1030 — Abū al-Qāsim Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Azīz al-Baghawī narrated to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn Zanjawayh narrated to us, saying: Abd al-Razzāq narrated to us, from Ma'mar, from al-Zuhrī, in his narration from Urwa, who said:

“Some men from among the polytheists hastened to Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—and said, ‘This companion of yours claims that he was taken on the Night Journey to Jerusalem last night and then returned that very same night.’

“Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—asked, ‘Did he really say that?’

“They replied, ‘Yes.’

“Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—said, ‘Then I bear witness that if he said it, he has indeed spoken the truth.’

“They asked, ‘Do you believe him when he says that he reached the Levant in a single night and returned before morning?’

“Abū Bakr—may Allah ⦗1539⦘ be pleased with him—replied, ‘Yes. I believe him concerning something even more far-reaching than that: I believe him when he brings news from heaven morning and evening.’ For this reason, Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—was called al-Siddīq, ‘the Utterly Truthful.’”

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn—may Allah have mercy on him—said: Anyone who properly discerns everything I have mentioned above will know that Allah—Mighty and Majestic—took Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—on the Night Journey to Jerusalem in body and mind; the Night Journey did not take place in a dream. For if a man in the East were to say, “Last night I dreamed that I was in the West,” his statement would neither be rejected nor disputed. If, however, he said, “I spent last night in the West,” his statement would be a lie and he would have made an extraordinary false claim, since he could not reach such a country in a single night. There is no disagreement about this.

Had the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said to Abū Jahl and the rest of his people, “I saw in a dream that I was in Jerusalem”—meaning merely as a dream—they would have accepted this from him, would not have been astonished by his words, and would have said, “You have spoken the truth, for a person may dream that he is somewhere even farther away than the place of which you have told us.” But when he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said to them, “I was taken on the Night Journey to Jerusalem last night,” the people understood this to mean something other than a dream and that it had occurred while he was awake, in body and mind. They therefore asked him, “In a single night, you went to the Levant, and morning found you here among us?”

Moreover, their saying to Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—“This companion of yours claims that he was taken on the Night Journey to Jerusalem last night and then returned that very same night,” together with Abū Bakr’s—may Allah be pleased with him—response to them, is all evidence. Anyone possessed of understanding and discernment knows that Allah—Mighty and Majestic—specially favored His Prophet Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—by taking him on the Night Journey in body and mind ⦗1540⦘. He witnessed all that was in the heavens and entered Paradise; he saw everything he saw of the signs of his Lord—Mighty and Majestic—and prayer was made obligatory upon him. None of this may be called a dream. Rather, it occurred in body and mind and was a further distinction that Allah, the Generous, conferred especially upon him.

Whoever claims that it was a dream has erred in what he says, failed to accord his Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—his due, rejected the Quran and the sunnah, and exposed himself to something grave. Success comes only from Allah.