The Amazing Night Journey

The Amazing Night Journey is an interactive Islamic picture book for children aged 4 to 9 that tells the story of the Isra and Mi'raj: how the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ travelled by night from Makkah to Jerusalem and up to the heavens, and why Muslims pray five times a day.

One night, a magnificent white creature called Al-Buraq carries the Prophet ﷺ from Makkah to Jerusalem. From there, he goes up to the heavens, where Allah gives him a very important command. This journey, the Isra and Mi'raj, is how the prayer, one of the five pillars of Islam, was established.

The Night Journey is mentioned in the Qur'an (Surah Al-Isra 17:1), and the hadith tell more of it: the Prophet ﷺ led the earlier prophets in prayer at Masjid al-Aqsa, and Allah first commanded fifty prayers a day, then, after the Prophet Musa (AS) urged him to ask for fewer, made them five.

For children who are learning to pray, the book answers a question they often ask: why do we pray five times a day? It presents salah as a gift the Prophet ﷺ brought back from the heavens for his people.

The Amazing Night Journey is a Miraj original. Its sound design uses only voices making dhikr of Allah and recordings of everyday sounds, so it is music-free.

Long, long ago, in the land of Makkah, something astonishing happened. One night, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was fast asleep when something woke him. His eyes snapped open, and there before him was the angel Jibril, who had come to take him on a very important journey.

Waiting by the door was a magnificent white creature. The angel explained that its name was Al-Buraq, which means lightning. The Prophet ﷺ looked down in awe as they soared over sleeping lands, purple mountains and bare red deserts, and in no time at all they could see the rooftops of the holy city of Jerusalem.

At a mosque called Al-Aqsa, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ met many of the prophets, from Adam (AS) to Ibrahim (AS), Musa (AS) and Isa (AS). They greeted him and made him feel most welcome and loved, and the Prophet ﷺ led them all in prayer.

Then the angel took the Prophet ﷺ higher and higher, until they arrived at the gates of heaven, and led him up and up, to the very top. Everything there was quiet and still, and the Prophet ﷺ felt very happy.

Allah gave the Prophet ﷺ a very important job to do. He must go back to earth and tell all Muslims to pray fifty times every day.

On his way back, the Prophet ﷺ met the Prophet Musa (AS) once more. Musa (AS) said that fifty prayers were too many to say every day. So the Prophet ﷺ climbed back up to the highest part of heaven, and Allah reduced the number of prayers, until finally He commanded that Muslims should pray five times a day.

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ climbed back onto Al-Buraq and proudly carried Allah's command back to his people in Makkah. That is how all Muslims received the command to pray five times a day, and why millions of people all over the world stop what they are doing to remember Allah and submit themselves in prayer, five times every single day.

• Surah Al-Isra 17:1: Allah took His servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
• Sahih al-Bukhari 349: The hadith of the Miraj, in which fifty prayers were made obligatory and then reduced to five after the Prophet ﷺ met Musa (AS).
• Sahih Muslim 162: The hadith of the Isra and Miraj, with Al-Buraq, the prayer in Jerusalem and the ascent through the heavens.