Abd al-Wahid al-Mulayhi informed us; Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Na‘imi informed us; Muhammad ibn Yusuf informed us; Muhammad ibn Isma‘il related to us; Yahya related to us; Waki‘ related to us, from Isma‘il ibn Abi Khalid, from Amir, from Masruq, who said: I said to Aishah, “My mother, did Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, see his Lord?” She replied, “What you have said has made my hair stand on end! Have you not heard of three matters? Whoever tells you any of them has lied. Whoever tells you that Muhammad saw his Lord has lied.” Then she recited:

“Vision perceives Him not, but He perceives all vision; and He is the Subtle, the All-Aware.” (al-An‘am 6:103)

“It is not for any human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or from behind a veil.” (al-Shura 42:51)

“Whoever tells you that he knows what will happen tomorrow has lied.” Then she recited:

“No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow.” (Luqman 31:34)

“Whoever tells you that he concealed anything has lied.” Then she recited:

“O Messenger, convey what has been revealed to you from your Lord.” (al-Ma’idah 5:67)

And she recited the rest of the verse. “Rather, he saw Gabriel in his true form twice.” (1)

Isma‘il ibn Abd al-Qahir informed us; Abd al-Ghafir ibn Muhammad informed us; Muhammad ibn Isa al-Juludi informed us; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Sufyan related to us; Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj related to us; Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah related to us; Waki‘ related to us, from Yazid ibn Ibrahim, from Qatadah, from Abd Allah ibn [Shuqayq] (2), from Abu Dharr, who said: I asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, “Did you see your Lord?” He replied, “There was light; how could I see Him?” (3)

“Will you then dispute with him concerning what he saw? (12) And he certainly saw him on another descent, (13) by the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.” (14)

Regarding His saying, “Will you then dispute with him concerning what he saw?” Hamzah, al-Kisa’i, and Ya‘qub recited it as afatamrunahu, with the t carrying the a-vowel and the m unvowelled (4), without an alif (the long a), meaning: “Do you deny him?” The Arabs say, “I maraytu a man’s due,” meaning that I denied it to him.

The others recited it as afatumārunahu, with the long a and the t carrying the u-vowel, meaning: “Do you dispute with him concerning what he saw?” This is because they disputed with him when he was taken on the Night Journey, saying, “Describe Jerusalem for us, and tell us about our caravan on the road,” along with other matters over which they disputed with him. The meaning is: Do you dispute with him in a manner intended to discredit what he saw and knew?

Regarding His saying, “And he certainly saw him on another descent,” that is, he saw Gabriel in the form in which he was created, descending from heaven on another descent. He saw him in his true form twice: once on earth and once in heaven.

Regarding His saying, “by the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary”: according to Ibn Abbas’s view, the meaning of “another descent” is that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, made a number of ascents that night in connection with the request that the number of prayers be reduced. Thus, every ascent was followed by a descent, and so he saw his Lord