The Year of Sorrow to the Night Journey

As Abu Talib lay dying, his nephew the Prophet ﷺ came to see him. Abu Jahal was there as well. The Prophet ﷺ pleaded with him, "O my uncle, say 'la ilaha illaLlah', one kalimah that I will be able to present as an argument on your behalf before Allah." Abu Talib knew in his heart that the Message was true, and he was about to say it. But Abu Jahal and Abdullah ibn Abi Umayya challenged him, "O Abu Talib, are you going to leave the religion of Abdul Muttalib?" Abdul Muttalib was Abu Talib's father. They kept interrupting whenever he seemed ready to say the words. Abu Talib died without ever saying the kalimah, the declaration of faith.

Placed here because: Ep. 19: "barely 5-6 weeks after the Banu Hashim came back to Makkah, Abu Talib fell sick and eventually passed away in the month of Shawwal in the 10th year of the dawah."

Khadija RA passed away on the 10th of Ramadan, less than 40 days after the death of Abu Talib. The year of their deaths came to be called the Year of Sorrow (Aam al-Huzn). At that time the salah (prayer) had not yet been prescribed, so no funeral prayer was performed over her. The Prophet ﷺ took charge of her burial and placed her in the grave himself.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 19: "the death of Khadija RA followed. She passed away on the 10th of Ramadan, less than 40 days after the death of Abu Talib." The lecture's months do not reconcile with each other; the order given is kept.

After the death of Abu Talib, the Quraysh persecuted the Prophet ﷺ far more openly than before. Hostility that had been held back out of respect for Abu Talib was now on full display. Abu Lahab, the Prophet ﷺ's uncle, took over leadership of the Banu Hashim, since he was the most senior pagan of the clan still alive. Surprisingly, he offered the Prophet ﷺ his protection. When a man from outside the clan cursed the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Lahab went to the Prophet ﷺ and promised that he could live as he had in Abu Talib's time, for as long as Abu Lahab was alive. He did this not out of love, but from a chief's sense of duty to guard his own clan. People began to say that Abu Lahab had left his religion, which he denied. Abu Jahal and Utbah then saw a way to break the protection. They told Abu Lahab to ask his nephew about the fate of his father, Abdul Muttalib. The Prophet ﷺ answered that Abdul Muttalib was with his people. Abu Lahab came back pleased, until Abu Jahal pointed out that, according to the Prophet ﷺ, those people were in the Fire. Doubt took hold of Abu Lahab, and he withdrew his protection.

Placed here because: Ep. 20 places Ta'if "as soon as Abu Lahab retracted his protection", so the withdrawal sits between Abu Talib's death and the journey to Ta'if.

In Shawwal, a few weeks after the deaths of Khadijah RA and Abu Talib, the Prophet ﷺ lost his last protection in Makkah. His uncle Abu Lahab had briefly offered to protect him, then withdrew the offer. For the first time, the Prophet ﷺ began looking for another city where the message could take root. He chose Ta'if, the nearest major city to Makkah. To avoid attracting attention, he and Zayd ibn Harithah RA made the journey on foot. Ta'if was ruled jointly by three brothers of the tribe of Thaqif: Abd Yalil, Mas'ud and Habib, the sons of Amr. The Prophet ﷺ met them privately and invited them to Islam. Each of them rejected him with mockery. He asked them at least not to tell the Quraysh about his visit. According to the more authentic reports, he did not leave at once. He stayed about a week, preaching to the ordinary people in Ta'if's marketplace. No one accepted, though one person showed some interest. When the leaders heard of this, they grew alarmed. They sent a mob to stone the Prophet ﷺ and Zayd and drive them out of the city. The Prophet ﷺ bled until his sandals were soaked with blood. Zayd tried to shield him and was injured from head to toe. The mob kept pelting them until they reached Qarn al-Manazil, also called Qarn al-Tha'alib, outside the city.

Placed here because: Ep. 20: "this happened in the month of Shawwal, basically a few weeks after Abu Talib & Khadija RA died, as soon as Abu Lahab retracted his protection."

