Muhammad, Not Einstein, Discovered the Theory of Relativity - Who Knew!

Picture of Muhammad's Night Journey

Sometime around the year 621, twelve years after he became a prophet, Muhammad said that he was physically flown through the evening sky 775 miles from Mecca to Jerusalem and back again in one night on his winged horse, Lightning (al-Buraq in Arabic). 

I don't believe anything Muhammad said, especially his silly Night Journey (Isra) and his Seven Heavens (Mi'raj). I'm merely demonstrating that a person who believes such nonsense needs to ask themselves if they truly accept as a foundational belief of their religion that a "heavenly rooster with rubies and pearls on its wings" crows in one of the Seven Heavens to wake up God every morning or that "certain men and faeries" can't hear the rooster crow so when he stops crowing they won't be upset because they couldn't hear him anyway. That story is in one of the Seven Heavens (which I will eventually tell you) but Muhammad's Night Journey is equally filled with such foolish nonsense. 

In addition, it was explained to me by a devout Muslim man that the Qur'an must be true because Muhammad couldn't read or write. I stood there speechless running endless possible comments through my mind of what I might counter that with. Another Muslim said that Muhammad explained his Night Journey as the theory of relativity and that Einstein's discovery of e=mc² was scientific "folklore" because the Qur'an says that time stood still when Muhammad flew to Jerusalem on a flying horse with the face of a woman. Given the fact that these two men genuinely believe what they said it's no mystery that millions of Muslims believe Muhammad's Night Journey and his Seven Heavens are absolutely true events which happened to Muhammad through the hand of God. I'm here to tell you that they are not. 

The following particular story of Muhammad’s Night Journey is taken from The Life of Mohamet written in 1697 by Humphrey Prideaux and reprinted in 1808. Undeniably, the older a book written about Islam, the more clear is the information since the book would have been written closer in time to actual events and during an era when no political correctness existed. This book was written in Old English therefore the following is translated into more readable English for ease of understanding.

Humphrey Prideaux begins: “It was twelve years after Muhammad became a prophet that visions of a journey to Jerusalem wafted through his imagination and the story of his Night Journey was suddenly told. He said that he flew from Mecca to Jerusalem on the winged horse Buraq (Lightning) and after landing on the Jewish Temple Mount, he ascended to heaven by a ladder of light. He went above the seven heavens into the very presence of God, whom he saw by the Lote Tree, beyond which there is no passing (Sura Liii, 13,14)."

How Muhammad's story of his Night Journey and ascension to heaven came about was that the local people in Mecca had been asking Muhammad for miracles to prove his mission. He, being able to work none, solved the matter by inventing the story of his late night journey to heaven. The Night Journey is believed by all Muslims as a main article of their faith, and as such, set down in the books of their authentic traditions. Prideaux said, "How absurd forever it be, therefore my plan is to give as full an account as I can of this man’s imposture which obliges me to relate it."

Lightning 

Here's the story: One night as Muhammad laid in bed with his most beloved nine year-old wife, Aisha, he heard knocking at the door. Opening the door he found the angel Gabriel "with seventy pairs of wings expanded from his sides, whiter than snow, and clearer than crystal, and the beast Buraq standing by him, which they say is the beast on which the prophets used to ride when they were carried from one place to another while executing a divine plan."

Muhammad described the beast to the Meccans as a winged creature with the face of a woman "with two wings on his thighs which lent strength to his legs. He was white as milk, smaller than a mule but bigger than a donkey and of such extraordinary swiftness that his flying from one place to another was as quick as lightning", therefore Muhammad named the beast Lightning (al-Buraq in Arabic). 

Lightning was tied here
1400 years ago even
though the ring looks
to have been made
fairly recently.

As soon as Muhammad opened the door, Gabriel hugged him hello (like he did at the cave at Hira?), greeted him in the name of God, and said that he was sent to bring Muhammad to God (Allah) in heaven, "where he would see strange mysteries which were not allowed to be seen by any other person" then he told Muhammad to get on Lightning.

However Lightning was having none of that, "having lain long idle from the time of Christ until Muhammad - there having been no prophet in all that interval to employ him." Lightning had become uncontrollable and so skittish that he wouldn't stand still for Muhammad to get on him so eventually Muhammad was forced to bribe Lightning into behaving by promising the beast a place in paradise. After the promise of paradise, Lightning quieted down and let Muhammad get on his back. Gabriel took Lightning's reins in his hands and led the way. However, suddenly Lightning flew up to the stars carrying Muhammad through the night sky from Mecca to Jerusalem in the twinkling of an eye.

A split second later when Gabriel, Lightning and Muhammad arrived in Jerusalem and landed on the Jewish Temple Mount, all the dead departed Jewish prophets and Catholic saints appeared at the gate of the Jewish Temple to greet Muhammad. After greeting Muhammad, they joined him in the chief worship space of the Jews to ask Muhammad to pray for them, then they left. Immediately after the spirits of the dead Jews and Catholics departed, Muhammad and Gabriel exited the temple whereupon a ladder of light suddenly appeared before them enabling them to ascend to heaven. 

Meanwhile, until Muhammad and Gabriel returned, poor Lightning was left alone on the Jewish Temple Mount tied to a rock. Today that rock is an Islamic sacred spot, as is the spot where the ladder of light appeared and afforded Muhammad ascension to heaven with Gabriel by his side. 

It's clear that Muhammad fabricated his Night Journey which has no transcendent imagery whatsoever. If there was supernatural intervention it was demonic. If Christians said that Jesus flew into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a winged horse with the face of a woman and landed on the Temple Mount we would be laughed out of existence. Obviously, those who believe in Muhammad’s claim to have traveled to Jerusalem either in body or in spirit rely on blind faith rather than common sense. There is simply no compelling reason to believe that Muhammad’s Night Journey was anything other than a dream, unless of course "Gabriel" is Satan in disguise which then makes the Night Journey demonic in origin, and Muhammad the prophet of Satan. 

In addition, according to Islam, the Night Journey took place twelve years after Muhammad became a prophet. Muhammad mounted Lightning and in the company of Gabriel, they traveled to the "farthest mosque" which Muhammad said was on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. 

However, Muhammad was born in 570 AD, was 40 years old in 610 AD when he first became a prophet therefore the Night Journey, 11 or 12 years later, supposedly took place in 621 or 622 AD. The location of this “farthest mosque” was not explicitly stated but is generally accepted to mean Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. When this Surah was revealed in 622 AD, a Sacred Mosque already existed in Mecca, and “the farthest mosque” was identified with places inside Arabia, either in Medina, or a town called Ji’rana, about ten miles from Mecca.

Unfortunately for Islam’s timeline, in 622 AD, Palestine had not yet been conquered by Muslim armies, and contained not a single mosque. Muslims say that Lightning carried Muhammad to the Masjid Al Aqsa, the "Farthest Mosque", which Muslims believe is "the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem." This mosque was finished in 705 AD, therefore did not exist before Muhammad's death in 632 AD, and certainly not in 622 AD. Consequently the reason for the Dome of the Rock to be built on top of the Temple Mount is bogus and Islam’s claim to the Temple Mount is built on the falsehood of Muhammad's fake (fake or demonic...take your pick) Night Journey.

...to be continued with Muhammad's ascent to and through the Seven Heavens to meet face to face with Allah.