ABSTRACT
i f the soul of the prophet is the fountainhead of Islamic spirituality, the Quran is like that lightning which having struck the human receptacle caused this fountainhead to gush forth or like the water descending from heaven which made streams to flow from this fountainhead. The Quran is the origin and source of all that is Islamic, including, of course, spirituality and the Muḥammadan grace (al-barakat al-muḥammadiyyah); and the whole of the spiritual path that emanates from the very Substance of the Prophet owes its existence to the descent of the Word of God upon the virgin soul of His Messenger. If there had not been a Night of Power (laylat al-qadr), when the Quran descended from the Divine Empyrean to the human plane, there would have been no Night of Ascension (laylat al-miʿrāj), when the Prophet ascended from the earth to the Divine Throne, an ascension that is the model of all spiritual realization in Islam.
