If God’s Messenger is, pre-eminently, the sahib al-mi’raj, the man of the Ascension, then we must contemplate these hadiths as icons of the most exalted beauty and truth. The Ascension is religion at its highest, which means that every corner of these carefully painted portraits carries a deep clue about the essence of Islam.

In one of the most dramatic of all hadiths, the Holy Prophet speaks as follows:

The Buraq was brought to me. This was an animal larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, which would place its hoof at the very horizon. I mounted it, and came to Jerusalem. I then tethered it to the ring used by the prophets. I entered the Mosque, where I prayed two rak’as. I then came out, whereupon Gabriel brought me a vessel of wine and a vessel of milk. I chose the milk, and Gabriel said: “You have chosen the Fitra, the natural way.”

He then ascended with me into the lower heavens, and requested that they be opened. A voice asked: “Who are you?” and he replied, “It is I, Gabriel.” The voice then asked: “Who is with you?” and he responded, “Muhammad.” And then it was said: “Is it his time for Revelation?” and he replied that it was. It was opened for us, and behold, I was with Adam, who welcomed me, and prayed for my wellbeing.

The hadith continues, describing the Blessed Prophet and Gabriel rising still further. In the second heaven they encounter Jesus and John the Baptist. In the third heaven they meet Joseph, paragon of beauty. The Prophet Enoch (Idris) greets them in the fourth. In the fifth, there is Aaron; in the sixth, Moses; and in the seventh, Abraham. Each one greets the Blessed Muhammad as a brother, and prays for him.

And then we reach the climax of the whole journey:

Then I was brought to the Lote-tree of the Boundary (sidrat al-muntaha), whose leaves were like the ears of an elephant and whose fruit at first seemed small. But when God spread His command over them they were so transformed that no-one in creation could describe their beauty. Then God “revealed what He revealed to me”; and He imposed upon me fifty prayers in every day and night.

The above account, related in the hadith collection of Imam Muslim, is part of Muslim scripture, and carries the authority of revelation. It is a narrative of great beauty, recalling, in some ways, Dante’s Divine Comedy; indeed, some scholars have suggested that Dante may have been drawing on sources that were ultimately Muslim. However that may be, it is clear that the Ascension is the culminating moment of the Prophetic career. And insofar as Muhammad is “Seal of the Messengers” (Khatam al-nabiyyin), and the Last Prophet (al-‘Aqib), Muslims believe that it is the culminating moment of sacred history.

If God’s Messenger is, pre-eminently, the sahib al-mi’raj, the man of the Ascension, then we must contemplate these hadiths as icons of the most exalted beauty and truth. The Ascension is religion at its highest, which means that every corner of these carefully painted portraits carries a deep clue about the essence of Islam.

It is striking, for instance, that the Ascension of the Blessed Prophet took place in a way which unites Mecca and Jerusalem. Mecca is the city of Ishmael, and Jerusalem of Isaac. Yet the Ismaelite Prophet, at the highest moment of his career, bridges the two. His mission, it is clear, is to close the gap between the two great branches of Abraham’s family. The new religion launched in Mecca was to venerate, not scorn, the places and symbols of other prophets and other times.

People, and not only places, are to be included in this embrace. Islam does not ignore the differences which have appeared between the religions; indeed, the Qur’an is a statement of uncompromising prophetic truth. Yet the ascension narrative repeats again and again the Blessed Prophet’s encounter with the great figures of Jerusalem’s sacred history. Christians, Muslims, and Jews may historically disagree; but the vision of the Final Prophet insists that these disagreements would be foreign to the founders of the great monotheisms. Muhammad, Jesus, Moses, and the others were uncompromising men of truth. Their affirmation of the Blessed Prophet, and therefore of each other, is not a diplomatic handshake which veils hidden ambitions and insecurities. It is utterly sincere: the final answer to those who claim that religion produces conflict and enmity. If the followers of Jesus, Moses, and Muhammad are at odds, that is not because of the teaching of their founders. It is despite those teachings.

Mawlana Rumi (d.1273) begins one of his greatest poems by insisting on this. But then he moves on, to a still greater theme:

On the steed of love, God’s prophet rose, through the blazing heavens,
The messengers of God rose to salute him, noble-browed, he blessed them all.
Gabriel himself, holding the reins, flew with Muhammad,
Like two stars, outshining all other stars, through the dark of the trackless void.
Then that emissary sublime called to Muhammad:
Go alone, thy eye alone may witness where my sight would flinch and fail.
Since his eye gazed unfaltering, he was called “the witness,”
Collyrium, from ‘Have We not dilated’, made his vision clear and true.
All the stations of Allah’s servants by that eye were witnessed,
Gone was the veil of self and dissipation, he saw which souls were high and base.
Hence his intercession is sought, for he is Muhammad,
A falcon knows all the land that lies beneath him; thus the Prophet discerns souls.

The theme of love continues. The Prophet is, as the Turkish poet Nabi (d.1712) says, “the manifestation of the light of beauty; the mirror of love and affection” (