Finally, the leaders of Muhammad's tribe, the Quraysh, decided that Harassment alone would not be enough to stop him.

Hamza Yusuf: The Quraysh, they see it as our honor is being threatened, we need to deal with this. This is the point where they begin to really increase their persecution, they start sanctions on the house of Beni Hashim, which is the sub-clan of the Prophet Muhammad. They begin to prevent them from trading, from transacting.

Karen Armstrong: And that meant that basically they were being starved out. They couldn't buy food, they couldn't do business. Abu Talib ah was ruined by this.

The Hashim lived in one street and Muhammad and Khadija and the children moved into this street. And this became a little Muslim ghetto.

The survival of both the clan and Islam were in jeopardy. But for Muhammad the damage hit even closer to home.

Karen Armstrong: Khadija, Muhammad's beloved wife, uh perhaps weakened by the privations, actually died. And that was just a crippling blow for him. Left him feeling alone and vulnerable and weak. He would miss her all his life, I think.

Then the catastrophe happened that Abu Talib died, perhaps himself weakened by the deprivation in food. Now without Abu Talib, Muhammad was fair game for assassination.

And there's a terrible moment where he utters this heart breaking prayer, saying, "Oh my god I have no other protector but you, Allah." And how was he going to move forward? He'd done what Allah had told him to do. He had proclaimed this message and all that he seemed to have done was stir up hostility and hatred. Um and split his tribe down the middle. This wasn't improving matters. He must have felt an almost, a sort of a dark night of the soul.

Hamza Yusuf: He is at the low point of his mission. He's been almost 13 years now in Mecca and the results are not, they are not impressive. But at this point, at this low ebb, he is now being prepared for the most extraordinary mystical experience of his prophetic life, and that is what is known as the night ascension.

Karen Armstrong: The story goes that one night he was sleeping near the Kaaba and he was woken from sleep by Gabriel, who mounted him on a Buraq, a magical steed, and they flew from Mecca to Jerusalem. And then he began an ascent. Up through the seven heavens to the divine throne, at every stage of the heavens he meets various prophets of the past. He meets Abraham, he meets Jesus, and John the Baptist. He meets Moses and finally he enters into the divine presence and there the sources are silent because when you enter into the presence of God you have gone beyond words.

XXXX John Voll: For later Muslims this also meant that the departure point [for the Night Journey], that is Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock, became also important. Many Muslims say that there are three holy cities in Islam: Mecca, and Medina, the City of the Prophet, and Jerusalem.

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