell what will happen later. This is also from Prophecy.

After that, he ﷺ came back and came back to Makkah. It was 2 hours. But it was like a thousand years because he was everywhere. This is called Tayyu Zaman. Time becomes small, small time. When Allah ﷻ wants, He ﷻ makes it a thousand years in 2 hours. This is what happened with Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

And when he ﷺ arrived to Makkah, he ﷺ was saying what he saw, for people to believe and to come; to believe in Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla. Mushriks were happy with this Journey. They said, “O with this, we will finish Muhammad.” They didn’t say RasuluLlah, Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. They said, “Nobody can do this. Nobody can believe this.” They were laughing, calling other people and telling people. At that time, of course the Sahabah weren’t much. They were only maybe 40, 50 people. They came to Sayyidina Abu Bakr Al-Siddīq and said, “Did you hear what your friend is saying?” He said, “What did he ﷺ say?” They said, “He said that he went to Qudus and he went to heavens. Do you believe him?” He said, “He ﷺ said this?” They said, “Yes he said so. We heard this.” He said, “If he said, okay I believe him ﷺ.” He didn’t ask anything, he only asked if he ﷺ said or if they heard from another. From this, his name became Siddīq. He believes. He is a strong believer. And it is coming from Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam to Siddīq, Salman, Ja’far.. this all coming AlhamduliLlah for Tariqah, until now, going from this line AlhamduliLlah. Line of believers insha’Allah; Siddiqiyyah. Before, the Tariqah’s name was “Siddiqiyyah” from Abu Bakr Al-Siddīq. This night, holy night, we insha’Allah celebrate also. Allah ﷻ gives from His ﷻ Mercy, from His ﷻ Barakah to the Ummah insha’Allah.

We are believers. This is what Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam is saying, and he ﷺ saw that. He ﷺ saw Jannah and Jahannam. People said, “We

don’t believe.” If you are a politician, we don’t believe you. If you are an artist, we don’t believe you. If you are a trader, maybe you cheat us. But Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, we believe him ﷺ. Even the Mushriks, they were believing him ﷺ. Until Hijrah, they said, “We don’t believe you” but they were putting everything in his ﷺ house like treasuries. And when they came [back] he ﷺ gave them. So even when they were his ﷺ enemies and they didn’t believe him ﷺ, they trusted him ﷺ. But from their proudness, they didn’t accept him ﷺ. Proudness is a very bad thing. People die without Iman because of proudness. This is what happened with the Mushriks.

May Allah ﷻ help us and make us humble people for Allah ‘Azza wa-Jalla, not humble people with useless people. Be humble with poor people, with believers. But who is proud in front of you and is saying bad things about Muslims or others, don’t be humble with him. You must be more proud with him.

There was one in Ghazwa, fighting war between Mushriks and Muslims. There was one big sword. Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam said, “Who can give this sword a value, price?” Some came, he ﷺ said, “No, not for you.” Another one came, “No.” In the end, there was one Sahabah, I forgot his name. He was very big. He said, “Take this. Will you give it?” “Yes”, he ﷺ said. He put his red turban and he was going to fight. When he was going, he was making such a movement as if he is very proud. Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam said, “This, what he did, Allah ﷻ and Prophet ﷺ don’t like this. But now, I like this.” So he was going [to fight] like cutting grass [to scythe].

So in some places, you must have wisdom as to when you must speak gently and when you must speak a little bit harsher and harder; when you must be proud, when you must be humble. This is also from Adab of Tariqah, not from Shari’ah. Shari’ah is also the same. Tariqah and Shari’ah are the same. But maybe some people, they think they’re different. But this is what Muslims must know, what Tariqah people must know. It is Adab. Adab is not only to be like this: afraid from everyone. Sometimes you must be afraid and sometimes you must say what is needed. May Allah ﷻ give us insha’Allah wisdom, for the sake of this month, for the sake of Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq. Al-Fatiha.

Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani 22 January 2023/ 29 Jumada al-Akhir 1444 Faizan-e-Islam Mosque – Manchester, UK