The people of Ta'if rejected the call of the Prophet ﷺ to Islam. Their leaders then sent a mob to stone him and his companion Zayd ibn Harithah out of the city. The Prophet ﷺ bled so much that his sandals were soaked with blood. Zayd was injured from head to toe trying to shield him. The mob kept stoning them until they were out of the city, at Qarn al-Manazil, also called Qarn al-Tha'alib. The Prophet ﷺ later told Aisha RA, "I didn't notice where I was until I reached Qarn al-Tha'alib." There he found shade under a tree beside a walled garden, not knowing whose garden it was. He sat down and made a famous du'a, which Ibn Ishaq records. It is not in al-Bukhari or Muslim and its chain has gaps. But one scholar of our time says it needs no chain, because its words could only come from the heart of a prophet. In it the Prophet ﷺ said, "O Allah, to You I complain of my weakness, and my lack of resources, and my lowliness before man. You are the Most Merciful of all those who have mercy, and You are the Lord of those who are humble, and You are my Lord. To whom do You leave me with? To somebody who is a stranger who will treat me harshly? Or to a close relative whom You have given power over me? As long as You are not angry with me, I don't care. Except for the fact that Your protection from tribulations is easier for me. O Allah, I seek refuge in Your Face which is the source of the Light that gets rid of the darkness, and because of which all of the affairs of this world and the Next are rightly guided. (I seek refuge in Your Face) that Your anger comes down upon me, or Your wrath envelopes me. It is Your right to criticize until You are content. And there is no power or change except with You and through You." This is a complaint made to Allah, not against Him. What troubled the Prophet ﷺ most was not the stones, but the fear that he might have earned Allah's anger. The garden belonged to Utbah and Shaybah, the sons of Rabi'ah, who were distant cousins of his father. They had watched him being stoned out of Ta'if and felt pity for him. They also felt the old tribal pride, angry that Ta'if would do this to one of their own. So they sent their servant Addas, a Christian from Iraq, to him with a bowl of grapes. It was as if Allah answered his du'a the moment he made it. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Bismillah," meaning "In the name of Allah," and began to eat. Addas was surprised, because the Arabs of that area did not use this phrase, and he asked what it was. The Prophet ﷺ said, "This is something my Lord has taught me. And where are you from, O Addas?" Addas said he was from Nineveh. The Prophet ﷺ said, "The city of Yunus ibn Matta?" Addas was amazed, because no one in that land had ever heard of Yunus, and he asked how he knew him. The Prophet ﷺ said, "How do I not know Yunus? He is my brother; and I am his brother. We are both prophets of Allah." Addas began kissing the Prophet ﷺ's feet, as Christians did to honour their priests, and he believed in him then and there. Utbah and Shaybah watched in shock. When Addas came back, they asked him why he had kissed the man's hands and feet. Addas told them that there was no one on earth better than him, because he had told him things only a prophet could know. His masters said the man had bewitched him away from his religion, and that his own religion was better. Five years later, they tried to force Addas to fight against the Prophet ﷺ at Badr. Addas refused, swearing that even the mountains could not harm him. Both of his masters were killed at Badr. Al-Bukhari records the Prophet ﷺ's own account of what happened next. He said, "When I reached Qarn al-Manazil, I looked up and there was a cloud that had given me shelter; and in this cloud, there was Jibril, and he said to me, 'O Muhammad ﷺ, your Lord has heard what your people have said to you and their rejection of you. And He has sent me with the Malak al-Jibal to put at your disposal and to do with as you please.'" The Malak al-Jibal is the angel of the mountains. Then the angel of the mountains greeted him with salam. He said that he was at the Prophet ﷺ's command, and that if he wished, he would crush the city between its two mountains. The Prophet ﷺ replied, "No. Rather, I hope Allah will extract from their progeny those who will eventually worship Him without associating partners with Him." He rested there, and on the way back to Makkah he camped in the valley of Nakhla, where a group of jinn heard him reciting the Qur'an.

Placed here because: Ep. 20: "The entire mob continued to pelt them, until finally, they let them out of the city at Qarn al-Manazil / Qarn al-Tha'alib." The du'a, Addas and the angel of the mountains follow there.

