Al-Isra 1: The One (Allah) Who has brought on a night, the servant (Muhammad) from Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-Aqsa – whose surrounding We have made holy – to show him some of Our signs. Allah is far from all incompletenesses. Allah is Samee (All-Hearing) and Baseer (All-Seeing).

Peace be upon you, good evening. Surah Al-Isra, verse 1: Allah, who one night, to show him some of Our signs, took His servant Muhammad from Al-Masjid al-Haram to the mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, is free of all imperfection. Truly He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, says the verse. This is a verse describing the Mi'raj event itself. Allah Almighty wills the Prophet (peace be upon him), wills him to meet with His Essence. In His verse, Allah Almighty sent us to a (?) world. Here it is not possible to see our Lord with our physical eyes. In this case, since it is a (?) world, and since the word of Allah Almighty is pre-eternal and eternal, He appears to people only through manifestation in the heart, which does not mean seeing with the physical eye.

So, in order that the Prophet could see Him with his physical eyes, He invites him to His Essence. To His Essence. And one night, while the Prophet was resting at home, Gabriel (peace be upon him), by the command of Allah Almighty, brings the mount called Buraq to him. They set out together. They come to Al-Masjid al-Aqsa. After praying two rak'ahs in Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, they continue on their way. All the way to Sidrat al-Muntaha. After reaching a certain place, at Sidrat al-Muntaha, the trustworthy Gabriel says: from here on I have no way to go further. At the place where he said, if I pass even an ant's length, I will burn, the Rafraf comes before him.

The Rafraf. He continues on his way with the Rafraf. As he continues, before the Throne of Allah there is written: La ilahe illallah Muhammeden Resulullah, such an inscription. Above it. With the verse that says his eye did not swerve and did not look, with that verse, as the Prophet continues on his way, just like this, from the Throne of Allah, from a (?), he hears a voice: Ya Resulallah. People think that I carry my Lord. Yet I too am one who is carried. Can one that is carried, it says, carry the Creator of the worlds? it says. From there he continues on his way. His way. When he reaches the farthest point of time and space, Allah Almighty, outside time and space, facing the Prophet: O Muhammad, come closer, He says.

Come closer.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) says: O Lord of the worlds, there is no time and space, he says. Where should I come closer to? Where should I put my step? Put one foot on top of the other, put it on your foot, He says, so that My servants know that I am free from time and space, He says. Then, the Prophet (peace be upon him) begins to praise Allah Almighty. And Allah Almighty says: your praising Me has become like the (?) of your ummah, He says. Upon this, he says, into my mouth came a drop sweeter than snow, than sugar, he says. These words poured from my lips: I cannot mention Your Essence; You are as You mention Your own Essence, he says.

Yes. This is the beginning of the (?) event. What does it say? Allah, who one night, to show him some of Our signs, took Muhammad, His servant, from Al-Masjid al-Haram to Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, is free of all imperfection. Truly He is the All-Hearing, it says, the All-Seeing. Allah, who in pitch-black darkness, on a pitch-black stone, the walk of a pitch-black ant hears, who with an eye that in no way recognizes matter watches all the worlds, surely hears in the finest way, and since in the finest way He does not separate His creations from His Essence, He also sees in the finest way.

In the miracle of the Mi'raj, to take the Prophet (peace be upon him) into His presence, Allah Almighty has him taken from Mecca the Honoured and brings him to the mosque whose surroundings He has blessed, Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.

Today, in Al-Masjid al-Aqsa: carcasses, filthy ones who do not know themselves, with the boots of filth, Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, the place they have defiled.

Wishing to invite the Beloved of the Almighty, the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon him), into His presence, Allah Almighty, through the trustworthy Gabriel, sends the Prophet (peace be upon him) a mount. The name of this mount is Buraq. Together with him they come to Al-Masjid al-Aqsa. On the way they come across many caravans. When he arrived at Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, from there too, in order to reach the presence of Allah Almighty, they ascend.

They come to the first heaven. The gates of heaven open and they go in. Here, in the first heaven, they meet Adam (peace be upon him). They greet each other, meet, and after talking they leave from there. They reached the second heaven. There too he meets John (peace be upon him) and Jesus (peace be upon him). After greeting and talking, they leave from there. They have ascended to the third heaven. There he meets Joseph (peace be upon him). After greeting, they talked, and they part to ascend to the fourth heaven. In the fourth heaven he meets Idris (peace be upon him). After greeting, they talk.

From there they part for the fifth heaven, to go up to the fifth heaven. In the fifth heaven he meets Aaron (peace be upon him), after greeting they talk, and parting from each other, they set off from there to ascend to the sixth heaven. In the sixth heaven he meets Moses (peace be upon him), after greeting they talk, and from there they set off for the seventh heaven. In the seventh heaven they meet Abraham (peace be upon him). Abraham (peace be upon him), in the seventh heaven, at a long station called Al-Bayt al-Ma'mur, is to be found.

Here one day, here every day seventy thousand honoured angels come, and they never return again. All of them make supplications for the Prophet (peace be upon him). After that they reach Sidrat al-Muntaha. This place was given this name because the knowledge of the angels can reach up to here. According to one narration, because the command of Allah Almighty, which is free from time and space, descends within time and space to this station, and from this station spreads to all the worlds, it was given this name. Sidrat al-Muntaha. Yes.

