Lailat al-Israa wa al-Mi’raaj, the miraculous night journey of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to Jerusalem and his ascension to the heavens, is a profound occasion that carries immense blessings for Muslims worldwide.
Allah says in Surah Israa:
‘Glory be to the One Who took His servant (Muḥammad ﷺ) by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him some of Our signs. Indeed, He alone is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing.’ (Qur’an 17:1)
It is a reminder of Allah’s boundless mercy and power, as the Prophet was taken from Masjid al-Haram in Makkah to Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem and then ascended through the heavens. This night signifies the establishment of the five daily prayers, a cornerstone of Islam and a direct connection between believers and their Creator. Reflecting on this sacred event inspires Muslims to strengthen their faith, seek Allah’s forgiveness, and deepen their spiritual connection through prayer and devotion.
As Ramadan approaches, its proximity to Lailat al-Israa wa al-Mi’raaj amplifies the spiritual energy and preparation for the blessed month. Ramadan, the month of fasting, is a time of immense mercy, forgiveness, and opportunities for personal growth. It offers Muslims a chance to purify their souls, practice self-discipline, and reconnect with Allah through fasting, prayer, and acts of charity. Together, these two occasions remind believers of Allah’s mercy and guidance, motivating them to embrace the upcoming holy month with renewed faith and devotion, ready to reap its unparalleled rewards.
We have some upcoming events that you might be interested in.
Author Evening with Houria Bouteldja: Rednecks and Barbarians
Join us for an online author evening with Houria Bouteldja, to discuss her new publication, Rednecks and Barbarians Uniting the White and Racialized Working Class.
Purchase Rednecks and Barbarians here
Author Evening with Houria Bouteldja: Rednecks and Barbarians
Join us for an online author evening with Houria Bouteldja, to discuss her new publication, Rednecks and Barbarians Uniting the White and Racialized Working Class.
Purchase Rednecks and Barbarians here
WHEN: Thursday, 6 February 2025, 6.30pm GMT / 7.30pm CET
WHERE: YouTube, Facebook and IHRC.TV
Free event.
No booking required.
About the book:
In Europe and North America, we see a trend of the white working-class tempted by right-wing political parties. Fascistic candidates and ideas seem to reap the fruits of social unrest everywhere. With her usual thought-provoking and unyielding analyses, Houria Bouteldja shows how the history of the left explains this conundrum and how we can overcome it.
Drawing from Black radical and decolonial Marxism, she shows that by privileging white constituencies, unions and left parties laid the foundations for a racial contract that binds workers and the poor to the state.
However, there may still be a way out of this trap. Uniting ‘rednecks’ (the white working-class) and ‘barbarians’ (the racially oppressed), will require a project of popular sovereignty, where national identity is reworked through revolutionary love. Looking to the future, Bouteldja pictures anti-racism as a redemptive struggle aimed not only at rehabilitating non-whites but also at redefining white dignity.
About the author:
Houria Bouteldja is a French-Algerian political activist and writer. She served as spokesperson for the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic until 2020. She is the author of Whites, Jews and Us: Towards a Politics of Revolutionary Love. The author lives in Paris, France.
For any enquiries, please email events@ihrc.org.
Children’s Storyreading & Activities Day: Bilal’s Bad Day
Get ready for an afternoon full of giggles, storyreading and sensory slime! We’re diving into the delightful world of Bilal’s BAD Day with the author, Neelum Khan.
Bilal’s Bad Day will be available to purchase from the IHRC Bookshop.
WHEN: Thursday, 20 February 2025
TIME: 1pm – 2.30pm GMT
WHERE: IHRC Bookshop (202 Preston Road, Wembley, HA9 8PA)
WHO’S INVITED: Kids aged 4-7 (and their grown-ups!)
TICKETS: book here
Things to know:
- Parents/guardians and children 3 and under attend for free.
- Parents/guardians MUST book a ticket (free or donations-based) to help staff manage the number of people in attendance.
- IHRC is a not-for-profit organisation. If you book a donations ticket, your contribution will directly support our campaigns and projects – find out more here.
