A Critical Study on the Views of Muslim Thinkers about Mi`raj

The great Prophet`s mi`raj, being of Quranic origin, has been a matter of consensus amongst Muslim. In the mysterious night of mi`raj, the Prophet was carried throughout the world of existence according to the Divine Will and watched a lot of truths in the highest world of existence and saw the positions and ranks of some people of his community in the paradise and in the hell, Then, he visited the antecedent prophets and returned from his journey. Yet, his report of the observed realities was met with the Quraysh`s denial. All Muslim thinkers have agreed on those particular prophetic perceptions in that mysterious night. Yet, they have commented and explained the how of mi`raj differently; some have known the journey to be spiritual and some corporeal. The former may be divided into some groups; one believing in its occurrence in sleep but intelligently, one believing in its occurrence being of thought and common sense and one believing in its occurrence in awakening distint from sleep or thoughtful movement. The particular explanation of some of the Gnostics, though may be taken as spiritual, because of their special manner of speech has been regarded as being distinguished from that. Each of these five interpretations presented here have their own aspects of preferences and ambiguities. This research was an attempt to uncover the preferable interpretation through adopting a critical approach. Yet, this does not invalidate the rest of non-selected interpretations.