In his book Dala'il An-Nubuwwah, Al-Hafiz Abu Nu`aym Al-Isbahani recorded via
Muhammad bin `Umar Al-Waqidi who said: Malik bin Abi Ar-Rijjal told me from `Amr
bin `Abdullah that Muhammad bin Ka`b Al-Qurazi said: "The Messenger of Allah
sent Dihyah bin Khalifah to Caesar.'' He mentioned how he came to him, and
described an incident that showed how wise Caesar was. He sent for the Arab
merchants who were in Syria and Abu Sufyan Sakhr bin Harb and his companions
were brought to him. He asked them the well-known questions that were recorded
by Al-Bukhari and Muslim, as we shall discuss below, and Abu Sufyan tried hard
to give the impression that this was an insignificant issue. [The narrator] said
that Abu Sufyan [later] said: "By Allah, nothing stopped me from saying
something to Heraclius to make him despise [Muhammad] but the fact that I did
not want to tell a lie that would later be found out, and he would never believe
me again after that. Then I told him about the night on which he was taken on
the Night Journey. I said: `O King, shall I not tell you of something from which
you will know that he is lying' He said, `What is it' I said: `He claims that he
went out of our land, the land of Al-Haram, in one night, and came to your
sanctuary in Jerusalem, then came back to us the same night, before morning
came.' The Patriarch of Jerusalem was there, standing next to Caesar. The
Patriarch of Jerusalem said: `I know that night.' Caesar looked at him and said,
`How do you know about this' He said, `I never used to sleep at night until I
closed the doors of the sanctuary. On that night I closed all the doors except
for one, which I could not manage to close. I asked my workers and others who
were with me to help me deal with it, but we could not move it. It was like
trying to move a mountain. So I called the carpenters, and they looked at it and
said: The lintel and some part of the structure has fallen onto it. We cannot
move it until morning, when we will be able to see what the problem is. So I
went back and left those two doors open. The next morning I went back, and saw
that the stone at the corner of the sanctuary had a hole in it, and there were
traces of an animal having been tethered there. I said to my companions: This
door has not been closed last night except for a Prophet, who prayed last night
in our sanctuary.''' And he mentioned the rest of the Hadith. In his book
At-Tanwir fi Mawlid As-Siraj Al-Munir, Al-Hafiz Abu Al-Khattab `Umar bin Dihyah
mentioned the Hadith of the Isra' narrated from Anas, and spoke well about it,
then he said: "The reports of the Hadith of the Isra' reach the level of
Mutawatir. They were narrated from `Umar bin Al-Khattab, `Ali, Ibn Mas`ud, Abu
Dharr, Malik bin Sa`sa`ah, Abu Hurayrah, Abu Sa`id, Ibn `Abbas, Shaddad bin Aws,
Ubayy bin Ka`b, `Abdur-Rahman bin Qarat, Abu Habbah Al-Ansari, Abu Layla
Al-Ansari, `Abdullah bin `Amr, Jabir, Hudhayfah, Buraydah, Abu Ayyub, Abu
Umamah, Samurah bin Jundub, Abu Al-Hamra', Suhayb Ar-Rumi, Umm Hani', and
`A'ishah and `Asma', the daughters of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased
with them all. Some of them narrated the incident at length, and others narrated
it more briefly, as was reported in the Musnad collections. Even though some
reports do not fulfill the conditions of Sahih, nevertheless the Muslims agreed
unanimously on the fact that the Isra' happened, and it was rejected only by the
heretics and apostates.
[يُرِيدُونَ
لِيُطْفِئُواْ نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَهِهِمْ وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ
كَرِهَ الْكَـفِرُونَ ]
(They intend to put out the Light of Allah with their mouths. But Allah will
bring His Light to perfection even though the disbelievers hate (it).) (61:8).
[وَءَاتَيْنَآ مُوسَى
الْكِتَـبَ وَجَعَلْنَاهُ هُدًى لِّبَنِى إِسْرَءِيلَ أَلاَّ تَتَّخِذُواْ مِن
دُونِى وَكِيلاً - ذُرِّيَّةَ مَنْ حَمَلْنَا مَعَ نُوحٍ إِنَّهُ كَانَ عَبْدًا
شَكُورًا ]
(2. And We gave Musa the Scripture and made it a guidance for the Children of
Israel (saying): "Take none other than Me as (your) Wakil.'') (3. "O offspring
of those whom We carried (in the ship) with Nuh! Verily, he was a grateful
servant.'')
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