Wa Sami Na Wa Ata Na Plus The Dead Cannot Hear

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Here is something lite and easy folks. This is religion. 
The following is NOT in the Quran. There are no such things in the Quran.
For non Muslims this may ring some bells as well.  All religions have their flying horses. 
For Muslims,  how old were you when you first heard this story? Five years old? Seven years old? How old are you now? 
A minus B will tell you how many years you have been 
a. thinking b. unthinking c. huh ? 
This is the story of the prophet's night journey - where he is said to have travelled on a magical four legged, winged animal from Mecca to Jerusalem then from jerusalem to heaven and back. The return trip was direct to Mecca. 
I have numbered the paragraphs because they are from different links and also the versions are different.
1.  https://www.islamicity.org/5841/the-night-journey/
"The Prophet liked to go to the Kaba enclosure at night. He would stand there in prayer for long hours. One evening, he suddenly felt deeply tired and in great need of sleep. He therefore lay down near the Kaba and fell asleep.
Muhammad  has related that the Angel Gabriel then came to him. Gabriel shook him twice to awaken him, but Muhammad  slept on; the third time the angel shook him, Muhammad  awoke, and Gabriel took him to the doors of the mosque, where a white animal (looking something like a cross between a mule and a donkey, but with wings) was waiting for them. 
He mounted the animal, which was called al-Buraq, and started with Gabriel toward Jerusalem. 
There Muhammad  met a group of prophets who had preceded him (Abraham, Moses, and others), and he led a group prayer with them on the Temple site. 
When the prayer was over, the Prophet was raised with the Angel Gabriel beyond space and time. On his way, rising through the seven heavens, he again met the various prophets, and his vision of the heavens and of the beauty of those horizons permeated his being. He at last reached the Lotus of the Utmost Boundary (Sidrat al-Muntaha). This was where the Prophet received the injunction of the five daily prayers and Revelation of the verse that established the elements of the Muslim creed
2. The Ibn Ishaq version.
The idea of the spiritual night journey and the ascent to heaven refers to some of the narratives related by Ibn Ishaq and some other Sunni biographers. He says,
On the night of al-Isrā’, Muhammad was staying in the house of his cousin, Hind, daughter of Abu Talib, who was also called Umm Hāni. 
Hind related that “The Prophet of God spent the night in my quarters. He recited his night prayers and went to sleep. Just before dawn, the Prophet of God awoke us and we all prayed the dawn prayer together. When the prayer was through, he said, “O Umm Hāni, I prayed with you the night prayer in this place; then I went to Jerusalem and I prayed there, and as you see, I have just finished praying with you the dawn prayer.’

My comments :  The first version says the Prophet was sleeping somewhere near the Kaaba when Gabriel woke him up. 
The second version says he was sleeping in the house of his cousin sister Umm Hani throughout the night.
The first version says the Prophet then "flew' to Jerusalem on board the magical four legged flying animal. In Jerusalem he "prayed" with all the prophets like Moses, Jesus, Abraham etc. Other reports say the prophet was the imam or prayer leader.
Then after the prayers when the prophet ascended to heaven on the magical four legged flying animal, he again met Moses, Jesus etc.
The question is how did Moses, Jesus etc get up there to heaven ahead of the Prophet? Did they have four legged flying animals as well that were much quicker? Or did they ascend by some other means?   



Other much older, magical, four legged flying animals. Above :  The Khamdenu of Hindu mythology. Below : The Pegassus of Greek mythology.How come depa punya semua mythology ? 



