Each night, like Muhammad, he turns toward the Ascension;
He draws the eternal steed of love beneath the saddle.
Miʿrāj literally means ascent or rising. In Islamic tradition, it refers to the heavenly ascension of Muhammad, following the Night Journey (Isrāʾ). Together, they are known as al-Isrāʾ wa-l-Miʿrāj.
Essence and Meaning
Isrāʾ: A miraculous journey by night from Mecca (al-Masjid al-Ḥarām) to Jerusalem (al-Masjid al-Aqṣā).
Miʿrāj: The spiritual ascent through the heavens, culminating in nearness to God (qurb), where foundational acts of worship—most notably the five daily prayers (ṣalāh)—are ordained.
Spiritual Symbolism
Inner elevation: Miʿrāj represents the soul’s capacity to rise beyond ego and limitation toward divine presence.
Union of body and spirit: It signifies harmony between outward practice and inward realization.
Prototype for the seeker: In Sufi thought, every sincere journey of love and purification is a personal miʿrāj.
In Persian Mysticism
Poets like Rūmī employ miʿrāj metaphorically: love becomes the Burāq, the heart the ladder, and remembrance (dhikr) the ascent—suggesting that true elevation is achieved through love, humility, and annihilation in God (fanāʾ).
Muslims, based on the verses of the Qur’an—especially the opening verses of Surah al-Isrāʾ and Surah al-Najm—believe in the Night Journey of Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullāh. Followers of both the Shiʿa and Sunni traditions believe that Muhammad, riding the Burāq, traveled from al-Masjid al-Ḥarām in Mecca to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā in Palestine, and during this journey also visited Mount Sinai and Bethlehem. From al-Masjid al-Aqṣā he then ascended to the seventh heaven, and afterward descended again to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā.
(“Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.”)
The Miʿrāj is not exclusive to the Prophet of Islam alone; mystics such as Rumi, Shams, and Bāyazīd also claimed that they had experienced the Miʿrāj and reached the seventh heaven.
One of the most beautiful works of Bahá’u’lláh is The Seven Valleys, in which the believer, in order to attain the Miʿrāj, must pass through seven valleys—corresponding to the seven heavens. The final valley, which is divine nearness, is the Valley of true poverty and ultimate annihilation, which is absolute nothingness. Rumi says:
No one finds a way into the court of Divine Majesty
until he becomes annihilated (fanā).
What is the ascension beyond the heavens? This very nothingness—
for lovers, religion and creed are nothingness itself.
Elsewhere, he does not regard nearness (to God) as ascending through the heavens; rather, he sees it as abiding in nothingness.
Nearness is not a matter of rising or descending;
nearness to God is release from the prison of existence.
Nothingness has no place of high or low;
for nothingness there is no sooner or later, no far or near.
The workshop and the treasury of God are in nothingness—
what does one proud of existence know of what nothingness is?
Elsewhere, he regards the Miʿrāj as taking place within the human heart, not in the heavens.
A thousand gates of purity stand open within the heart—
hasten, for delays bring many afflictions.
There, the very lives that give rise to life are found,
for the King of Truths reigns there, not a king of mere chessmates.
Upon the inner ladder, with every breath they ascend in Miʿrāj—
behold the cups filled with blood, for these are the signs.
In that realm whose sovereign is Shams of Tabriz,
there is neither the boast of the revolving spheres nor the heavens themselves.
The Seven Valleys of Baha’u’llahs’
Valley of Search.
The steed of this valley is patience; without patience the wayfarer on this journey will reach nowhere and attain no goal …(The Call of the Divine Beloved)www.bahai.org/r/233532682Valley of Love
The steed of this valley is pain, and if there be no pain this journey will never end. In this plane the lover hath no thought save the Beloved, and seeketh no refuge save the Friend…(The Call of the Divine Beloved)www.bahai.org/r/156629832Valley of Knowledge
come out of doubt into certitude, and turn from the darkness of wayward desire to the guiding light of the fear of God…(The Call of the Divine Beloved)www.bahai.org/r/443944657Valley of Unity
In this station he pierceth the veils of plurality, fleeth the realms of the flesh, and ascendeth unto the heaven of unity. With the ear of God he heareth; with the eye of God he beholdeth the mysteries of divine creation. He steppeth into the inner sanctuary of the Friend and, as an intimate, shareth the pavilion of the Well-Beloved. He stretcheth forth the hand of truth from the sleeve of the Absolute and revealeth the mysteries of divine power…(The Call of the Divine Beloved)www.bahai.org/r/059941886Valley of Contentment
In this valley he feeleth the breezes of divine contentment blowing from the plane of the spirit. He burneth away the veils of want, and with inward and outward eye perceiveth within and without all things the day of “God will satisfy everyone out of His abundance.”53 From sorrow he turneth to bliss, and from grief to joy, and from anguish and dejection to delight and rapture…(The Call of the Divine Beloved)www.bahai.org/r/821285455Valley of Wonderment
Now he seeth the embodiment of wealth as poverty itself, and the essence of independence as sheer impotence. Now is he struck dumb with the beauty of the All-Glorious; again is he wearied out with his own life.(The Call of the Divine Beloved)www.bahai.org/r/895961225Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness.
This station is that of dying to the self and living in God, of being poor in self and rich in the Desired One. Poverty, as here referred to, signifieth being poor in that which pertaineth to the world of creation and rich in what belongeth to the realms of God.(The Call of the Divine Beloved)www.bahai.org/r/686347469