Book Reading: The Nocturnal Journey and the Heavenly Ascension

Shaykh Ibrahim’s Opinion Concerning the Nocturnal journey and Whether it was Performed in the Spirit or in the Body. 

Shaykh Ibrahim RA has said: 

“Glory be to the One who carried His servant!’ He has called him His servant in three places (in the Qur’an), namely: 

       Glory be to the One who carried His servant by night…17:1 

        Praise be to Allah, who has revealed to His servant the Book. 18:1 

        And when Allah’s servant stood up…72:19. 

“One day, he overheard the Companions saying: ‘How wonderful is Ibrahim! Allah SWT has said that he is His khalil (friend)!’ One of them said: ‘How wonderful is Moses, for he is Allah’s kalîm (interlocutor)!’ Another said: ‘How wonderful is Jesus, for he is rûh (His spirit)!’ He approached them and said SAW: ‘I heard what you were saying, and this is indeed how it is! If Moses the son of Imrân AS and Jesus the son of Mary AS were to come here now, they would have no prospect except to enter my religion. I am Allah’s Habîb (beloved). I am the one in whose hand Allah has placed the banner of praise, and I say this with no boasting. I am the first for whom the earth will be split asunder, and I say this with no boasting. I am the chieftain of the children of Adam and I say this with no boasting. That is to say, I take no pride in chieftaincy; I take pride only in worshipful servitude.’ 

“What a difference there is between the two stations, the station of his chieftaincy and the station of his worshipful servitude! He is a chieftain in the presence of al-khalq (the people), and a servant in the presence of al-Haqq (the Lord of Truth). You will surely understand the difference between them.” 

Shaykh Ibrahim has also said (may Allah be well pleased with him): “As for the Nocturnal Journey that takes place in the spirit, it is not peculiar of him SAW. As a matter of fact, all of the prophets and saints experience a Nocturnal Journey in the spirit, whereas he SAW was carried in his spirit and his body, unlike any other.” 

And he has said, in some of his poetry: 

My reminiscing upon his Meccan Sojourn by night 

Is keeping me awake all through the night; 

And it was as if I was on the verge of a journey of my own 

Or, as if I had already journeyed, in a similar fashion, and by night gone; 

Journeying by night, in my spirit, the Body of Ahmad I pursued 

There, in that place, a meeting between the twain ensued; 

Thus, the secret sojourned in secret, to The Secret Himself 

And nothing was there except for The Truth, and the Secret-the Divine Nature. 

……..To be continued in sha Allah.

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