Perspectives on the Night Journey and Ascension of the Prophet Muhammad

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The research project investigates Muslim approaches and attitudes to the Prophet Muhammad's night journey and ascension to heaven from the first extant written reports in the 9th century AD up to the present time. It demonstrates how these attitudes have evolved and continue to evolve in response to wider issues concerning the understanding of the nature of Muhammad, the status of Islamic traditions as a source of knowledge, sectarian interests and responses to modernism. It also deals with the function of the night journey and ascension as potent symbol within the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In addition, the research examines non-Muslim Western perspectives on the subject and Illustrates how these have been similarly conditioned by attitudes to Muhammad, the nature of prophecy, religion and Islam. The night journey and ascension is the most important religious narrative in Islam and the single most auspicious event within the biography of Muhammad. The investigation of how Muslims view the event helps us to reveal and understand some of the fundamental elements from which the Muslim worldview is constructed. The research is to be published as a monograph.