be able to manage thirty prayers each day. I have tried people before you and dealt with the Children of Israel most strenuously. Return to your Lord and ask Him to lighten the burden for your community.”
So I returned, and another ten were removed (1). I went back to Moses, and he asked, “What have you been commanded?” I replied, “With twenty prayers every day.” He said, “Your community will not be able to manage twenty prayers each day. I have tried people before you and dealt with the Children of Israel most strenuously. Return to your Lord and ask Him to lighten the burden for your community.”
I returned again, and I was commanded with ten prayers each day. I went back to Moses and he asked, “What have you been commanded?” I replied, “I have been commanded with ten prayers every day.” He said, “Your community will not be able to manage ten prayers each day. I have tried people before you and dealt with the Children of Israel most strenuously. Return to your Lord and ask Him to lighten the burden for your community.”
So I returned, and I was commanded with five prayers every day. I went back to Moses, and he asked, “What have you been commanded?” I replied, “I have been commanded with five prayers every day.” He said, “Your community will not be able even to manage five prayers. I have tried people before you and dealt with the Children of Israel most strenuously.” I said, “I have asked (2) my Lord until I am ashamed; yet I am content and submit.”
When I moved on, a herald called out: “I have enacted My obligation and lightened it for My servants.”
Al-Hafiz Abu al-Fadl ibn Nasir, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The leading scholars of hadith unanimously agree on the authenticity and sound transmission of this narration. It is recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim in their Sahihs, as well as by others (3).
(1) Not present in the other manuscripts.
(2) In manuscripts H and R the word reads “ʿāligat.”
(3) al-Bukhari, The Book of the Virtues of the Ansar, chapter on the Miʿraj, hadith no. 3887; al-Fath al-Bari 7:201. Muslim, The Book of Faith, chapter “On the Israʾ of the Messenger ﷺ to the heavens and the obligation of prayers,” hadith no. 162 (1:145). Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) states in Ijtimaʿ al-Juyush al-Islamiyya (p. 50) that the narrative of the Israʾ and Miʿraj is mutawatir (recurrently transmitted). Some scholars devoted entire works to it—al-Suyuti in Al-Āyah al-Kubrā fī al-Miʿraj wa-l-Isrāʾ—and Ibn Kathir collected its various versions in his Tafsīr of Sura al-Isrāʾ, including those classified as sound, good, and weak (see Tafsīr Ibn Kathir 5:4–39).
This hadith attests to Allah’s transcendence (ʿuluww), since it explicitly relates that Gabriel (peace be upon him) ascended with the Prophet ﷺ from heaven to heaven until they reached the seventh heaven, then proceeded to Sidrat al-Muntahā and on to al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr, all in upward ascent. This demonstrates that Allah (exalted is He) is high above all His creation by His Essence, established above His Throne—the loftiest of created things. The combined evidence of the Quran, Sunnah, reason, and innate disposition converge to affirm this, making it a necessarily known tenet of faith, denied only by the obstinately wicked.
Regarding the Israʾ, scholars have debated whether it involved the spirit alone or both body and spirit, and whether it occurred in wakefulness or as a dream. The majority position of the scholars and imams is that the Israʾ took place with both body and spirit, in wakefulness. The evidence is as follows:
1. The verse “Glory be to Him Who took His servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa” (al-Isrāʾ 17:1) uses ‘servant’ (ʿabd) to denote the whole person—body and spirit—just as ‘insān’ (human) refers to the integrated being. This is the usual and correct understanding, implying that the Israʾ involved the entire person.
2. It is rationally possible; to reject the body’s ascension would likewise require rejecting the angels’ descent, which would entail denying prophethood—an act of disbelief.
3. The phrase “Glory be to Him Who took by night” expresses wonder at a momentous occurrence; had it been merely a dream, it would not have inspired such gravity, nor would the Quraysh have hastened to deny it or prompted some new Muslims to apostatize.
4. The Prophet ﷺ was carried on the Buraq, a creature (dābbah). This applies only to the body, not the spirit, for the spirit does not require a mount. See Sharḥ al-Ṭaḥāwiyya, p. 187; Tafsīr Ibn Kathir 40–41.