The Thirty-First Word
On the Ascension of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him)
[NOTE: The Ascension is a question that results from the essentials and pillars of belief, and follows on after them, a light that draws strength from the lights of the pillars of belief. For sure, the Ascension cannot be proved independently to irreligious atheists who do not accept the pillars of belief, because it cannot be discussed with those who neither know God, nor recognize the Prophet, nor accept the angels, and who deny the existence of the heavens. Firstly those pillars must be proved. Since this is the case, we shall address the discussion to a believer who, since he considers it unlikely, has misgivings about the Ascension and we shall explain it to him. However, from time to time we shall take into account the atheist who is the position of listener and shall set forth the matter to him. Some flashes of the truth of the Ascension have been mentioned in others of the other Words. At the insistence of my brothers we seek the grace from Almighty God to unite all those different flashes with the essence of the truth, and with all of them to form a mirror to the beauty of the perfections of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him).]
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Limitless in His glory is He Who transported His servant by night from the Inviolable House of Worship to the Remote House of Worship, the environs of which We had blessed, so that We might show him some of Our signs: for, indeed, He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.1
1
It is no less than inspiration sent down to him; He was taught by one mighty in power, Endued with wisdom: for he appeared in [stately form] While he was in the horizon’s loftiest part. Then he approached and came closer, And was at a distance of but two bow-lengths or [even] nearer; And thus did [God] reveal unto His servant whatever He revealed. The [servant’s] heart in no way falsified what it saw. Will you, then, dispute with him as to what he saw? For, indeed, he saw him at a second descent, Near the Lote-tree of the farthest limit, Near it is to the Garden of Abode. Behold, the Lote-tree was shrouded in mystery unspeakable. [His] eye did not waver, nor yet did it stray. Truly did he see some of the most profound of his Sustainer’s signs.2
Since it is related to our question here, I shall expound two allusions –based on principles of the science of rhetoric– contained in the pronominal phrase for indeed He, which is part of the vast treasury of the first sublime verse mentioned above. It was also explained in the treatise about the Qur’an’s miraculousness.
After mentioning the journey of God’s Most Noble Beloved (Upon whom be the best of blessings and most perfect peace) from the mosque at Mecca to the mosque in Jerusalem, which was the beginning of his Ascension, the All-Wise Qur’an says: He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. This phrase, together with the pronoun in the phrase, for indeed He, which alludes to the furthest point of the Ascension indicated to by the verses from Sura an-Najm, refers either to Almighty God or to the Prophet (PBUH).
If it refers to the Prophet (PBUH), the rule of rhetoric and the relationship in the sequence of the words states the following: there is, within this particular journey a general one and a universal ascent during which the Prophet (PBUH) heard and saw the dominical signs and wonders of Divine art which his eyes and ears happened upon within the universal degrees of the Divine Names as far as the Lote-tree of the farthest limit and the distance of two bow-lengths. It indicates that his insignificant and particular journey was like the key to a journey that is both universal and an exhibition of marvels.
If the pronoun refers to Almighty God, it is thus: in order to invite one of His servants on a journey to His presence and to entrust him with a duty, after sending him from the Mosque in Mecca to that in Jerusalem, which is where the prophets gather, and causing him to meet with them and demonstrating that he was the sole heir of the principles of the religions of all the prophets, He took him on a journey through both the external face of the world of existence and the face that looks to its Creator as far as the Lote-tree of the farthest limit and the distance of two bow-lengths.
Certainly, he was a servant and the journey was a particular Ascension, but he had been accorded a Trust that was connected to the whole universe and had been given a light that would change the colour of the universe. Moreover, since he had with him the key to open the door leading to eternal happiness, God Almighty bestowed on him the attribute of “seeing and hearing all things” so that he might demonstrate the world-embracing comprehensive wisdom of the Trust, light, and key – wisdom and purposes which encompassed the whole universe and embraced all creatures.
