He was the Night Rider. The Night journey of Mohammed in the black reaches of the sky. Timing is everything….Muslims talk about the Prophet as if they had personally known him. Such stories and sayings, repeated after the Prophet’s death and embellished by successive generations, are known as Hadiths. ….
Most of what we are told about Mohammed’s physical appearance has come down through the Hadiths. He had a large head, large gray eyes, and an aquiline nose. He was neither tall nor short, his complexion was neither dull white nor reddish, his shoulder-length was neither very curly nor completely straight. He had a bushy beard and broad hands. He never laughed out loud, he only smiled. His step was so energetic that he seemed to fly, but he did not walk proudly like a prince. Between his shoulder blades was a large, hairy mole the size of a pigeon’s egg, which came to be known as the Prophet’s seal.
—The Islamic version of heaven is a paradise for those whose good works have outweighed the bad as determined by the straight path laid out in the Quran. Heaven is a garden where the faithful lie upon couches in a climate-controlled environment surrounded by “bashful, dark-eyed virgins, chaste as the sheltered eggs of ostriches.” They will drink from crystal goblets and silver vessels as “immortal youths” hover about them looking like “scattered pearls.” The believers will be clothed in green silk and brocade and will wear silver bracelets, and they will “drink a pure draught” drawn from Allah’s own source as a reward for their striving and patience.—Read More:http://raymasky.posterous.com/heaven-and-hell-according-to-various-religion
Aside from the Hadiths, the principal sources of information about the Prophet are the Koran itself and several biographies that were written long after Mohammed’s death. The biographies, like the Hadiths, are compilations of hearsay. Modern scholars must accept without proof the veracity of the early texts, checking them against their knowledge of the period and analysis of the Koran. But the Koran presents difficulties of its own. Moslems believe that its 114 chapters, or suras, are the infallible word of Allah as revealed to Mohammed. They were first committed to memory by the Prophet’s followers, and were later written down on stones, palm fronds, and camel bones by secretaries. It was only fifteen years after Mohammed’s death that the chapters were collected between hard covers by his son-in-law the caliph Othman. They were arranged, not by the date of the revelations, but by the length of the chapters. Scholars are still debating their exact chronology.
—Syrian President Bashar Assad attended prayers in a Damascus mosque to mark the start of a Muslim holiday on Sunday, his first appearance in public since the bombing last month that killed four of his top security officials.
Elsewhere in the country, thousands staged anti-government protests in mosques and cemeteries following special prayers marking Eid al-Fitr, the three-day holiday that ends the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Pious Muslims traditionally visit graves and recite prayers for the dead on the holiday.
Amateur video posted by activists on the Internet show a large group of worshippers in a mosque at al-Zahera district in Damascus shouting: “There is no God but Allah” and “Assad is the enemy of God,” while clapping their hands over their heads.
“May God protect the Free Syrian Army!” they also cried, referring to the main rebel group fighting to topple Assad.
Ramadan in Syria was particularly deadly this year as the civil war reached the two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo. The Syrian regime has suffered a series of setbacks over the past month that point to a loosening of its grip on the country.—Read More:http://www.timesofisrael.com/assad-makes-first-public-appearance-since-july-bombing/
The content of the Koran reflects the Prophet’s changing needs.In the beginning he had to convince his idol-worshiping fellow citizens of Mecca to abandon their stone gods for the one God. Thus the early revelations, received when Mohammed had few followers, contain a clear statement of the new faith and a series of what might be called incentives for conversion: the faithful are promised a garden of earthly delights after death, where they will have high-bosomed maidens for companions and dwell in towering mansions with cool shade. Later, as Mohammed emerged as a successful political and military leader, the revelations become more practical- concerned with social reforms, military operations and the Prophet’s own private life.
Thus, one can look at the Koran in two ways. In the Moslem’s view, it is a divine text for which Mohammed was merely a recording device. The word “koran,” after all, means recitation. But one can also view Mohammed as a providential man who came at a time when the society he lived in needed to change. The Koran provided solutions to a certain number of problems besetting the Arab social structure of the seventh century. The time was ripe for the foundation of an Arab state propelled by an Arab ideology, and the Koran also provided the ideology, with its program of sacred war against unbelievers.
ADDENDUM:
(see link at end)…One well-known historical account contains the following details:
The great mosque of Jerusalem, Al Masjid al Aksa, the ” Further Mosque,” derives its name from the traditional Night Journey of Muhammad, to which allusion is made in the words of the Kuran (xvii. 1): “I declare the glory of Him who transported His servant by night from the Masjid al Haram (the Mosque at Makkah) to the Masjid al Aksa (the Further Mosque) at Jerusalem” – the term “Mosque ” being here taken to denote the whole area of the Noble Sanctuary, and not the Main building of the Aksa only, which, in the Prophet’s days, did not exist.
According to the received account, Muhammad was on this occasion mounted on the winged steed called Al Burak “the Lightning” and, with the angel Gabriel for escort, was carried from Makkah (Mecca), first to Sinai, and then to Bethlehem, after which they came to Jerusalem. “And when we reached Bait al Makdis, the Holy City,” so runs the tradition, “we came to the gate of the mosque (which is the Haram Area), and here Jibrail (Gabriel) caused me to dismount. And he tied up Al Burak to a ring, to which the prophets of old had also tied their steeds.” (Ibn al Athir’s Chronicle, ii. 37.) Entering the Haram Area by the gateway, afterwards known as the Gate of the Proph
Muhammad and Gabriel went up to the Sacred Rock, which of old times had stood in the centre of Solomon’s Temple; and in its neighbourhood meeting the company of the prophets, Muhammad proceeded to perform his prayer-prostrations in the assembly of his predecessors in the prophetic office Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and others of God’s ancient apostles.
From the Sacred Rock Muhammad, accompanied by Gabriel, next ascended, by a ladder of light, up into heaven; and, in anticipation, was vouchsafed the sight of the delights of Paradise. Passing through the seven heavens, Muhammad ultimately stood in the presence of Allah, from whom he received injunctions as to the prayers his followers were to perform. Thence, after a while, he descended again to earth; and, alighting at the foot of the ladder of light, stood again on the Sacred Rock at Jerusalem. The return journey homeward was made after the same fashion – on the back of the steed Al Burak and the Prophet reached Makkah again before the night had waned. Such, in outline, is the tradition of the Prophet’s Night Journey, which especially sanctifies the Rock and the Haram Area in the sight of all true believers. Read More:http://www.templemount.org/allah.html
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An Egyptian business woman, Najlaa, was sentenced to 500 lashes and five years in prison after allegedly falling out with a Saudi Princess. The Egyptian victim has not been named, but her case was reported by Egyptian media, while angry Egyptians launched campaigns on social media websites, calling on the new Egyptian President, Mohamad Morsi, to stop the Saudi authorities from “completing the sentence” through applying the last 200 lashes. The above photo has been taken after the first 300 lashes.
According to an Egyptian report, Najlaa was arrested on the 30th of May, 2009; she went through four days of harsh interrogation before being transferred to a prison where she spent 20 months without trial. On the 14th of June 2011, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison and 500 lashes. Last May, the Saudi authorities started the execution of the lashing sentence. Every week, Najlaa received 50 lashes for 6 weeks. She suffers from a deviation in her vertebral column, which only makes things worse.Read More:http://www.thearabdigest.com/2012/08/photo-egyptian-business-woman-lashed.html
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