Man has taken many journeys throughout time. But there is one journey that nobody has ever taken. Nobody—except one.On a vehicle no man has ever ridden, through a path no soul has ever seen. To a place no creation has ever before set foot. It was the journey of one man to meet the Divine. It was the journey of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) to the highest heaven. It was al-Israa’ wal-Miraaj (the magnificent journey).
On that journey Almighty Allah took his beloved Prophet to the seventh heaven—a place not even angel Jibreel could enter. In the Prophet’s mission on earth, every instruction, every commandment was sent down through angel Jibreel. But, there was one commandment that was not. There was one commandment so important, that rather than sending angel Jibreel down with it, Allah brought the Prophet up to Himself.
That commandment was Salah (Prayer). When the Prophet was first given the command to pray, it was to be fifty times in a day. After asking Allah to make it easier, the commandment was eventually reduced to five times a day, with the reward of the fifty.
Reflecting upon this incident, scholars have explained that the process of going from fifty to five was a deliberate one, intended to teach us the true place Prayer should hold in our lives. Imagine for a moment actually praying fifty times a day. Would we be able to do anything else but pray? No. And that’s the point. What greater way than that to illustrate our life’s true purpose? As if to say, Prayer is our real life; all the rest that we fill our day with… just motions.
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