Muḥammad and Moses during the Miʿrāj: Metaphysical Mercy and Mundane Mediation

Abstract:This article1 seeks to scrutinise the extraordinary involvement of Moses on the night Muḥammad ascended to the heavens and met God (miʿrāj). The account of the incident presented by Sharīk in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Bukhārī, due to the even greater role Moses plays in it as compared to other accounts both in the same compilation and elsewhere, forms the basis of this investigation. In actively intervening on behalf of a nation not his own and changing their fate, Moses achieves a singularly monumental feat. Ibn ʿArabī’s assessment and explanation of Moses’ metaphysical rank puts this unprecedented intervention into cosmic context.