On the way back to Makkah after he was driven out of Ta'if, the Prophet ﷺ camped in the Valley of Nakhla. As was his habit, he prayed tahajjud, the night prayer, even though his wounds from Ta'if had not yet healed. Allah caused a group of jinn to pass by while he was reciting the Qur'an. They told one another to listen quietly, and they believed. Then they went back to their people as warners, calling them to Islam (Qur'an 46:29-31). These jinn later came to the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah to learn Islam from him. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud RA was asked about that night by his student Alqama ibn Qays. In the version in Sahih Muslim, Ibn Mas'ud said that no one was with the Prophet ﷺ. The companions noticed one night that he had disappeared. They searched everywhere and feared he had been kidnapped or killed. In the morning they saw him coming from the direction of the Cave of Hira. He told them that a caller from the jinn had come to him, and he had gone out to recite the Qur'an to them. He then showed them the jinn's campsite and the traces of their fires. In another version, in Mustadrak al-Hakim, Ibn Mas'ud went with him. The Prophet ﷺ drew a line in the sand and told him to stay there, then walked on and recited the Qur'an until he could no longer be seen. He came back after Fajr, the dawn prayer, and gave the jinn bones as food for themselves and animal droppings as food for their animals.

Placed here because: Ep. 20: "On the way back to Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ camped in the Valley of Nakhla, and as was his habit, he prayed tahajjud."

After the Prophet ﷺ left Makkah for Ta'if, he could no longer safely return. By walking out of Makkah, he had seemed to accept the expulsion that Abu Lahab had imposed on him. His companion Zayd ibn Harithah RA asked him how they would enter Makkah now. The Prophet ﷺ replied that Allah would make a way out for them. The Prophet ﷺ then sent messages to a few leaders of the Quraysh, asking for their protection (jiwar). The first was al-Akhnas ibn Shurayq, who replied that his people were in a weak position and could not protect him. Next he asked Suhayl ibn Amr. Suhayl replied that his clan, Banu Amir ibn Lu'ayy, had never protected anyone from Banu Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy, and he did not want to set a precedent. Finally he asked Mut'im ibn Adi, the chief of Banu Nawfal ibn Abd Manaf. Mut'im agreed at once. He told his four sons to arm themselves and bring the Prophet ﷺ straight back to him. They rode out fully armed and escorted the Prophet ﷺ into Makkah. Mut'im waited for him at the Ka'bah and told him to perform tawaf, and the Prophet ﷺ circled the Ka'bah with the armed guards beside him. When he finished, Mut'im stood up and announced to the people of Makkah that he had given Muhammad ﷺ his protection. Abu Sufyan ibn Harb stood and asked whether Mut'im had become his follower or was only giving protection. Mut'im said he was not a follower and was only giving protection. Abu Sufyan replied that in that case the Quraysh would accept it.

Placed here because: Ep. 20: "by walking out of Makkah and leaving for 10 days ... he found himself in a state of limbo and unable to freely return to Makkah ... Then the Prophet ﷺ sent a request to Mut'im ibn Adi."

