Mi'rāj-un-Nabi and Orientalists: A Study of the Thoughts of Montgomery Watt and Robert Spencer

معراج النبی ﷺاور مستشرقین: منٹگمری واٹ اور رابرٹ سپینسر کے افکار کا مطالعہ

Abstract

The Night Journey and Ascension is one of the key miracles that happened during the life of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). The general story of this miracle involves many events whose details can be found in the Hadith literature. The usual Qur’ānic reference to this event is in Sura al-Isrā’ and Sura Banī Isrā’īl along with other verses of Sura al-Najm and al-Takwīr. Like majority of the Orientalists, William Montgomery watt and Robert Spencer have actually denied this event that happened in the life of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and have rejected the importance of Islamic Jerusalem in Islam. In this paper, an effort has been made to examine the arguments of both western scholars and to deduce the actual position about this miracle. In this research written with a descriptive and analytical approach, it is proved that according to Quran, sciences of Tafsîr,Hadith literature, history and logic ,the explicit concepts of both scholars about this miracle are baseless and have been rejected with the arguments given by the Majority of the Scholars and Muslim thinkers.