Ismaili Ta'wil of al-Isra' wal-Mi'raj — The Night Journey and the Ascent: How 17:1 ('Glory Be to Him Who Carried His Servant by Night From the Sacred Mosque to the Furthest Mosque — Whose Surroundings We Have Blessed — to Show Him of Our Signs') and the Hadith Traditions of the Prophet's Ascent Through the Seven Heavens, Meeting the Prophets, and Receiving the Prayer Obligation Are Read in Ismaili Ta'wil as the Prototype of the Da'i's Ascent Through the Da'wa Hierarchy and the Structural Map of the Hudud

In Ismaili ta'wil, al-Isra' wal-Mi'raj (الإِسرَاءُ وَالمِعرَاج — The Night Journey and the Ascent; isra': the nocturnal journey from the Sacred Mosque [Mecca] to the Furthest Mosque [al-Aqsa, Jerusalem]; mi'raj: the ladder/ascent from Jerusalem through the seven heavens to the Divine Presence; 17:1 'Subhana alladhi asra bi-'abdihi laylan min al-masjid al-haram ila al-masjid al-aqsa alladhi barakna hawlahu li-nuriyahu min ayatina' [Glory be to Him who carried His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Furthest Mosque — whose surroundings We have blessed — to show him of Our signs]; the mi'raj accounts in hadith: the Prophet is escorted by Jibrael; given the buraq [a celestial riding animal]; arrives at Jerusalem; ascends through the seven heavens; at each heaven, meets a prophet [Adam in the 1st, then Yahya/Isa, then Yusuf, then Idris, then Harun, then Musa, then Ibrahim in the 7th]; receives the command for fifty prayers; negotiates down to five through Musa's advice; receives the final command of five daily prayers; theological significance: the isra'/mi'raj is celebrated on 27 Rajab in most of the Islamic world; it is the event through which the salat obligation was established; it is the Prophet's unique experience of the divine proximity; classical debates: was the journey bodily or spiritual? The majority [following 17:1's 'abd = servant, suggesting a body] held it was bodily; the minority held it was a spiritual/visionary experience; Ismaili ta'wil of al-isra' wal-mi'raj: [1] the isra' [horizontal journey] as zahir movement: the physical journey from Mecca to Jerusalem maps in ta'wil to the zahiri dimension of prophetic mission — the Prophet as messenger to all humanity moving across the earth; [2] the mi'raj [vertical ascent] as batin access: the ascent through the seven heavens is in ta'wil the Prophet's access to the batin — moving from zahiri prophethood [earthly] to batin-access [cosmic hierarchy]; [3] the seven heavens as the hudud al-din: the mi'raj's seven-heaven structure maps onto the Ismaili hudud al-din [hierarchy of the da'wa]; each heaven corresponds to a level of the da'wa; the prophet-figures encountered at each heaven correspond to the functions of each hudud-level; [4] the da'i's mi'raj as the prototype: each da'i who ascends through the da'wa hierarchy — receiving more ta'wil at each level, getting closer to the Imam's batin — undergoes a ta'wil mi'raj; the physical mi'raj was the Prophet's; the ta'wil mi'raj is available to every initiate through walayah; [5] the fifty-to-five negotiation in ta'wil: the reduction from fifty prayers to five through Musa's advice is in ta'wil the da'wa's work of adaptation — the Imam calibrates the zahiri obligation to what the community can bear; the batin is not reduced but the zahiri expression is appropriately scaled; [6] the Furthest Mosque [al-masjid al-aqsa] in ta'wil: 'the Furthest Mosque' is in ta'wil the summit of the da'wa hierarchy — the Imam's batin, which is the furthest point accessible from the zahir; the 'surroundings blessed' are the da'wa community; [7] 17:1's 'to show him of Our signs': the signs [ayat] shown to the Prophet are in ta'wil the ta'wil itself — the batin meanings of the zahiri signs; the mi'raj is the event of divine ta'wil reception) is the cosmological map of da'wa ascent.