soar beyond the life of the senses which includes the arts and sciences, to a level of communication with God, haqiqat, the level of the heart where such communication begins. Once the ethical persuasions defined in the shari'at, the first step of spiritual ascent, are firmly established, fear is obliterated and the certitude required by the second step, the tariqat, is in place, that is the absolute adherence to the good and total avoidance of the bad, we move up to that place which is revelation, we speak to God and He speaks to us. If we want to understand how this ascension is possible, we look to the experience of the prophet Muhammad whose mystical night journey, the mi'raj, which happened more than once, is described in the Qur'an and ahadith, accounts that conceal as much as they reveal. But from the ahadith we learn that mi'raj is sunnah, that is, an example we are encouraged to emulate.

This complex journey, events which occurred simultaneously on more than one plane of existence, has been pieced together in exquisite detail; here we need refer only to an outline however. On that night of mi `raj Muhammad went from his home in Mecca to Jerusalem, up through the rock where all the prophets prayed, the immense rock now housed in the Dome of the Rock, accompanied by the angel Gabriel who was his guide

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