Reflections of a Traveler

Isra and Miraj (The Heart)

Al Sayyid Muhammad Ibn Alawi al Maliki said, “As the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa salaam(was in al Hija at the House, lying down at rest between two men, Jibril and Mikail came to him.  With them was a third angel (Israfil).  They carried him until they brought him to the spring of Zamzam, where they asked him to lie on his back and Jibril took him over from the other two.  (another version says:) “The roof of my house was opened and Jibril desecended.”

“He split the Prophet’s (sallabu alayhi wa salaam) chest from his throat to the bottom of his belly.  Then Jibril said to Mikail: “Bring me a vessel of the water of Zamzam so that I will purify his heart and expand his breast.”  He took out his heart and washed it three times, removing from it what was wrong.  Mikail went back and forth to him with the vessel of water from Zamzam three times.”

Then he brought him a golden vessel filled with wisdom and belief which he emptied into his chest. He filled his chest with hilm, knowledge, certainty, and submission, then he closed it up.  He sealed it between his shoulders with the seal of Prophethood.”
(Hilm denotes intelligence, patience, gentleness and good character.)

My Thoughts: 

This past Friday we had a Halaqah at the Masjid on an aspect of Isra and Miraj.  And I was like you know I need the Prophet’s Isra and Miral by Al Sayyid Muhammad Ibn Alawi al Maliki, the great Muhaddith and Wali, who recently passed away, and may Allah have mercy on him.  So I opened of this book and the above quote is the first three paragraphs I read.  My initial thoughts were like, “this is awesome,” I mean just ponder over that for a few minutes. 

After pondering over this, I was concerned about the authenticity of the Prophet (Sallahu alayhi wa salaam) having his heart cleaned before the Isra because I remembered it happened to him when he was a child. So I looked it up.
In Bukhari and Muslim, Abu Dharr said that the Messenger of Allah said, “The roof of my house was split open and Jibril descended and opened my breast.  Then he washed it with water from Zamzam.  Then he brought a gold dish filled with wisdom and belief and he poured it into my breast and then closed it up.  He took me by the hand and asceneded with me to heaven.” 
I doubted this great Muhaddith, yet it was right there in Bukhari and Muslim.  It was like a brother was telling me, we have this disease in our hearts, where we don’t trust our scholars even when their scholarship is well known. 

The reason I thought this quote was so awesome is because the heart is the beginning of our actions, our thinking and our feelings.

Nuhman Ibn Bashir narrated that the Prophet, may Allah give him peace and blessings, said, “Verily there is in the body a small piece of flesh, if it is good the whole body is good and if it is corrupted the whole body is corrupted, verily it is the heart.” (Bukhari, Muslim)

Imam Ahmad Zarruq said, “The heart is the foundation of every good and evil.  Its life and its death are the keys to either benefit or harm, so that which has no life in its heart has no way of protecting itself from evil facilitating itself good.  And every heart that life enters into by necessity it will call it to enthusiastic responses when reminders occur.” So basically every good deed and bad deed emanates either from a good heart or a diseased heart.

And before the Prophet (sallahu alayhi salam) ascended through the heavens, the Angel Jibril purified his heart.  This purification actually happened several times throughout the life of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa salaam).   I know once when he was a child and this particular time right before Isra.  This indicates a number of things, that in order to enter Jannah one needs a purified heart (and that purification of heart takes times, as the Prophet’s heart was purified several times. 

   And Allah knows best.