This profound truth contains four Principles.The First: Why was the Ascension necessary?The Second: What was the reality of the Ascension?The Third: What was the wisdom and purpose of the Ascension? The Fourth: What are the fruits and benefits of the Ascension?
First Principle
Second Principle
Third Principle
Fourth Principle
What are the fruits and benefits of the Ascension?
The Answer: We shall mention only five, by way of example, of the more than five hundred fruits of the Ascension, which has the meaning of the Tree of Tuba.
FIRST FRUIT
This fruit has brought to the universe and mankind a treasury, a gift of pre-eternal and post-eternal Light, which is to see with the eyes the truths of the pillars of belief and to behold the angels, Paradise, the hereafter, and even the All-Glorious One. It raises the universe from an imaginary state of wretchedness, transitoriness, and disorder and, through that Light and fruit, shows its reality, which is its consisting of sacred missives of the Eternally Besought One and being a beautiful mirror to the beauty of Divine oneness. It has made happy and pleased the universe and all conscious beings.
Furthermore, through this Light and sacred fruit, it shows that man is not merely bewildered, wretched, impotent, impoverished, with endless needs and innumerable enemies, ephemeral and impermanent, which is like the state of misguidance; it shows man in his true form of being a miracle of the Eternally Besought One’s power on ‘the most excellent of patterns,’ a comprehensive copy of the Eternally Besought One’s missives, an addressee of the Pre-Eternal and Post-Eternal Monarch, the special bondsman, the admirer and friend of His perfections, the lover bewildered at His beauty, and a beloved guest appointed to eternal Paradise. It has filled all human beings who are true human beings with infinite joy and infinite longing.
SECOND FRUIT
This fruit has brought to jinn and man as a gift the fundamentals of Islam, and first and foremost the prescribed prayers,18 which constitute those things pleasing to the Sustainer, the Ruler of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, Who is the Maker of beings, Owner of the universe, and Sustainer of all the worlds. To discover the things that please Him brings such happiness it cannot be described. For how eager is everyone to find out, from a distance, the desires of a powerful benefactor or generous king, and if they find out, how delighted they are. They say longingly: “If only there was some means by which I could communicate with that personage directly. If only I could learn what he wants of me. If only I knew what would please him that I could do.”
Man, then, should understand just how necessary it is to be desirous and eager to discover the wishes and pleasure of the Ruler of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity. For all beings are in the grasp of His power, and the beauty and perfections to be found in all beings are but pale shadows in relation to His beauty and perfection, and being needy for Him in innumerable ways, man constantly receives countless numbers of His bounties.
Thus, as a direct fruit of the Ascension, Muhammad (PBUH) heard with utter certainty what it is that pleases the Monarch of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, behind seventy thousand veils, and returning, brought it as a gift to mankind.
Indeed, how curious is man to learn the conditions on the moon. If someone was to go there and return bringing news of it, both what self-sacrifice he would display, and, if he was to understand the conditions there, how he would be overcome by wonder and curiosity. But the moon is merely touring in the domain of a Lord of such dominion that it encircles the globe of the earth like a fly, and the globe flies round the sun like a moth, while the sun is one lamp among thousands and is just a candle in a guest-house of that Glorious Lord of All Dominion.
Thus, Muhammad (PBUH) saw the works and wonders of art and treasuries of mercy in the everlasting realm of this All-Glorious One, and he returned and informed mankind. And so, if mankind does not listen to him with complete wonder, curiosity, and love, you can understand how contrary to reason and wisdom is their attitude.
THIRD FRUIT
Muhammad (PBUH) saw the treasury of eternal happiness, obtained the key, and brought it as a gift to jinn and men. Yes, through the Ascension, he saw Paradise with his own eyes and witnessed the eternal manifestations of the All-Glorious and Merciful One’s mercy; he understood eternal happiness with absolute and utter certainty and brought as a gift to jinn and men the good news of its existence.
