I'm splitting it into 2 posts because we just had such a fascinating story in Tafseer I wanted to post it seperately. If there are blanks, please feel free to fill them in. I found this story absolutely fascinating.
I had Tafseer, we will be studying Surah Bin'Israel (Children of Israel). For 2 hours we talked about what the first 7 verses meant. Yes, she is that thorough. The first verse is about the Ascension of the prophet, the 7 layers of Heaven and 7 layers of Hell. The first verse specifically talks about Muhammad's (PBUH) Ascension from the Masjid in Mecca to the Masjid in Jerusalem. Some say Muhammad (PBUH) moved physically, some say he moved spiritually.
The story roughly goes like this:
Gabriel came on a big horse and took Muhammad (PBUH) to Heaven. On the way there Gabriel said "As we go, ask no questions. You will see a great many things."
Muhammad (PBUH) arrives to see all the past prophets praying and Gabriel says "You must lead them in prayer" and the prophet says "But I cannot." After some convincing he leads them all.
Gabriel then takes him through the layers of Heaven and when they arrive at the layer which would be that of Allah Gabriel tells Muhammad (PBUH) that he must continue from here by himself and that he will be able to ask Allah about the fate of him and his people. So Muhammad goes to Allah and asks what he can tell his people to do. Allah tells Muhammad to have them pray 100 prayers a day.
Muhammad finds this unreasonable but complies with Allah's wishes. He then runs into Musa and Ibrahim and they tell him to go back to Allah and ask for less. The people cannot do 100.
So he goes back and Allah says "Ok then 50 prayers a day"
Muhammad goes back to Musa and Musa tells him "Surely that is unreasonable. Your people were once my people, I know they cannot do that. Ask for less."
So Muhammad goes back and forth a total of five times before Allah says "Muhammad I love you and I see the love you have for your people. In my love I ask for 17 prayers a day" which equals the 5 times muslims pray today.
I really enjoyed learning about this and want to know more. How extraordinary.
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