The Abrahamic Movement — Iraq

The Night of Ascension

According to authentic narrations, when the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, ascended to the seventh heaven during the Isra and Mi’raj, God Almighty first imposed fifty daily prayers on his nation, and the Prophet accepted his Lord’s command without hesitation.

The essay notes that exegetes including Ibn Abbas, Ibn Kathir, and al-Tabari read this verse as describing a gaze that turned neither right nor left — a mark, they say, of obedience and steadfastness before God.

Moses and the Fifty Prayers

The article places Moses, peace be upon him, at the center of this story. Passing him on the ascent, the Prophet Muhammad called him “an excellent Prophet and companion,” and told him fifty prayers had been prescribed. Moses replied that this was too heavy a burden for a weak nation, and urged Muhammad to return to his Lord and ask for relief.

The Prophet did so repeatedly — each time the number was reduced by ten, until it reached five. When Moses urged him to ask for still more relief, the Prophet said only that he was too ashamed before his Lord to ask again, and accepted what remained. The essay cites this account as preserved in Sahih al-Bukhari, in the Book of Virtues, chapter on the Ascension, attributed on the authority of Anas ibn Malik, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, and Abu Sa’id al-Khudri.

For the authors, this exchange carries meaning beyond ritual law. It reads as an act of intercession by one prophet on behalf of a community not his own — a model, they write, of mercy and compassion running between the followers of the Abrahamic messages.

One Chain of Faith

The essay connects this episode to Abraham’s own prayer for his descendants, Isaac and Ishmael among them, framing all three patriarchal lines as belonging to “one inseparable chain of faith” — regardless, the authors write, of efforts by “terrorism, takfiri movements, and other projects of division and hatred” to sow enmity between their followers.

From here the piece draws a wider thesis: that all divine messages share belief in one God, even where laws and practices differ across nations and eras — a unity the authors say is affirmed repeatedly across the Qur’an’s language of confirmation.

Citing al-Baydawi’s commentary, the essay explains “confirmation” as the Qur’an testifying to the truth of the earlier scriptures and affirming what remains unabrogated within them — the Torah given to Moses and the Gospel given to Jesus among them.

A Model for Abrahamic Peace

The authors present the Isra and Mi’raj account — and Moses’s intercession within it — as a working model for relations between the followers of the Abrahamic faiths today: one built on shared belief in God, respect for the prophets, mutual understanding, and the rejection of injustice, tyranny, and hatred.

They describe “Abrahamic peace” not as a political framework alone, but as a space for dialogue and cooperation between religious communities, meant to preserve human dignity, freedom of worship, and safety of life across the region.

“The Abrahamic peace unites us.
Peace to humanity. Peace to the Middle East.”