MUḥAMMAD’S NIGHT JOURNEY TO HEAVEN: THE INITIATIC PATH TO A TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP Cover Image

MUḥAMMAD’S NIGHT JOURNEY TO HEAVEN: THE INITIATIC PATH TO A TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP
MUḥAMMAD’S NIGHT JOURNEY TO HEAVEN: THE INITIATIC PATH TO A TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

Author(s): Emil Potec
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts
Published by: Editura Arhipelag XXI
Keywords: initiation; sacred; kingship; ladder; Islamic community

Summary/Abstract: The journey into Heaven that Muḥammad made during the during the night of the 27-th day of Rajab month, 620 created for the Islamic culture, the possibility of using ancient Semitic symbols and Arabic symbols in order to legitimate the place that the charismatic leader has inside the Islamic community and to emphasize the authentic place that the Islamic community has near the other two monotheistic communities. As Geo Widengree concluded in his two studies The ascension of the Apostle and the Havenly Book and Muhammad, the Apostle of God and his Ascension, Muḥammadřs Night Journey reflects a ritual of sovereignty which is specific to the Ancient Near East, in regards with the ascension of the king as a central event concerning his coronation. Muḥammadřs Night Journey reflects also a ritual during which Muhammad sees God, and he is sacred as a prophet, being in direct contact with God and with the other monotheistic prophets (as the literature of the IX century in the Islamic milieu tries to describe). This initiatic path doesnřt have as result the transformation of Muḥammad into a character with divine powers; it has as result the unification into Muḥammadřs person of two different powers, the temporal and the spiritual one, and the confirmation of Muḥammad as a spiritual and temporal leader for a new community.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 08
  • Page Range: 501-506
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: English