Al-Isra wal-Mi'raj was a single night with two parts. The first part, al-isra, was the night journey from al-Masjid al-Haram in Makkah to al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Bayt al-Maqdis. The second part, al-mi'raj, was the ascent from there up through the seven heavens. It came after the Year of Sorrow and the stoning at Ta'if, the lowest point of the Prophet ﷺ's life. The scholars see it as the ease that Allah promises after every hardship. It was a gift given to him alone, and the rest of us are asked only to believe in it. Allah refers to it twice in the Qur'an. In the opening verse of Surah al-Isra, He calls the Prophet ﷺ "His servant", which is the highest title in the Qur'an. In Surah al-Najm, He says that the heart did not lie about what it saw. Ibn Ishaq and most early writers place the journey a year before the Hijrah. One report says that Khadija RA died before the prayer was made obligatory. If so, the journey cannot have happened before the last years in Makkah. No Companion tells us the month, and the Companions themselves did not think it important. Yet more of them narrate this one night than the rest of the Makkan period put together. That is also why storytellers padded it with legends, which the scholars had to sift out. It is also why the exact order of some scenes cannot be recovered. The Prophet ﷺ said that he was lying in the Hijr beside the Ka'bah. Another authentic report says that the roof of his house was opened. Ibn Hajar joins the two reports. He explains that Jibril AS came to the house first and then led him to the Hijr. There Jibril opened the Prophet ﷺ's chest. He washed his heart in a golden basin filled with Zamzam water, or in another wording with faith, and then closed it again. This was the second time his chest was opened, after the first time in his childhood. This time it was to strengthen him, so that he could see what no one else could have seen and still keep his mind. Then Jibril brought al-Buraq. It was a white animal, bigger than a donkey and smaller than a mule, and each of its strides reached as far as its eye could see. When it shied away, Jibril scolded it. He told it that no rider more honoured by Allah had ever mounted it. On the way, the Prophet ﷺ passed the grave of Musa AS and saw him standing in prayer. In that age, under Roman rule, the site of the Temple in Bayt al-Maqdis lay in ruins and was used as a rubbish dump. Yet the Prophet ﷺ found the sanctuary standing as it had once been. He tied al-Buraq to the ring that the prophets used, went inside and prayed two rak'at. There he found the prophets gathered with him. Musa was tall, strong and brown-skinned, like a man of the Shanu'ah tribe. Isa AS was of middle height and reddish in complexion, as if he had just come out of a bath. Of Ibrahim AS, the Prophet ﷺ said, "I could not see anyone more closely resembling Ibrahim AS than myself." When the call to prayer was given, he was put in front of them all as their imam. He was the leader of the leaders of every nation. He later said of himself, without boasting, that he will be the master of the children of Adam on the Day of Judgment. Then Jibril held out two vessels, one of milk and one of wine, and told him to choose for his community. The reports differ on whether this happened here or in the heavens. He chose the milk. Jibril told him that he had chosen the fitrah, the pure thing that nourishes, over the corrupted thing that corrupts. Jibril then rose with him to the gate of the lowest heaven and asked for it to be opened. A voice asked who was there, and Jibril gave his name. The voice asked whether anyone was with him, and Jibril said it was Muhammad ﷺ. The voice asked whether he had been sent for, and Jibril said yes. The gate opened. The same exchange took place at each of the seven heavens. In the first heaven stood Adam AS. He greeted the Prophet ﷺ as a righteous son and a righteous prophet. The souls of Adam's descendants were on his right and on his left. He smiled when he looked at those on one side and wept when he looked at those on the other. In the second heaven were Yahya AS and Isa. In the third was Yusuf AS, who had been given half of all beauty. In the fourth was Idris AS, and in the fifth was Harun AS. In the sixth was Musa. In the seventh was Ibrahim, sitting with his back against al-Bayt al-Ma'mur, the House in the heavens. Later reports place this House directly above the Ka'bah. Every day seventy thousand angels enter it, never to return. Each of these prophets greeted him as a brother and a prophet. Only Adam and Ibrahim called him son. After he had passed, Musa wept. Musa explained that he wept because a young man sent after him would bring more of his people into Paradise than Musa had. At some point on this night, the Prophet ﷺ sat with Ibrahim, Musa and Isa while they spoke about the Hour. Only Isa knew anything about it. He knew that he would return and kill the Dajjal. He knew that he would see Gog and Magog break out, and see them die because of his prayer. After that, he said, the Hour would be as near as the birth of a child to a woman in labour. Ibrahim sent his greetings to this community. He told them that Paradise is fertile soil waiting to be planted. Its seeds are the words subhan Allah, alhamdulillah, la ilaha illa Allah and Allahu akbar. The Prophet ﷺ also met Malik, the keeper of Hell, who greeted him first. A report not found in the main collections adds that Malik never smiled. It says that if he had smiled for anyone, it would have been for the Prophet ﷺ. Above the seventh heaven stood Sidrat al-Muntaha, the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary. Its fruits were like the great jars of