Last night was the celebration of the Mi’raj, and for those of you who are not familiar with that, it is also known as “The Night Visit” or the time that the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was taken from a rock in Jerusalem to Heaven on the wings of a winged horse whose name was Buraq. And, in that visit, one of the things that occurred was the protocol was established for prayer, and Five Times Prayer was established in the heavens and then brought back down to earth when the Prophet came back to earth.
Now, the formal prayer consists of a series of two to four rakats, and a rakat is a repetition of the first Surah; the Fatihah, another Surah, a certain bowing, standing, sitting and then doing that again, and the recitation of certain words during each phase.
It is very important that we are cognizant of what the words that are being said mean, and what the words that are being said represent. We begin with the first Surah in the Quran, the Fatihah which establishes our primacy in our relationship with God as that being the prime relationship and of course establishing the primacy of God, of Allah, as the one God and the one that we trust in.
Then another Surah is said from the Quran, then we do some praise, and then we sit. And we sit twice. In the first sitting we do a portion of the recitation that’s done while sitting, but in the final sitting we do the whole recitation. And the entire recitation, in English, or in Arabic, is the script of what was said upon the Prophet’s arrival in Heaven.
So imagine, the Prophet arrives in Heaven and he says, “All praise and praising, and all forms of worship are to God alone.”
And then the angels respond to the Prophet, “Greetings, and may peace and blessings be upon you.”
And he responds back, “May peace and blessings be upon all of us.”
And they respond back, “And we acknowledge that God is one, God is God, and you are the Prophet of God,” and then they say, “And may there be peace and blessings on the Prophet and his offspring just as there have been peace and blessings upon Abraham and his offspring.” And that’s said twice in two different ways.
Now, imagine yourself in that scenario. You’re reading the script of what happened in Heaven during the Night Journey and your prayer, when you do it, a large portion of the prayer is a repetition of that script.
So we need to mentally place ourselves into the Night Journey every time we pray. We need to place ourselves as if we were coming to the angels and being stood before Allah every time we pray, and we have to prepare ourselves for that meeting just as the Prophet was prepared for that meeting.
So, in the morning, we begin the morning by doing what? Going to God, meeting with the angels, and having an encounter with Allah. And then in the afternoon what happens? We go to God, and have an encounter with the angels, and then mid-afternoon, and then prior to sunset, and then in the evening.
So five times a day we have basically been told to prepare ourselves to go on Mi’raj. Now, whether we go or not, we’ll see, but this is the preparation for that, and can we do that in this existence? Can we prepare ourselves to go on that journey towards Allah as the Prophet went on that journey towards Allah?
So when, in Sufism, we talk about becoming pure, taking on God’s qualities, becoming without blemish, letting go of all the qualities that are not with Allah; what’s the reasoning for this? What’s the main purpose for this?