If Moses, Jesus etc were not actually present physically (like in the real world) then it could mean the prophet's night journey was also not in the real physical world. 
(And true enough even among the religious people there are two opinions - one opinion says the prophet's journey was real, another opinion says it was not a real journey.)
Muslim folks, these are very important questions for you to ponder.  Just answering this question alone may solve a substantial amount of the conflict in the Middle East.  
Today the Al Aqsa Mosque as well as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, is where the prophet is believed to have taken off on his journey to heaven. Muslims and Jews are fighting over this site. 
Ok lets continue.
3.  There are different accounts of what occurred during the Mi‘raj, but most narratives have the same elements: Muhammad ascended into heaven with the angel Gabriel and met a different prophet at each of the seven levels of heaven; first Adam, then John the Baptist and Jesus, then Joseph, then Idris, then Aaron, then Moses, and lastly Abraham. After Muhammad meets with Abraham, he continues on to meet God without Gabriel. God tells Muhammad that his people must pray 50 times a day, but as Muhammad descends back to Earth, he meets Moses who tells Muhammad to go back to God and ask for fewer prayers because 50 is too many. Muhammad goes between Moses and God nine times, until the prayers are reduced to the five daily prayers, which God will reward tenfold.[16] That again, Moses told Muhammad to ask for even lesser but Muhammad felt ashamed and said that even with lesser prayer times, his followers might not even perform diligently and said he is thankful for the five.
My comments :  
Listen carefully folks. They say that the  original command was for 50 times prayer a day !!  Can you imagine the number of prayer breaks the Civil Servants can take?  No work will get done.  If they had to pray 50 times a day, even fishermen will not have time to catch fish.  Neither will farmers have time to till the soil, plant the padi and reap the harvest.
The question is wouldnt "god" know about all this?  Yet he prescribed 50 prayers a day?  
Then on the way out of his audience with god, the prophet is told by Moses (who was waiting just outside (outside where?) that 50 times prayers a day would be difficult. Moses tells the prophet to go back to god and ask for less. Which the prophet did.
The Negotiation.
The prophet went to and fro between god and Moses for a total of NINE TIMES - says the story above. (Ini bukan saya cakap tau. Itu religious expert cakap. Jangan marah saya tau.)
Finally after NINE NEGOTIATIONS we ended up with the FIVE prayers. 
Other versions of this story say that each time the prophet re-negotiated with god, the prayers were REDUCED BY HALF.
So this means : 
1.  50 / 2 = 252.  25 / 2 = 12.53.  12.5 / 2 = 6.254.  6.25 / 2 = 3.125...9. ..
That cant be true because by this method the number 5 does not appear at all.
I have always been intrigued by the part where Moses (another Rasul) told the prophet to 'disobey' god's commandment for 50 prayers.  
Moses told the prophet to go back to god and re-negotiate the commandment.And this happened NINE TIMES !!
Didnt god know beforehand exactly how many prayers a day will suit the human race?  God is Omniscient which means god knows everything.
Even if the prophet went back and asked for fewer prayers, did this have to happen NINE TIMES?   
What does the Quran say?
When the believers hear any commandment from Allah, they say "wa sami'na wa ata'na".
Which means "We hear and we obey".



This is it. The believers just say "We hear and we obey".  
This must of course include the prophets and rasuls because they are also believers.
What does this mean? 
No 1. Should Muslims revert back to 50 times prayer a day?  I can see the Civil Servants and 9-5 workers smiling already. Imagine the number of prayer breaks.
No 2.  Does that story hold any water? Did it really happen that way? 

The Quran says that the dead cannot hear.  So how did the prophet have a conversation with Moses about the 50 prayers?
"The living and the dead are not the same. Allah makes anyone He wills hear, you cannot make those in their graves hear ( وَمَآ أَنتَ بِمُسْمِعٍۢ مَّن فِى ٱلْقُبُورِ)." (Qur'an 35:22)
"You cannot make the dead hear, you cannot make the deaf listen to your call when they turn their backs and leave." (Qur'an 27:80)
Nowhere in the Quran does it say that Allah granted special powers or abilities for previous prophets like Moses, Jesus, Abraham etc to rise from the dead or appear in spirit form to have a conversation with other living prophets.
These stories are all NOT in the Quran. The Quran has no such information.
This is for your renungan. 
So Muslim men and Muslim women it would be much better for you to read and understand what is inside your own Quran.

Surah 2:28  And of the people there is he who disputes about Allah without knowledge or guidance or an enlightening book.

Another verse in the Quran says those who argue without knowledge of the Book are arrogant.

Meaning you must read your Quran lah. If you have not read what is in your Quran but you still want to argue it simple means that you are arrogant (takabur) and stupid. You will not solve anything through your jahil (ignorance). Or the jahil teachings of your tok guru jahil.

Remember this.Posted by Syed Akbar Ali 

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