Trials, Elwalion, and Hopes^73ments of his account, for instance the arrival of caravans whose coming
he had announced (having seen them on his way back) and of which he
had given a precise description. T hanks to the strength of this faith, the
community of J\'luslims would be able to face future adversity. From then
on, Vmar ibn al-Khattab and Abu Bakr were always to stand in the front
line of this spiritual force.
Muslim scholars have, from the outset, pondered the question of
whether the Night Journey was of a purely spiritual nature or whether it
was also physical. The majority of scholars consider that the journey was
both physical and spiritual. All things considered, however, this question
is not essential in the light of the teachings that can be drawn from this
extraordinary experience undergone by the Messenger. There is first of
all, of course, the centrality of the city of Jerusillem: at the time, the
P rophet prayed facing the holy city (the first qib/a, or direction of prayer),
and during the Night Journey it was on the site of the Temple that he led
the prayer together with all the prophets. Jerusalem thus appears at the
heart of the P rophet's experience and teaching as a dual symbol, of both
centrality (with the direction of prayer) and universality (with the prayer
of all the prophets). L'lter, in Medina, the qibla (direction of prayer) was
to change-from Jerusalem to the Kaba-to distinguish Islam from
Judaism, but this by no means entailed a diminution of Jerusalem's sratu~,
and in the abovementioned verse the references to the "most sacred
mosque" (the Kaba, in Mecca) and the "farthest mosque" (al-Aqsa, in
Jerusalem) establish a spiritual and sacred link between the two ciries.
The other teaching is of a purely spirirual essence: all Revelation
reached the Prophet in the course of his earthly experience, with the
exception, as we have seen, of the verse, that establish the fundamental
pillars of faith (a/-iman) and the duty of prayer (as-sfdal). The Prophet was
raised to heaven to receive the teachings that were to become the founda-
tion of I slamic worship and ritual, a/-aqidah and a/-ibadat, which require
that believers should accept their form as well as their substance.^16 Unlike
the field of social affairs (a/-fJ/uatJ/a/al), which calls for the creative media-
tion of people's intellect and intelligence, human rationality here submits,
in the name of faith and as an act of humility, to the order imposed by
Revelation: G od has prescribed requirements and norms that the mind
mUSt hear and implement and the heart must love. Raised to receive the
injunction of ritual prayer, the Prophet and his experience reveal what