Hajar, and its leaves were like elephants' ears. Its trunk was in the sixth heaven and its crown at the end of the seventh. It marks the place where everything that rises from the earth comes to an end, and where everything that comes down begins. The Qur'an says it was covered with what covered it. He saw colours he could not name, changing as he looked, and butterflies made of gold. At the foot of the Tree ran four rivers. Two were hidden, and these are the rivers of Paradise. Two could be seen, and these are the Nile and the Euphrates. Here he saw Jibril in the form in which Allah created him. Ibn Mas'ud RA reports that Jibril had six hundred wings. This was one of only two times that the Prophet ﷺ saw him like this. A later report adds that pearls and coral fell from his feathers. Some scholars count these three things, the Tree, the House and the angel, among the greatest signs of his Lord that the Qur'an says he saw. Then he was raised higher, alone. He reached a place where he could hear the scratching of the Pen that writes what is to happen. There Allah spoke to him. What passed between them is not recorded, and the scholars believe the silence is deliberate. Three things came out of it. The first was the closing verses of Surah al-Baqarah, which Ali RA described as coming from a treasure beneath the Throne. The second was a promise that anyone from his community who died without associating anything with Allah would be forgiven. The third was the command to pray fifty times a day. Whether he saw Allah was debated from the very first generation. Ibn Abbas RA said that he did. Aisha RA said that whoever claims this has lied against Allah, because eyes cannot grasp Him. Abu Dharr RA asked the Prophet ﷺ himself. He answered, "Light. How could I see Him?" On another occasion he described Allah's veil as light. He said that if it were lifted, it would burn away everything that His face reached. On the way down, Musa asked him what his Lord had commanded for his community. Musa told him to go back and ask for less. He said that he had tested the Children of Israel, and they had not been able to bear it. The Prophet ﷺ looked at Jibril, who nodded, and so he went back. He went up and down again and again, and each time the number fell by five or ten prayers. In the end he came down with five, and he could not bring himself to ask again. He said, "I have gone back to my Lord until I am ashamed. I am content." Then a voice called out. It said that Allah's command was settled and that He had lightened the burden on His servants. There would be five prayers, and they would be counted as fifty. He was then shown Paradise, with its tents of hollowed pearl on soil of musk. He was also shown the punishments of the Fire. Most of these come in a report that Ibn Ishaq gives from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri RA. He saw men with lips like camels' lips, swallowing coals, because they had devoured the wealth of orphans. Others were tearing their own faces with copper nails, because they had spoken ill of people behind their backs. Others left good meat and ate rotten meat instead, because they had committed adultery. Others were swollen and trampled, because they had taken usury. Others cut their own tongues with scissors of fire, because they had preached what they did not practise. He also saw the Dajjal, who had one eye like a swollen grape. One further report was not found in its fuller form in the collections checked. In it, the Prophet ﷺ noticed a beautiful fragrance and asked what it was. Jibril told him about the woman who dressed the hair of Pharaoh's daughter. She dropped a comb and let the word "bismillah" slip out. She refused to call Pharaoh her lord. Then her nursing baby spoke and told her that the pain of this world was nothing compared with the next. After that, she went into the cauldron with her children. He rode al-Buraq back to Makkah. On the road he passed three caravans of the Quraysh, and he drank from one of them. He lay down again in the Haram before dawn. In his own words, he woke up worried about how he would tell his people. By one report, it was Abu Jahl who found him first and called the Quraysh together to hear it. They asked him to describe Bayt al-Maqdis, a city he had never seen. Al-Bukhari reports that the city rose up before his eyes above the house of Aqil, so he could answer every question. Ibn Ishaq reports that the caravans arrived when he said they would. Abu Jahl is said to have called it sorcery. Someone told Abu Bakr RA the story before the Prophet ﷺ could tell him himself. Abu Bakr said that if the Prophet ﷺ had said it, then it was true. He added that he already believed him in something stranger still, that revelation came to him from the heavens. From that day he was called al-Siddiq. Most scholars hold that the journey was made while he was awake, in his body. They argue that a dream of Jerusalem would have been no miracle, and the Quraysh would not have mocked a dream. He also would not have needed a mount, or drunk on the way. Ibn Ishaq, however, reports that Aisha RA said his body stayed where it was. He also reports that Mu'awiyah RA called it a true vision. Ibn Ishaq himself holds that it was true either way. Some scholars see the journey, which begins and ends in Makkah, as the first hint that the qibla would turn back from Jerusalem to the Ka'bah after the Hijrah.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 21: "After the Year of Sorrow and the trial of Ta'if, Allah blessed the Prophet ﷺ with a great miracle ... this is the majority opinion, that al-Isra wal-Mi'raj happened after the Year of Sorrow and before the Hijrah ... we don't even know the month."

