Advice of Scholars - MI’RAJ NIGHT (I)

Mi'raj night is the twenty-seventh night of the month of Rajab. Mi’raj means ladder. It is the night on which Rasûlullah was made to ascend to heavens and was taken to unknown places. The inhabitants of Mekka would not have îmân. They had been persecuting Muslims very much. They had gone too far and had already begun torturing Muslims. Rasûlullah was very sorry. It was one year before the Hegira, and he was fifty-two years old. Taking Zayd bin Hârisa with him, he went to Tâif. He preached to the inhabitants of Tâif for one month. None would have îmân. They mocked him and tortured him, hooted and jeered at him. The children pelted him with stones. Hopeless, wearied, he was on his way back, his blessed legs wounded. Meanwhile, Zayd’s head had blood all over. During a very hot hour, they sat by the roadside, exhausted. The owners of a vineyard that happened to be there, two rich brothers named Utba and Shayba, who were sons of Rabî’a sent their servant Addâs with a bunch of grapes for each. Before eating the grapes Rasûlullah ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’ said the Basmala. Addâs, a Christian, was surprised to hear this. “I have been here for many years. I have never heard anybody say such a word. What kind of a word is that?” he said. Rasûlullah asked, “Where are you from?” Addâs: “I am from Ninawa.” Rasûlullah: “I see you are from the same place as Hadrat Yûnus ‘alaihissalâm’.” Addâs: “How do you know Yûnus? No one hereabouts knows him.” Rasûlullah: “He is my brother. He was a prophet like me.” Addâs: “The owner of this beautiful face and these sweet words cannot be a liar. I now believe that you are Allah’s Messenger.” So he became a Muslim and added, “O Rasûlallah. I have been serving these cruel people for many years. They have been depriving people of their rights. They have been cheating others. They have no goodness. They will commit any baseness to get what is worldly and to fulfill their sensuous desires. I hate them. I want to go with you, get honoured with your service, to be the target of the irreverence which the ignorant and the idiots will commit against you and to sacrifice myself to protect your blessed body.”