Question) With respect to the incident of Al-Isra-wal-Miraj, there is a narration from Ummul Mumineen Aisha (رضي الله عنها) saying: “I never found the Prophet ﷺ absent, he ﷺ was made to travel in Al-Isra-wal-Meraj by his soul”, what is the authenticity of this narration?

Answer:

All Praises and Thanks be to Allah.

This narration has been narrated by Muhammad bin Ishaq who said: “It has been narrated to be from some of the Aal-Abi Bakr (family of Abu Bakr) that Aisha said: “”I never found the Prophet ﷺ absent, he ﷺ was made to travel in Al-Isra-wal-Meraj by his soul” “.

Also refer to As-Seerah An-Nabawiyyah of Ibn Hisham (2/46).

Also from the route of Ibn Jareer At-Tabari in his Tafseer (14/445, 22175), and was also mentioned by Qadhi Iyadh in As-Shifa (1/147).

And this is a weak narration not proven from Aisha and some of the Ulama (scholars) ruled it as being Mawdu (fabricated).

As Shaikh Al-Aluwwi As-Saqqaf said in his Takhreej Al-Ahadith Adh-Dhalal (p.229):”Daif (A weak narration), narrated by Ibn Ishaq with a Munqati (broken) chain”. End quote.

And similarly it was narrated from Muawiyah and it was declared weak by Al-Albani, as he weakened the narration of Aisha and said :”Such is not authentically proven from both of them.” End quote from ‘Checking of Sharh Aqeedah At-Tahawiyyah'(p.246).

And Shaikh Muhammad Rasheed Ridha said: ” And (it may be such that) you found two narrations from Aisha and Muwaiyah, that they both understood that Al-Isra-wal-Merah did not occur by the blessed body of the Messenger ﷺ and from them both are two narrations which are not needed (required) by the people of knowledge in Hadith, and it was narrated by Ibn Ishaq in his Seerah, and he said,”It has been narrated to be from some of the Aal-Abi Bakr (family of Abu Bakr) that Aisha said: “I never found the Prophet ﷺ absent, he ﷺ was made to travel in Al-Isra-wal-Meraj by his soul””(End of Ibn Ishaq’s statement), and verily these two narrations are weak and they don’t have authentic chains, and I (Rasheed Ridha) searched for a discussion on them and I didn’t find a chain for them othen than those narrated by Ibn Ishaq.

As for the narration of narration of Muawiya, it is Munqati (broken in chain), because the narrator Yaqub bin Utbah bin Al-Mugheera bin Al-Akhnas did not meet any Sahabi (Companion) and he only narrated from the Tabain (successors of the Sahaba), and he died in 128H, and Muawiyah died in 60H.

And the Hadith(narration) of Aisha is as you’ve seen, there is no chain for it, as for the statement of Ibn Ishaq that: ” It has been narrated to me by some of the Aal-Abi Bakr (people of the family of Abu Bakr)”, this shows ambiguity on behalf of the narrator, as he (Ibn Ishaq) doesn’t know who narrated to him from them (Aal-Abi Bakr).Was he (the narrator) trustworthy or not? And did he (the narrator) meet Aisha or not?

And thus both narrations are of Munqati (broken) chains, with unknown narrators, and the people of knowledge do not need such Ahadith!

End quote from Majallah Al-Manar (49/14) from Ash-Shamela (software).

And there is a variation in the wordings of the narration of Ibn Ishaq, in some of them (we find), ‘Ma Faqadtu’, with Ta Mutakallim, which means ‘I never found (the Prophet ﷺ absent)’, and in some narrations of Ibn Ishaq (we find), ‘Ma Fuqida’, in the F’al Majhul, which means ‘Never was the body of the Prophet ﷺ found absent’.

If the first version of wordings is considered then it is clear that it (the narration) is a plain lie and false speech ,because Al-Isra-wal-Meraj happened before the Hijrah (Migration to Madinah), and the Prophet ﷺ consumated his marriage with Aisha after his migrantion to Madinah, so how can Aisha (supposedly) claim that, “I never found the Prophet ﷺ absent”!?

Similarly Salihi Rahimahullah in his Sabeel-ul-Huda War-Rashad (3/101) says: “In the manuscript of Seerah (Ibn Ishaq) I saw ‘Ma Fuqida (Fa’l Majhul)’ only, but in Qadhi Iyadh’s book Ash-Shifa I saw ‘Ma Fuqidtu’, i.e. Ta Mutakallim.” End quote.

After this Salihi (3/103) says: “With regards to the Athar (narration) attributed to Aisha about Al-Isra, there is not a single chain about it that reaches the level required to become a proof, and with respect to the chain that is available, it is broken and has unknown(Majhul) narrators, as I’ve mentioned before.”

Also Abu Khattab bin Dahiya mentions in his book ‘At-Tanveer’ that: “This Hadith is fabricated”.

Similarly he has mentioned in his summarized book ‘Minhaj’ that: “The Imam of the Fuqaha of the Shafii Madhab Imam Qadhi Abu Abbas Sareej says: “This narration is not authentic, actually this Athar (Narration) has been fabricated only so that it opposes the authentic Ahadith” “.

End of Shaikh Salihi’s Quote.