On the night of al-Isra wal-Mi'raj, the Prophet ﷺ was taken from Makkah to Jerusalem on al-Buraq, and brought back the same night. Some narrations, not fully authentic but acceptable to mention, say that on the way back he passed three caravans of the Quraysh. In the first he recognised a man he knew. From the second he drank water from their shared water container. In the third he saw a man searching for a lost camel. Back in Makkah he slept, and he woke in the Haram, where the journey had begun. The Prophet ﷺ later described that morning himself. He said he woke up anxious about how he would tell his people what had happened. As he sat there worried, Abu Jahl passed by and saw him. Abu Jahl asked him sarcastically whether something had happened. The Prophet ﷺ said yes, and told him that the night before he had been taken from Makkah to Jerusalem. Abu Jahl was astonished and asked whether he was really back among them that morning. He did not know whether to mock him at once, or to wait in case the Prophet ﷺ took his words back in front of others. So he asked whether the Prophet ﷺ would repeat the story if he called the people together, and the Prophet ﷺ said he would. Abu Jahl shouted for the people to gather. Makkah was a small city and Abu Jahl was a leading man, so everyone came. He told the Prophet ﷺ to repeat what he had said. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Last night, I went to Bayt al-Maqdis and I prayed in Masjid al-Aqsa." Bayt al-Maqdis is the Arabic name for Jerusalem. He did not mention his ascent to the heavens, which he told only to the Muslims later. The crowd did not know how to react. Some clapped, some put their hands on their heads, and some laughed. He had never been known to lie. Then a man who had been to Jerusalem asked him to describe the city, since everyone knew the Prophet ﷺ had never been there. He began to describe it. But they pressed him on details he could not remember, and he later said he had never been so distressed. Then he saw Bayt al-Maqdis raised up before his eyes, above the house of Aqil ibn Abi Talib, the house where he had grown up. After that, he could see the answer to every question they asked. In the end the man who knew Jerusalem said that his description was accurate in every detail. Ibn Hisham narrates that the Prophet ﷺ then gave them further signs. He told them about the three caravans. One would be back soon, because it was the closest to Makkah. The second had lost a camel, which they could ask about. From the third he had drunk from a large water container. Abu Jahl said that if this was true, the first caravan should be arriving at that very moment. While they were still arguing, news came that it was entering Makkah. Abu Jahl went to look, found it just as described, and came back saying it was plain sorcery. Ibn Hisham also has a line, with no chain of narration, saying that some Muslims left the religion when they heard the story. Scholars do not rely on it. No Muslim is known to have left Islam in the Makkan years, and Abu Sufyan later told the Roman emperor Heraclius that none had. Before the Prophet ﷺ could tell Abu Bakr himself, a man of the Quraysh ran to him with the news. He said that Abu Bakr's companion claimed to have gone to Jerusalem and back in one night, a journey of two months. Abu Bakr answered that if he had said it, then it was true. The man asked whether he really believed such a thing. Abu Bakr said that he believed him in something even more amazing. He believed him when he said that revelation came to him from above the seven heavens in an instant. From that day, Abu Bakr was called al-Siddiq, the one who always affirms the truth of the Prophet ﷺ.

Placed here because: Ep. 23: the Prophet ﷺ "woke up" in the Haram and Abu Jahl found him: "So Abu Jahal started screaming out to the people, 'Come forth! We have an announcement to make!'"