In the Holy Quran, its descent from the Preserved Tablet to Sidrat al-Muntaha.

The trustworthy Gabriel, who came with the Prophet (peace be upon him) up to Sidrat al-Muntaha, cannot go beyond this point. After that a lone journey begins. The Prophet (peace be upon him) finds himself in a void, and before him the Rafraf comes. He mounts it and attains the presence of Allah Almighty. This journey is with the body. In the coming verses we will prove with verses that he made the journey with his body. Some say one cannot cross such a distance.

That's right. Scientifically, there are airless spaces. And they go very fast. Of course, travelling around the seven heavens and coming down in one night is not compatible with the science of our time, and a thing the mind cannot grasp. But if people are to judge by the knowledge of Allah, and Allah's knowledge is infinite... Allah, who created these worlds, surely, to the Rafraf mount, to the Prophet, which vehicle (?) called it Rafraf, and which vehicle set out with this Rafraf. Today we launch a missile. Well, a missile, very fast, pierces the layer of air at a certain level and rises into airless space to a certain degree.

The Rafraf too is a device created by the knowledge of Allah Almighty, and with that device he goes. Just as divers have air tanks on their backs and stay under the sea for hours, likewise the Prophet could, inside that mount of his, travel comfortably. Because Allah's knowledge is infinite, and within this knowledge, by the power of knowledge, our Lord willed it with the Buraq and the Rafraf. He had already prepared the mounts with which He would take him to His Essence. The Prophet (peace be upon him) comes to where time and space end. This is the highest horizon. The meaning of highest horizon: the place where earth and sky seem to meet is called the horizon. Horizon. Right?

At sea you look like this and say: on the horizon. It looks like the place where earth and sky meet. The highest horizon, though: this material world, which begins with time and space, where time and space end, the place where it joins the place where there is no longer time and space, is called the highest horizon. The meaning of its being called the highest horizon is time and space being left behind; the place where, in a place with no time and space, Allah Almighty and the Prophet meet. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) is at the very last point within time and space, at the junction of time and space with the place that has no place, while Allah Almighty is opposite this time and space.

Yes.

Outside time and space, they met in the presence of our Lord. Allah Almighty says to the Prophet (peace be upon him): come closer. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) finds no space or place to step on, and to Allah Almighty: O Lord, there is no place to step, no place is left, where shall I put my step, he says. Allah Almighty says: put one foot on top of the other, so that My servants know that I am free from time and space. The Mi'raj is ascending into the presence of Allah. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) has accomplished the event of the Mi'raj. After this, the Prophet (peace be upon him) visited Paradise and Hell. That is why: if you knew what I know, you would laugh little and weep much, he says.

Being shown the beauty of Paradise alongside the pain and suffering of the people in Hell, the Prophet (peace be upon him), telling people about these, as a warner with Hell and a bringer of glad tidings with Paradise, told his ummah what he saw. Hodja, here you said there is no one in Hell or Paradise yet. And here you say that in Paradise and Hell, in this way, people are burning. The Great Court has not yet been set up, people have not been called to account, so in Paradise and Hell, how does this torment happen? Today we have museums. In our museums there are, of various pasts, images, (?) and events that tell history.

These are lifeless. Allah Almighty has made the living one as a model. In the same way, the Prophet too shows what will happen in Hell. Let's say, like a museum. In Turkey, well, I said Turkey, in the world there are museums you go and visit; in the hereafter too, before the life of Hell has even begun, museums built inside Hell. Touring and seeing those places are, well, signs that in the future the same things will happen. So in this way Allah showed some of His signs to the Prophet (peace be upon him). In this respect, Allah is free from all imperfections. He is Allah, who creates, who brings into being from nothing, the All-Knowing and Perfect.

He hears, knows everything and sees. Because He has power over what He creates. He created them under His rule. Yes. The first verse of Surah Al-Isra. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) came down from the Mi'raj, he tells of the event. The polytheists mock. They mock and say, Muhammad says he went up to the heavens; probably, they say, he has gone mad. At that moment Abu Bakr as-Siddiq happened to pass by. O Abu Bakr, what do you say, they say. What does he say, what do I say? Muhammad says he went up to the heavens, to the heavens, and came down, they say. (?), that is, he met with Allah and came back, they say.

Who said this, he says? The Prophet said it, they say. Muhammad said it, they say. Sadaq, he says. If he said it, it is true, he says. That is where he gets the name Siddiq. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq gets the title Siddiq from here. Yes. Well then, they say, if he went there, he went to Al-Masjid al-Aqsa and came back, he says. If he went there, let him describe Al-Masjid al-Aqsa to us. Because the Prophet (peace be upon him) had never left Medina and Mecca until then.

Among the arriving caravans there are also people who know Al-Masjid al-Aqsa very well. They call the Prophet. You said this and that, he says: we went to Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, he says. You went, he says. Then tell us, since you went there, what is there? Let us learn that you went, he says. Let's see, he says. Describe the place.

The trustworthy Gabriel brings a model of Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, in model form, before the Prophet. And the Prophet describes it while looking at the model. The caravan owners there (?), he says. He knows it better than us, he says. Yes.

Many miracles have appeared within this verse.