Understanding of Isra' and Mi'raj

It is not a myth!

'Indeed, in the stories of these men (stories of the prophets) there is a lesson for those who are endowed with insight' (27:111)

The word 'ibrah (lesson) in this verse is a connotation which means more than a 'lesson' but 'see ourselves in the stories' or 'connect ourselves to the stories'. It is not like we read the stories of the prophets and claimed that it only occured at their time, but, connect ourselves wihtin the stories.

-A simple metaphore of Prophat Muhammad's journey of Isra' and Mi'raj (a journey to Masjidil Aqsa in Palestine today from Makkah in Saudi Arabia and then journey from Masjidil Aqsa to Heaven both together in one single nigth);

Say you are a UIA student leaving inside in its Gombak Campus. One day, you ride your car from UIA to Carefour Wangsa Maju, which is a 15-minute journey, to buy some things. A housefly accidentally enters your car before you started the journey and toghether with you, go to Carefour Wangsa Maju. After buying everything you needed to buy, you return to the car, and the same housefly again, accidentally enters the car together with you. So both of you and the housefly arrive UIA safely. And the minute you open your car door to get out of it, the housefly flies to its home and make a very big surprise to its family and community.

'I have just came back from Carefour Wangsa Maju!' told the housefly.

'When did you go there?' asked the housefly community confused.

'Just about an hour ago...' the housfly said.

Do you think that the housefly community will believe the housefly? It would take 3 generations for housefly to go to Wangsa Maju from Gombak. The grandfather starts the journey from Gombak, proceeds by the father, then the son would be the one to arrive at Wangsa Maju! But still, our lucky housefly in this story had arrived Wangsa Maju and came back to Gombak in just one hour! It is because the housefly rode with a human car, a transport that is alien to housefly community, but it has happened.

In the story of the Prophet Muhammad, we all know that he rode 'buraq' (some scholars claimed buraq is one of the animals from Heaven, some others claimed it is one of the Malaikah). Since Buraq is a Malaikah, and Malaikah is made from light, can we imagine how the journey went? In the speed of light - a transportation that is still impossible for human, but, it has happened.

Solat: A Mi'raj for Mukmin.

Usually things that are free, we take them for granted.
Say this,It takes almost RM 10,000 for a Muslim to perform Hajj in Makkah.People even die during performing Hajj.It takes about only RM 80 for first timers to perform Solat (Songkok Raihan RM 23 or telekung from Indonesia RM 50, Sajjadah from Turkey RM 20 etc)Have you ever heard people die because of performing Solat? The only that we hear is that until people die, they dont pray.

Why Solat is the Pillar (tiang) of Deen?

Tudung? Christians believes in their religion, wearing hijjab is considered pious. There was one old woman, a patient in a hospital in Ireland. She was waken up by a Muslim Malay woman doctor who was wearing hijjab to take her blood pressure. 'Jesus Christ! Am I in heaven?' the old woman wondered. 'No, unfortunately you are still in the hospital' said the doctor. Apparently the old woman thought that the doctor was Mary because of her hijjab.

Songkok? Indonesians wear songkok, and yet enter the churhes all over Jakarta (they are Christians and wear songkok for culture)

Name? Tariq Aziz (Saddam's man). Looks like a Muslim name isn't it? Tariq Aziz was a Christian until his death though.



Muhammad had the chance to communicate to Allah through Isra' and Mi'raj and the amazing journey gave us also the chance to communicate to Allah - Solat.

Allah knows the things we need even before we know it. But, Allah loves our voices. The voice of a humble slave to its Master. So, speak to Allah, and pray. Allah is Al-Wahab.

We always make dua to Allah. But most of us, are subconcious of the dua. We simply make dua without knowning the meanings of the dua we are making. We dont even pay attention to the dua we make because we simply memorize it and didnt make any effort to understand it.

Some people refused to pray. What? What if Malaysia refused to make connection with a certain country. It means that Malaysia declare war on that certain country because of the disconnection. What if we refuse to make connection with Allah by solat. So it means we are declaring war to Allah. Wana'uzubillah.

Solat is done. What have you done?

Sometimes people claim that 'Ooo.. orang tu baik la, sebab die sembahyang..'. But otherwise, even people whoe are praying do at the same time, munkar.

Why?

There are 3 basic steps in every Ibadah. Say the ayah that prescribed sawm,

'O ye who believe, fast has been prescribed to you as it has been prescribed to people before you, may you all be pious.'

1. Input: Command based on faith ('O ye who believe..')
2. Process: the act of ibadah ('..fast has been prescribed to you..')
3. Output: Taqwa ('..may you all be pious.')

If we have performed solat, but still we feel like there is something lack, there must be something wrong in the input or process.Input- To whom do we pray? When we are reciting niat for solat, do we really mean that we pray for Allah?

Process- below prescribed dosage. What if we take very low dosage of medicine when we sick? The effect of it will be slow or even will never give effect. Same like solat. We need to pray perfect 5 times a day, inshaAllah on time.

- knowledge about solat. improve the knowledge! How pity a 22 year-old muslim pray with the knowledge of a 12 year-old kid! You know, the knowledge of solat that we obtained from school, from primary school is the knowledge that was suitable for us when we were kids, like 10-12 years old. Now we are 22, there are a lot more things about solat that we need to learn. We upgraded our OS from Windows 98 to Windows XP now (or maybe Windows Vista). Solat? Have we upgraded our solat?

- wisdom. Sometimes, after obtaining knowledge of solat, we need to think and see the environment to apply our knowledge.

- reciting without understanding

- the humbleness during solat. How humble are we when we are performing solat? Muhammad always watch the vast sky before he perform his solat. Why? The sky is so vast, and can easily make human feel so tiny among other things in this universe. No matter how intelligent we are, there is still greater power that sustain the universe. Muhammad perform solat as a slave. We wish that we never pray like a master, but pray as a slave, a humble slave.

Solat as the Prophet did and feel.


Notes written from 'Isra' Mi'raj: A Day To Remember'
Talk by Ustaz Hasrizal
(studied in Jordan and had been staying in Ireland for almost 1 decade, now he is the Advisor at IJN)
16th August 2007
9.00 pm
Back To Roots Campaign, AIKOL