Imam ibn Abdil Barr Rahimahullah said:

” And (the saying that) Aisha (رضي الله عنها) rejected that Al-Isra didn’t occur by the body (of the Prophet ﷺ): It is not authentically reported from her and not proven to be her statement (it was reported that she said), “I never found the Prophet ﷺ absent, he ﷺ was made to travel in Al-Isra-wal-Meraj by his soul”, and like some narrated from her, “The Prophet’s ﷺ body wasn’t found absent on that night(of Al-Isra-wal-Meraj)”,and this statement is a clear lie, because Aisha was not with the Prophet ﷺ when Al-Isra occurred, but she joined him after many years in Al-Madinah”. End quote from Al-Ajwibah Al-Mustaw’abah Anil-Masail Al-Mustaghribah of Ibn Abdil Barr, Dar Ibn Affan Publishers,(134-135).

Al-Isra, the night journey of the Prophet ﷺ occured by his soul and body as is mentioned in the Fatawa no: 84314.

(https://islamqa.info/ar/answers/84314/الرد-على-من-زعم-ان-الاسراء-والمعراج-خرافة)

End of the Fatwa from islamqa.info

[The question above was posed to islamqa.info, the website run by Shaikh Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid Hafidhahullah, and the answer was only available in the Arabic language. It has been translated into the English language for the benefit of sincere students of The Seerah of The Prophet ﷺ and his Sahaba (رضي الله عنهم). Any mistakes in the translation are to be attributed to the translator alone,and rectifications in this regard will be highly appreciated, Barakallahufeekum.]

-Translated by Abu Muaaz Mohammed Manna,

16th Rabi-ul-Akhir 1440

Original Arabic Source:

https://islamqa.info/ar/answers/228287/بطلان-ما-روي-عن-عاىشة-في-الاسراء-ما-فقدت-جسد-رسول-الله-صلى-الله-عليه-وسلم

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

الحمد لله و الصلاة و السلام على رسول الله …

[Alhamdulillah, was Salatu was Salaamu Ala Rasoolillaah]

Amma Ba’ad:

I, * bin *, of Class ***, stand before you to narrrate the story of the two sons of Adam Alaihissalaam , Habil and Qabil.

Adam Alaihissalaam, the father of humankind, had two sons called Habil and Qabil.

Acording to the scholars of Tafseer, Adam Alaihissalaam and Hawwa Alaihassalaam would have two sets of twins, a boy and a girl in the morning and a boy and a girl in the evening. It was allowed in those times for siblings to marry each other.

The boy from the morning would marry the girl from the evening and vice versa.

When Habil and Qabil grew up. Qabil wanted to marry has own sister as she was more beautiful than the other and not allow Habil to marry her. Qabil was adamant at this demand.

As a solution Adam Alaihissalaam asked both of them to offer a sacrifice to Allah, the one whose sacrifice would be accepted would marry the beautiful girl.

Qabil offered Allah a sacrifice of bad plants to Allah and Habil offered a healthy sheep. Allah accepted Habil’s sacrifice and rejected Qabil’s sacrifice.

Qabil was enraged and decided to harm his own brother. When he was about to kill Habil, Habil assured his brother that he would not kill Qabil even though Qabil wanted kill him. Qabil hit a rock on the head of Habil and killed him. Qabil became the first murderer of humanity.

Later on Qabil buried his brother after he saw a crow doing the same to a dead crow.

Qabil imitated the grave sin of murder, for which the Prophet ﷺ said, he will be punished for every one of the children of Adam Alaihissalaam who also murder another one of their kind.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said in a Hadith recorded by Imam Al-Bukhari, “No human being is killed unjustly, but a part of the responsibility for the crime is laid on the first son of Adam (who was Qabil) who invented the tradition of killing (murdering) on the earth.

Habil will be rewarded for showing patience and perseverance towards Qabil. Qabil’s jealousy and grudge against the favours that Allah bestowed upon his brother, lead him to commit the crime of murder.

Hence whenever Shaitan creates evil insinuations in our mind about another human being, we should fear Allah and stop them, lest we too fall into the crime of Qabil.

Killing an innocent human being is highly condemned in the Quran.

Allah says in the Quran:

مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَٰلِكَ كَتَبْنَا عَلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنَّهُ مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَا أَحْيَا النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا ۚ وَلَقَدْ جَاءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُنَا بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ ثُمَّ إِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فِي الْأَرْضِ لَمُسْرِفُونَ

Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.

-Sura Al-Ma’idah, Ayah 32

Wa akhiruddawana anilhamdulillah rabbil Alameen.

سبحانك اللهم وبحمدك أشهد أن لا إله الا أنت أستغفرك وأتوب إليك.

Salamualaikum,

This is a short speech I wrote for one of my students, it has been presented here so that others can benefit In’Sha’Allah.

Download here.

Salamualaikum,

This book was translated into english from urdu for a Hadith memorization competition in our Madrasa, we have uploaded it here so that others can benefit In sha Allah.

Note: The quality of the pdf is very poor. If any Hadith isn’t from Sahih Al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim, please cross check their authenticity, some narrations are weak in the book, and we realized it later.

In sha Allah I may post a better pdf if time permits and I make a new copy.

Download here.

Salamualaikum,

This is a short speech I wrote for one of my students, it has been presented here so that others can benefit In’Sha’Allah. If you’re posting it,i.e. copy pasting it somewhere else, please mention the author’s name,i.e. Abu Muaaz Mohammed Manna.

Download pdf from here.