play His wondrous signs which lie in both the outer aspects of things and in their aspects that look directly to Himself, and to make the workshops and sources of the universe spectacles to be gazed upon, and to point out the results of man’s actions in the hereafter, it was necessary to take together with his heart and spirit as far as His throne Muhammad’s (UWBP) eyes, which were the key to the world of visible objects, and his ears, which perceived the signs in the world of sound. Furthermore, it is required by wisdom and reason that the All-Glorious Maker should have taken as far as His throne his blessed body, which was like the machine of his spirit and comprised different members and components, by means of which he performed his duties.
Just as in Paradise divine wisdom makes the body accompany the spirit, because it is the body that is the means by which the duties of worship are performed and the means of innumerable pleasures and pains, so did Muhammad’s (UWBP) blessed body accompany his spirit. Since the body goes to Paradise together with the spirit, it is pure wisdom that He should have made Muhammad’s (UWBP) blessed body accompany his self, for it ascended to “the Lote-tree of the farthest limit,”(53:14) which is the trunk of the home of Paradise.
Again it comes to mind that you would say: “According to rational criteria is it not impossible to traverse a distance of thousands of years in several minutes?”
To which we would reply: The motion in the different works of the All-Glorious Maker’s art varies to the utmost degree. For example, it is well-known how the speeds of light, electricity, spirit, and imagination all differ, as well as that of sound. And as has been established by science, the speeds at which different planets travel differ so greatly it astounds the mind. How then could the speed of the spirit of his subtle body travelled as it followed his exalted spirit during the Ascension, seem contrary to reason?
Furthermore, it sometimes happens that on sleeping for ten minutes you are subject to the different states of a year. Even, if the words spoken and heard during a minute-long dream were collected together, a day or even longer would be needed for them to be spoken and heard in the waking world. This means that a single period of time is relative; it may seem like one day to one person and like a year to another.
Consider what this means with the aid of a comparison. Let us imagine a clock which measures the speeds at which man, cannonballs, sound, light, electricity, spirit, and imagination travel. The clock has ten hands. One shows the hours while another counts the minutes in a sphere sixty