Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah said:

Affān narrated to us, from Saʿīd ibn Mināʾ, from Jābir and Ibn ʿAbbās, who both said:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was born in the Year of the Elephant, on a Monday, the twelfth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal. On that same day he was commissioned as a prophet, on that same day he was taken up to heaven, on that same day he emigrated, and on that same day he passed away.”

Its chain is interrupted.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī ibn Surūr al-Maqdisī nevertheless adopted this view in his Sīrah. He also cited a ḥadīth—whose isnād is unsound, as we noted in the section on the merits of the month of Rajab—stating that the Night Journey took place on the night of the twenty-seventh of Rajab; Allah knows best.

Some people claim that the Night Journey occurred on the first Friday night of Rajab, the so-called “Laylat al-Raghāʾib,” when the well-known (and innovated) prayer was introduced. There is no basis for this; Allah knows best.

One of them even versifies:

“On a Friday night the Prophet was taken aloft—
A Friday night, at the very start of Rajab.”

This verse is stylistically weak; we mention it only as corroboration for those who hold that opinion.

We have already cited, in exhaustive detail, the aḥādīth on this question under the Almighty’s words:

“Glory be to Him Who carried His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose precincts We have blessed, in order to show him some of Our signs; surely He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.” (al-Isrāʾ 17:1)

Let those reports be copied from that point with their full chains, references, and commentary, for they provide ample sufficiency. Praise and bounty belong to Allah.

We now present a concise summary of Ibn Isḥāq—may Allah have mercy on him—for he said, after the preceding sections:

“Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was taken by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque—namely, the Temple of Jerusalem in Ilia—at a time when Islam had become widespread in Mecca among Quraysh and all the tribes.”

He went on:

“Among the reports that have reached me concerning his Night Journey—on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, Abū Saʿīd, ʿĀʾishah, Muʿāwiyah, Umm Hānī bint Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with her), al-Ḥasan ibn Abī al-Ḥasan, Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī, Qatādah, and others of the scholars—each narrator relates a portion of what has come down to me about it. In that Journey there was testing and purification, and a manifestation of Allah’s decree, power, and sovereignty: a lesson for people of insight, guidance, mercy, and steadfastness for whoever believes, affirms, and is certain of Allah’s command.

“Allah transported him as He willed and in the manner He willed, so that He might show him some of His signs, until he beheld what he beheld of His tremendous dominion and His power by which He accomplishes whatever He desires.”