- Children 3 and under are not permitted to participate in the activities due to safety hazards.
- Prayer and wudu facilities available.
- Refreshments available.
About the book:
Bilal’s BAD Day is a charmingly coloured, interactive book that aims to show young minds how to draw upon the remembrance of Allah (SWT) and to take practical steps to help themselves when their big emotions are threatening to take over.
Bilal’s BAD Day includes
- Spinning dial to select faith based and practical self-help calming techniques.
- Dua narrated by Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim known as a ‘treasure from the treasures of paradise’.
- Guidance notes for parents.
- Reflection prompts to explore big feelings with your child.
Have you ever had a day when your big feelings bubbled and fizzed inside until you felt you might explode? We’ve all been there, and today Bilal is having a day like that.
Spin the dial and help Bilal choose a calming strategy to change CHAOS back to calm. Next time you read, you might land on a different way to feel better.
About the author:
Neelum Khan was born and raised in South West London. She is the eldest of four siblings and studied Law before dedicating her career to advocating for women and children survivors of domestic abuse.
Now, a happily married mother of four, Neelum’s experiences have deepened her passion for nurturing resilience in young minds. Inspired by her journey as a parent and her commitment to understanding neurodiversity and special educational needs, Neelum’s writing empowers Muslim families to harness the wisdom of Islam as a powerful foundation for fostering emotional well-being in children.
For any enquiries, please email events@ihrc.org.
Author Evening with Fatima Rajina: British Bangladeshi Muslims in the East End
Join us for an author evening with Fatima Rajina to discuss her book, British Bangladeshi Muslims in the East End: The changing landscape of dress and language.
Available to purchase from the IHRC Bookshop.
WHEN: Friday, 14 February 2025, 6.30pm GMT
WHERE: IHRC Bookshop (202 Preston Road, Wembley, HA9 8PA) and LIVE on YouTube, Facebook and IHRC.TV
About the book:
Popular discourse around British Muslims has often been dominated by a focus on Muslim women and their sartorial choices, particularly the hijab and niqab. This book takes a different angle and focuses on Muslim men, examining how factors like the global war on terror influenced and changed their sartorial choices and use of language. The book denaturalises the ubiquitous and deeply problematic security lens through which knowledge of Muslims has been produced in the past two decades.
British Bangladeshi Muslims in the East End offers an alternative reading of these communities and how their political subjectivities emerge. Drawing on historical events, field research and existing academic work, the book aims to address the multiple ways British Bangladeshi Muslim men and women create their relationship with dress and language. This is the first book to empirically examine how dress and language shape the identities of British Bangladeshi Muslims in the East End, using in-depth analysis useful for anyone interested in the study of British Muslims broadly. While the book focuses on a specific Muslim community, the emerging themes demonstrate the interconnectedness of Muslims locally and globally and how they manifest their identities through dress and language.
Cover illustration by Waheeda Rahman-Mair: prints available at https://www.waheeda.co.uk/store
About the author:
Fatima Rajina is a Senior Legacy in Action Research Fellow at the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre, De Montfort University.
Lend your support to Muslim prisoners
IHRC is supporting Muslim prisoners in the UK by supplying them with Ramadan packs to assist them to make the most of the holy month.
We see it as our duty to support them in their isolation and help them gain the benefits of Ramadan.
This years pack will include the following items:
• Tasbih/prayer beads
• Sweets
• Ramadan/Eid card with a message of support
• Will include a book
Each pack costs approximately £20 and this is a Zakat eligible project. Click below if you would like to donate.
WATCH: Author Evening with Aliyah Umm Raiyaan: Ramadan Reflections
On March 2023, IHRC hosted an author evening with Aliyah Umm Raiyaan who discussed her publication, ‘Ramadan Reflections‘. Click below to watch the live recording of the event.
Aliyah Umm Raiyaan reverted to Islam in 1999. Aliyah is the Sunday Times Bestselling author of Penguin published, ‘Ramadan Reflections’ and The Power of Du’a. She is also the Founder and CEO of Registered Charity Solace UK who support revert women in difficulty. Aliyah is the co-host of YouTube show Honest Tea Talk. Aliyah lives with her family in East London where she home educates her children.
