المعراج
al-Miʿrāj
Event
The ascension of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) through the heavens and his return, which came before the move to Medina.
What it means
Al-miʿrāj means the ladder or ascent. It names the journey in which Muhammad (peace be upon him) was taken up through the heavens, met earlier prophets and was brought into the presence of God. The Quran refers to what he saw near the Lote Tree of the Boundary (53:13–18). The journey is joined in the tradition to the isrāʾ, the night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem (17:1). The reports in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim say that the five daily prayers were prescribed during this journey, after Moses advised the Prophet to ask for a reduction in the number. Scholars date the event to about three years before the hijrah, in the year 619 or near it.
Often misunderstood as
It is often confused with the night journey (isrāʾ), but the Quran names the journey to Jerusalem (17:1) and alludes to the ascent through the heavens (53:13–18) as separate passages.
What the sources say
The date in the book, 3 A.H., cannot be right for an event before the move to Medina; the usual reckoning is about three years before the hijrah. Scholars also differ on whether the journey was of body and soul or of the soul only, and on its exact date. The majority hold that it happened with body and soul while the Prophet was awake.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 51, listed as AL MI'RĀJ. The definition is restated here.