I know virtually nothing about Islam apart from what is beamed into my house by CNN.

Despite its generally conservative image[1] Islam is a mystic religion. Visiting the Alhambra I was struck not only by the ornate forms of the royal buildings, but also by the esoteric nature of the arabesque detail on the buildings. Apparently the purpose of their infinite patterns[2] are to provide a form of meditative contemplation for the devotee without the idolatry that Islam so rejects. I hesitate to call them psychedelic, but jihad they’re not. Whether the modern imams like it or not, hashish has to have been sacramental in those wild days in the desert chasing camels with Dean Moriarty.

Traditional Islamic mysticism is ascribed to the Sufis with their gnostic universal-love approach to Allah[3]. And it would be easy for mainstream Islam to write off the mystic aspects of their religion as the Sufi black sheep domain of an otherwise austere and reserved family. But recently reading the story of the Buraq and Mohammed’s Harry Potter-esque flight to heaven is just too much fun to ignore – Father Christmas on a horse.

Islam’s Fire

By his own account Mohammed was a straight and narrow kinda guy but he did go for one wild midnitely ride from Mecca to Jerusalem to heaven and back – this is the story of a horse named Buraq.
This episode in Mohammed’s life is a key point in the establishment of Islam and, as such, has had a profound influence on Islamic thought. It is, in short, the story of Mohammed’s enlightenment as he was carried off to heaven by angels where he beheld the true face of Allah. Apart from the temptation-and-locusts thing it fits into Mohammed’s life in a very similar way to the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert before starting his ministry.
The consensus seems to be that this episode was originally two separate events, the first being Mohammed’s journey from Mecca to Jerusalem (the Isra) and the second his ascension to heaven (the Meraj). For better campfire retelling effect the two stories were combined into one as follows.

We meet Mohammed, by now in his forties, a pious man who has been awakened to his prophetic destiny where he is resting at the Kabaa in the holiest mosque in Mecca, presumably after a long day’s worship. He is met by the archangel Gabriel who has brought with him a winged horse/mule/donkey with the face of a woman; a gentle creature to carry him together with Gabriel, who has his own set of wings, to Jerusalem. They zoom off into the night; no mention is made of an in-flight movie or reclining seats.
Upon their arrival in Jerusalem he meets Abraham, Moses and Jesus – Allah’s prophets prior to Mohammed. Mohammed then leads the gathered prophets in prayer, thereby neatly confirming his position as god’s numero uno messenger.

The Buraq and her Unseen Passenger

After the prayers we continue on the second part of Mohammed’s journey, the Meraj, in which Buraq carries him up into the heavens where he visits hell and paradise – each of the seven heavenly cosmic dimensions. The visions of hell and heaven are combinations of the usual items: fire, blood, terror, peaceful gardens, lions lying with lambs, glorious heavenly choirs and such.
At each level he is greeted by a resident angel and one of the (by now) lesser prophets, some of whom (especially Moses) seem to take pains to indicate that god does, in fact, favour Mohammed over themselves and Mohammed’s followers over their own. Some very convenient and helpful exchanges for later rebuffing of other imam’s claims[4].
Having toured the first six levels of heaven Mohammed has to enter the seventh on his own, Gabriel can take him no further. Here Mohammed encounters god himself in the form of Allah. He sees a radiant multi-coloured tree and has his true destiny revealed to him.
From here we do not know what happened to Mohammed, but I assume that the return flight was uneventful.

Heavenly Fire

So let’s recap, Mohammed is swept away by a handsome angel on a winged horse from his slumber in Mecca to Jerusalem where they meet up with other great prophets in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. From there he is wooshed up to heaven to behold all the wonders and horrors of the afterlife and meets up with the big G-o himself. Finally he is returned home before sunrise to take on his role as glorious prophet of Allah.

This is a very cynical take on the story of Mohammed’s journey, but only because orthodox Islam insists on it being literally true[5], though there are credible interpretations of this episode as either a dream or a symbolic representation of Mohammed’s enlightenment. This is similar to the common modern Christian view that, yes, Noah did in fact load two polar bears onto his boat. And yes, there will be four actual guys on four actual horses and it’s gonna suck something horrible for non-believers.
In all three these cases the stories suffer because of it. Why does orthodox religion ridicule their own beautiful fables by insisting that its true? Oh, of course, because, as we know by now, if one part of the Koran can be interpreted as a dream or a vision or simply a folk tale woven into a people’s everyday faith, then other parts of the Koran become open to the same interpretation. Blah blah blah. The Koran, the Bible, the Torah – ‘we must fucking CONTROL the truth, we must control what is true! It must all be true!‘ – both the faith and the religion suffers as a result.

But I do find it funny, and re-assuring, that a religion that comes across as so severe(especially to non-believers) has such a cute flight of fantasy[6] at such a crucial point in its protagonist’s narrative.
Like all major religions the generations of paternalistic enforcement of social dogma cannot hide the fact that its most beautiful stories and images are drugged-out fantasies and wild party yarns. Rock on.

[1] or is it non-image?
[2] not quite fractal, but certainly fundamentally organic
[3] unity with god and so forth; in fana – ‘Praise be to me; how great is my majesty’
[4] This is starting to sound a little like a CIA-commissioned report into the conduct of their operatives
[5] one night, one horse, a bazillion miles
[6] pun unavoidable