If wretched jinn and men imagine themselves and all beings to be in the soul-searing situation of an unstable world amid the upheavals of decease and separation, being poured with the flood of time and motion of particles into the oceans of non-existence and eternal separation, it cannot be described how precious and enheartening such good news is in the ears of ephemeral jinn and men, who thus supposed themselves to be condemned to eternal annihilation. If, at the moment he is to be executed and sent to non-existence, a man is pardoned and given a palace in proximity to the king, what great joy this would cause him. So, gather up all such joy and happiness to the number of jinn and men and then evaluate this good news.
FOURTH FRUIT
Just as he himself sampled the fruit of the vision of Divine beauty, so did he bring to jinn and men the gift of this fruit being attainable by all believers. You may understand from the following how delightful, pleasing, and exquisite a fruit this is.
Everyone of fine perception loves one who possesses beauty and perfection and is benevolent, and his love increases proportionately to their degrees; it reaches the degree of worship and a pitch whereat he would sacrifice his very life. On seeing that person only once, his love becomes such he would sacrifice the world. However, in relation to the beauty, perfection, and benevolence of God Almighty, the beauty, perfection and benevolence of all beings are not the equivalent of even a few tiny sparks in relation to the sun. That is to say, if you are a true human being, you may understand how delightful and fine a fruit it is and what happiness and joy it brings to receive in eternal happiness the vision of the All-Glorious One of Perfection, Who is worthy of boundless love, infinite longing, and being gazed upon eternally.
FIFTH FRUIT
Man’s being the precious fruit of the universe and the petted beloved of the Maker of the universe was understood through the Ascension, and he brought this fruit to jinn and men. This fruit raises man, an insignificant creature, a weak animal, an impotent conscious being, to an elevated rank of pride above all the beings in the universe. It gives man indescribable pleasure and joyful happiness. For if it is said to an ordinary private: “You have been promoted to the rank of field marshal,” how delighted he will be. But wretched man is an ephemeral, impotent ‘rational animal’ who constantly suffers the blows of decease and separation. If then he is told that not only will he make excursions and tours with the speed of imagination and breadth of the spirit in an eternal never- ending Paradise within the mercy of an All-Compassionate and Generous Merciful One, and journey in the mind in accordance with all the desires of his heart in both the outer dimensions of things and those dimensions that look directly to their Creator, but that he will also behold the vision of Divine beauty in eternal happiness, you can imagine what a profound joy and true happiness a human being who has not fallen from the level of humanity would feel in his heart.
Now we say to our listener: Tear off the shirt of atheism and throw it away! Listen with believing ears! Look with Muslim eyes! We shall show you through two short comparisons the great value in one or two further fruits.
For example, you and I are together in a certain country. We see that everything is hostile to us and to each other, and is strange to us. Everywhere is full of ghastly corpses. The sounds to be heard are the weeping of orphans and the lamentations of the oppressed. So if someone appears when we are in that situation bringing good news from the king of the country by which those of his subjects who were strange to us assume the form of friends and the enemies turn into brothers, and the ghastly corpses are seen to be worshipping and praising and glorifying in deep humility and submission; and if the piteous weeping becomes praise and exaltation and cries of “Long live the king!”, and the deaths and plunder and pillage are transformed into demobilizations and release from duty; and if we join the general joy to our own joy, you will certainly understand how joyful and happy that news is.
Thus, when the beings in the universe are considered with the eye of misguidance, as they were before the light of belief, which is one fruit of the Ascension of Muhammad (PBUH), they are seen to be strange, menacing, troublesome, dreadful, terrifying corpses the size of mountains, while the appointed hour is severing people’s heads and casting them into the pit of eternal, never-ending nothingness. Although misguidance interprets all the voices as being lamentations occasioned by separation and decease, the truths of the pillars of belief, which are fruits of the Ascension, show you that just as beings are brothers and friends to you and praisers and glorifiers of the All-Glorious One, so are death and decease a demobilization and discharge from duties; in reality those voices are all glorifications of God. If you wish to study this truth in its entirety, you may refer to the Second and Eighth Words.