Below are books that are currently in stock. For more books click here.
The Prophet’s Night Journey & Heavenly Ascent – Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi al Maliki
Praise be to Allah Who chose His praiseworth servant Muhammad (saw) for the Message, distinguished him with the night journey on the lightening-mount Buraq, and caused him to ascend the ladders of perfection to the high heavens to show him of the greatest signs of his Lord. He raised him until he reached the Lote-tree of the Farthest Boundary where ends the science of every Messenger-Prophet and every Angel Brought Near, where lies the Garden of Retreat, to the point that he heard the sound of the pens that write what has befallen and what is to befall.
Al-Wafi: A Thorough Commentary on the Forty Nawawiyyah – Shaykh Mustafa Dib al-Bugha & Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Mistu Al-Wafi is a well-known Arabic book on the commentary of forty hadiths compiled by the great jurist and hadith scholar Imam Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi, commonly known as al-Nawawi or Imam Nawawi (d. 676 AH). The book is widely used in schools and religious classes. It has been translated into several languages and this work is the first in English.
This book is ideal for those who wish to read for personal edification as well as those who would like to conduct classes. Every hadith is followed by a detailed explanation of its importance, its vocabulary, followed by its fiqh rulings, along with other insights that can be gleaned from it. It is hoped that as the reader reads through the text, his understanding and appreciation of the Prophet’s words ﷺ will deepen, and he will also come to see the immense wisdom in Imam an-Nawawi’s choices. If Allah so wills, the reader will emerge with a broader and more thorough understanding of Islam.
The Book of Aphorisms – Ibn ‘Ata’illah al-Iskandari
This book, one of the more widely distributed works of Ibn ‘Ata’illah, serves as an ethical guide to those sayings each containing profound meaning driven from the Qur’an and Sunnah, and deals with issues related to tawhid, ethics and day-to-day conduct.
It contains concise, comprehensive and sublime sayings on self purification (tazkiya), and guidelines to help strengthen the relationship between humans and their Lord.
R is for Ramadan – Greg Paprocki
A fun alphabet primer celebrating the month-long Muslim observance of fasting and spiritual awareness.
Ramadan is a month-long observance when Muslims all over the world spend more time with each other, emphasize charitable works, fast, pray, and break their daily fast each night together. It’s a time meant to focus on things such as sharing, empathy, compassion, generosity, and selflessness. These ideals are wonderfully illustrated here in Greg Paprocki’s inimitable style for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet.
A Believer’s Guide to Fasting – Shaykh ‘Abd-Allah Siraj al-Din & Shaykh Hisham Burhani
Two treatises on the rulings, merits and secrets of fasting. The first is by Shaykh ‘Abd-Allah Siraj al-Din from Allepo wherein the author examines the wisdom behind fasting: its obligations, etiquettes, requirements, benefits and virtues. It includes an interesting and lengthy discussion on the Night of Divine Decree (commonly referred to as the Night of Power), exploring its derivation, signifacance and virtues.
The second is by a contemporary scholar from Damascus, Shaykh Hisham Burhani, and primarily deals with the legal aspects of fasting: its rules and regulations in accordance with the Hanafi school of Islamic Jurisprudence. They serve as a means of providing the believer with indispensable knowledge of this pillar so that he may maximize in reaping the reward and the benefit from the blessed month of Ramadan.
The Prophets in Palestine – Abu Huzayfa
The story of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, explains the importance of Masjid al-Aqsa. During his lifetime, the Prophet spoke of Jerusalem and Masjid al-Aqsa with love and respect. Allah says in the Quran that He has blessed the land of Masjid al-Aqsa.
The Prophet visited Jerusalem during the Night Journey, known as al-Isra wa al-Miraj. This was an incredible journey during which the Prophet was taken from Makkah to Jerusalem and then to heaven.
This book focuses on the relationship of the blessed Prophet with the blessed land of Palestine and seeks to build love for Masjid al-Aqsa in the hearts of young children.
