This day takes place from 27 to 28 rajâb (7th month of the Muslim year). It celebrates al Isrâ’ the night journey of the Prophet, from Mecca to Jerusalem, followed by the ascension, al Miʿrâj, of the Prophet to the divine throne.
Al ‘Isrâ’ took place eighteen months before the Hegira not far from the Kaʿba. It was around 621 AD, at the height of the persecutions inflicted on him by the Meccans, that Muhammad revealed to his followers his nocturnal visit to Jerusalem and his ascent to heaven from the Rock (sakura) on which he was raised later the Dome of the Rock (692) built by the Umayyad caliph ʿabd al-Malîk ibn Marwān (646-705).
The story of this trip is related to a hadith (saying of the
Prophet) which deals with prayer and its prescriptions. The prophetic tradition
reports several events that would have occurred during this trip. Ibn Ishaq
(704-767) author of the oldest sîra, biography of the Prophet, tells the story
of this trip.
According to Muslim tradition, shortly before the Hegira,
the Prophet made a miraculous journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in the company of
the archangel Jibril, Gabriel.
The accounts of Isra and the ascension, Miʿraj, indicate
that it was on the occasion of this event that the number of daily prayers
required for every Muslim was fixed at five.