The Second Comparison: You and I are in a place resembling a vast desert. There is a sand-storm in the sea of sand and the night is so black we cannot see even our hands. If suddenly, without without friend or protector, hungry and thirsty, we were despairing and giving up hope, a person was to pass through the curtain of blackness and approach us bringing a car as a gift; and if he was to seat us in it, and then instantly install us in a place like Paradise where our future was secure, food and drink ready prepared, and where we had a most kindly and sympathetic protector, you can understand how pleased we would be.
Thus, that great desert is the face of this world. The sea of sand consists of beings and wretched man, who are tossed around by the force of the flood of time and the motion of particles within events. All human beings see the future with the eye of misguidance, enveloped in terrifying darkness, and their hearts are harrowed with anxiety. They know no one they can make hear their cries for help. They are infinitely hungry, infinitely thirsty.
However, when this world is seen in terms of things pleasing to God, which is a fruit of the Ascension; that is, it is seen to be the guest-house of Someone exceedingly generous, and human beings are seen to His guests and officials, and the future to be as delightful as Paradise, as sweet as mercy, as shining as eternal happiness, you will understand what a delightful, exquisitely sweet fruit it is.
At this point, the one who is listening says: “Never-ending praise and thanks be to Almighty God, for I have been saved from atheism and now affirm Divine unity. I have attained a complete belief, I have gained perfect belief.”
And we say: “Brother! We congratulate you. May Almighty God allow us the intercession of His Most Noble Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him). AMEN.”
O God! Grant blessings to him at whose sign the moon split, and from whose fingers water flowed forth like the spring of Kawthar, the one who made the Ascension and whose eye did not waver, our master Muhammad, and to all his Family and Companions, from the beginning of the world to the end of the Great Gathering.
All glory be unto to You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise!19
O our Sustainer! Accept this from us; for, indeed, You are All-Hearing, All- Knowing!20 O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or unwittingly do wrong!21 O our Sustainer! Let not our hearts swerve from the truth after You have guided us!22 O our Sustainer! Perfect our light for us and grant us forgiveness; for, indeed, You are Powerful over all things!23 And their call will close with, ‘All praise is due to God, the Sustainer of all the worlds.’24
1 Qur’an, 17:1.
2 Qur’an, 53:4-18.
3 Qur’an, 50:16. 4 Qur’an, 16:60.
5 Suyuti, al-Khasa’is al-Kubra, i, 439, 444; Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa’, 190, 192.
6 See, Qur’an, 36:82, etc.
7 Bukhari, viii, 147; Ibn Mubarak, al-Zuhd, ii, 122.
8 Qur’an, 2:29.9 Tirmidhi, Tafsir Sura al-Hadid, 1; Musnad, ii, 370.10 Tabarani, al-Mu’jam al-Kabir, xx, 123; Ibn Hajar, Majma’ al-Zawa’id, viii, 135. 11 This treatise was written in 1928 or ‘29. [Tr.]
12 Husayn al-Jisri, Risale-i Hamidiye 4 vols. Turk.tr. Manastırlı İsmail Hakkı (Istanbul: 1308); Suyuti, al-Khasa’is al-Kubra, i, 26, 73.
13 Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, ‘Uyun al-Athar, I, 29; Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa’, i, 364-6.
14 Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa’, i, 366-8; Bayhaqi, Dala’il al-Nubuwwa, i, 126. 15 Qur’an, 54:1.
16 Suyuti, al-Hawi li’l-Fatawa, ii, Qastalani, al-Mawahib al-Ladunniyya, i, 25-83.
17 Kanz al-‘Ummal, i, 459-60; Manzari, al-Targhib wa’l-Tarhib, ii, 422-3.
18 Bayhaqi, Dala’il al-Nubuwwa, iii, 406; al-Sunna al-Kubra, iv, 362.
19 Qur’an, 2:32. 20 Qur’an, 2:127. 21 Qur’an, 2:286. 22 Qur’an, 3:8.23 Qur’an, 66:8. 24 Qur’an, 10:10.
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