Did The False Prophet Travel To Jerusalem?

[Christian Zionist]

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Muhammad/myths-mu-jerusalem.htm

Muhammad Traveled to Jerusalem

The Truth:

The Muslim connection to Jerusalem is extremely tenuous compared to Judaism and Christianity.  In fact, it seems to be largely because the city is held sacred by the other two religions that Muslims lay claim to it as well.  From the time of Muhammad to the present day, Islam has always been a "me too" faith, attempting to ride the coattails of other faiths to which it hopes to aspire.

The official reason that Muslims claim Jerusalem for themselves - after marching an army into the city only two years after Muhammad's death - is that their prophet once visited there...

Unfortunately this would have been in a dream.  Not in real life.  As much as those who demand full control of Jerusalem today would prefer, there is simply no evidence that Muhammad's physical body ever made the trip.

There is certainly ample evidence that Muhammad did claim to have had a dream.  At the time, he was trying to convince the doubters around him that he belonged in the line of Jewish prophets.  What better way than to tell them that he led the other prophets (Abraham, Moses and Jesus) in prayer at the mosque in Jerusalem (even if no mosque actually existed there at that time)?

Aisha, Muhammad’s favorite wife, later insisted that it was not a physical journey (Ibn Ishaq 265) and there has always been controversy within Islam about whether it was supposed to have been a physical or “spiritual” visit.

At the time, the Meccans mocked Muhammad for claiming to have visited Jerusalem in one night, since it was a one month journey to get there and back.  In fact, “many Muslims gave up their faith” when they heard this, according to his biographer (Ibn Ishaq 265).  But had the Meccans only known how big the universe really is, then they most certainly would have chosen to mock Muhammad’s claim to have visited the gates of heaven in the same dream as well – and it is doubtful that anyone would have believed him at that point.

In “Leaving Islam” by Ibn Warraq, a young contributor points out that if Muhammad had left the (non-existent) mosque in Jerusalem 1400 years ago, traveling at the speed of light through the icy void of space, he would still not have even left our own galaxy by this time – much less traveled beyond the physical universe and back (p. 347).  At this point, Muslims (who claim that theirs is the most “scientific” of religions) fall back on the idea that Muhammad visited Jerusalem “in spirit”... whatever that means.

To prove his claim, a nervous Muhammad gave a general description of the city “from above” to Abu Bakr, who “verified” it to be true.  Muhammad shouldn’t have worried about his most faithful apostle, at least, since Abu Bakr had already pledged his loyalty to whatever his prophet had to say: “If he says it, then it is true.” (Ibn Ishaq 265).  (This was the same man who also gave his 6-year-old daughter in marriage to Muhammad on request).

Obviously it requires blind faith to believe that Muhammad traveled to Jerusalem either in body or in spirit.  Even if the admittedly gullible Abu Bakr did truly recognize something in his "prophet’s" description that matched his own recollection of the city, it is far more likely to have been a product of something described to Muhammad himself during one of his real trips abroad.

There is simply no compelling reason to believe that Muhammad’s dream was anything other than that.