The Night Journey, and Yathrib begins to listen

Taken on the Burāq from the Kaʿbah to Jerusalem, he ﷺ led the prophets in prayer there. He was offered a vessel of milk and one of wine and chose the milk; Jibrīl said, 'You have been guided to the fiṭrah.' In the morning Quraysh demanded a description of Jerusalem; when he described it and their caravans on the road, Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه said, 'If he said it, he has spoken the truth' — and was named aṣ-Ṣiddīq.

• 17:1 — 'Glory to Him who took His servant by night...'

• The station of the Prophet ﷺ among the prophets is set at al-Aqṣā — the two sanctuaries are one story.
• Ṣiddīq means believing the report because you know the reporter, before you have the evidence.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3887; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 162

He ﷺ was raised through the seven heavens, meeting Ādam, ʿĪsā and Yaḥyā, Yūsuf, Idrīs, Hārūn, Mūsā and Ibrāhīm, and reached Sidrat al-Muntahā. Fifty prayers were prescribed; on Mūsā's repeated counsel he returned and asked for reduction until they were five in performance and fifty in reward. The closing āyāt of al-Baqarah were given there.

• 53:13–18 — The sighting at Sidrat al-Muntahā.

• The only obligation given directly above the heavens, not through Jibrīl on earth, is ṣalāh.
• The gift arrived in the year of greatest loss — Ṭāʾif and the Year of Sorrow precede the Miʿrāj.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 349; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 162

At each Ḥajj he went from camp to camp — Kindah, Banū Ḥanīfah, Banū ʿĀmir and others — saying, 'Who will take me to his people, for Quraysh have prevented me from conveying the speech of my Lord?' Banū ʿĀmir asked for the rule after him as a condition; he answered that the matter belongs to Allah, and refused. Abū Lahab followed him through the camps contradicting him.

• Years of refusals preceded the one meeting that changed everything.
• He would not buy support by pledging power — the terms of the daʿwah were never negotiable.

Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; Musnad Aḥmad

After twelve men of Yathrib pledged at ʿAqabah not to associate anything with Allah, not to steal, not to commit indecency, not to kill their children and not to disobey in what is right, the Prophet ﷺ sent Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr رضي الله عنه back with them. Muṣʿab had been the best-dressed youth in Makkah and was now living on very little. He taught the Qur'an, led the prayer, and through his calm answer to an armed and angry Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr and then Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, the whole clan of ʿAbd al-Ashhal accepted Islam in a day. He returned to Makkah with seventy-three believers for the second pledge.

• The first thing sent to a new community was a teacher, not an army or a governor.
• Muṣʿab won people by hearing them out first: 'Sit and listen — if you like it, accept it.'

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3925; Ibn Hishām; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī