In this invigorating talk, Shaykh Ahmad Saad links the events during al-Isra’ wal Mi’raj, the Miraculous Night Journey and Heavenly Ascent, to the mission of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ for humanity. Please watch the full lecture below or read the following excerpts:

When we celebrate something, we are giving new life to the event and we have to move beyond just retelling the story but to look for the lessons and meanings in them. Every day we meet new people and experience new things but we don’t remember all of these or celebrate them. Only those that leave a mark in our lives or have something significant becomes something to be celebrated.

As years pass, we grow in our understanding of the Qur’an, and in our understanding of the life events of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

The people around the Prophet could not believe that a human being could travel to Baitulmaqdis and return within a night. They had asked him, “We have a caravan coming back from the Levant, did you see it?”. The Prophet ﷺ told them that the caravan would arrive on a certain day (calculating their distance) and that the caravan was led by a dark grey camel. He ﷺ also told them about a certain event that happened with the water and the saddle.

When the caravan did eventually return on the day the Prophet told them it would and they verified that the leader of the caravan was led by a dark grey camel and the events with the water and the saddle were true, they were still in complete denial. They had turned their God-given gift, the mind, into an idol.

Lecture “The Miraculous Night Journey and Heavenly Ascent: The Prophetic Mission for Humanity” by Shaykh Ahmad Saad on 15 May 2015 at Singapore Management University, Mochtar Riady Auditorium, organised by SimplyIslam.sg and the SMU Muslim Society.

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The Purpose of Grief & Pain

As we all know, the momentous event came in what was known as the Year of Grief. Prophet Muhammad was dealt with very harsh blows – he lost his beloved wife, Sayyidatina Khadijah, and his dear uncle, Abu Talib. Shaykh Ahmad Saad said that this was Allah’s way to prepare Prophet Muhammad for their meeting. In the same way, sometimes Allah takes away some great things from you in order to free up that space so that you may focus on what truly matters: Him.

Ibn Atha’illah as-Sakandari says, “The arrival of tribulations is the time of celebration for the seekers.” Seekers know that when trouble comes, it is the beginning of an opening.

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Watch the lecture above to find out about what notes the Prophet took during the Isra’ wal-Mi’raj and how it helped to shape him as a Prophet and what it did for his mission for when he went back to earth.