Lailat-ul-Qadr

But Imam Bukhari (RA) transmits that Ibn Abbas reported the holy Prophet (SM) as saying: "Seek Lailat-ul-Qadr in the last ten nights of Ramadan, on the twenty-first, twenty-third and twenty-fifth."

Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said: "God's Messenger spent the first ten nights of Ramadan in devotion, and spent the middle ten nights in devotion in a round Turkish tent, after which he raised his head and said, 'I have spent the first ten nights in seeking this Night, then I spent the middle ten nights in devotion and after that I had a heavenly visitant and was told that it is in the last ten: so he who was engaged in devotion along with me should do so during the last ten nights, for I was shown this Night, then was caused to forget it, but I have seen myself prostrating in water and clay on the morning following, so seek it among the last ten and seek it in every night with an odd number.'" He said: Rain fell that night, the mosque which was a thatched building dripped, and my eyes saw God's Messenger with traces of water and clay on his forehead on the morning after the twenty-first night. Bukhari and Muslim agree on the subject matter, the wording being Muslim's up to "and was told it is in the last ten", the remainder being Bukhari's.

It was on the auspicious Lailat-ul-Qadr, the Night of Power or Honour or Majesty that the holy Quran, the most blessed and perfect of all revelations, was vouchsafed to the benighted world. By revelation, of course, is meant the first revelation because the holy Quran was revealed in portions during twenty-three years. The real merit of this blessed Night has been expounded in the holy Quran. Allah has emphatically and very clearly declared in Sura Qadr: "We have indeed revealed this (Message) in the Night of Power". Allah further corroborates in the same Sura.

"And what will explain to thee what the Night of Power is? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months".

Lailat-ul-Qadr occupies a unique position in the Islamic Calendar. It was this blessed Night of Majesty which first witnessed the shining of the divine light which was destined to illumine the whole world.

This night of grandeur or greatness, better than a thousand months, is indeed a night of great wonders and divine blessings, wherein, as the holy Quran declares: "Come down the angels and the Spirit by Allah's permission on every errand".

It is not perhaps necessary to pinpoint this particular night by the Calendar. The night on which a message descends from Allah is indeed a blessed night, like a day of rain for a parched land. It is for this that the I'tikaf, the adhering to the mosques or retiring for contemplation during Ramadan as a form of devotion is fixed for the last ten days of the month of Ramadan. The holy Prophet (peace be upon him) himself used to spent the last ten days of Ramadan in complete retirement in the mosque. He even had his bed placed in the mosque behind a pillar during the I'tikaf.

"A thousand months" may be taken in an indefinite or mystic sense as denoting a very long period of time. This does not necessarily refer to ordinary human conception of Time, But may, on the contrary, refer to the "Timeless Time." In the words of Maulana Yusuf Ali, "One moment of enlightenment under God's light is better than thousands of years of animal life, and such a moment converts the night of darkness into a period of spiritual glory."

The descent of the angels and the Spirit by Allah's permission also testifies to deeper significance and religious sanctity of the auspicious Night, for though a particular Night in the month of Ramadan may be characterised by great Divine blessings, it is more especially in connection with the mission of one appointed by Allah for the regeneration of the world that 'the angels and the Spirit' come down from heaven, such being the Divine support of his cause."

Sura Qadr, testifying so eloquently to the divine grandeur and unique greatness of the majestic Lailat-ul-Qadr, ends with the beautiful expression: "Peace.... This until the rise of more."

"Peace" Indeed is the chief distinction of Laila-ul-Qadr. This "Peace" comes to the hearts of the devotees in the form of a tranquillity of mind which makes them fit to receive Divine Blessings. When the Night of spiritual darkness is dissipated by the Glory of benign Providence, a wonderful peace and a sense of security arise in the soul. All jars are stilled in the reign supreme of peace. "And this lasts on," in the words of Maulana Yusuf Ali, "Until this life closes, and the glorious Day of the new spiritual world dawns, when everything will be on a different plane, and the chequered nights and days of the world will be even less than a dream." The continuance of the blessed Night till "the rise of Morn" is quite clear and evident when the Night is taken literally: The work of morning signifying, "the approaching end of the reforms, when truth, like the light of the day, has made itself fully manifest." In the words of Abdullah Yusuf Ali, "The mortal night gives place to the glorious day of an immortal world."

Lailat-ul-Qadr, the blessed Night in the Great Revelation of the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful Allah "Broke through the darkness of the human soul" and the holy Quran, the perfect code of human life, reached mankind as message of "Mercy from the Lord" carries another significance of Divine Excellence. As Moulvi Mohammed Ali states: "The time during which a prophet appears is usually a time of darkness and as such is of ten compared to night in the holy Quran. But as in this darkness comes a blessing from on high in the person of a Divine Messenger, the Night is a blessed and majestic Night. Hence the period of the advent of Divine Messenger may also be metaphorically called Lailat-ul-Qadr. Its designation as the Blessed Night in Sura Ad-Dukhan followed as it is by the statement that in it 'every wise affair is made distinct' shows clearly that the other significance of the world is based on the holy Quran itself, because it is during the time of a prophet's advent that true wisdom is distinctly established."

Blessed indeed is this Night of Power. The divine importance of this Night of Grandeur is so great that the holy Prophet (peace be upon him) himself declared, "He who spends the Lailat-ul-Qadr through prayers, in full faith, shall have all his previous sins and guilt forgiven."

It is not, however, the worldly pleasures and physical comforts that one should ask for on this holy Night. What a man should pray for in this blessed Night is forgiveness and Allah's forgiveness alone. Nothing can be more pleasant, nothing can be more beneficial, noting can be sweeter that the glorious Mercy of the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful Allah.

Hazrat Aysha Siddiqua (RA) said, "I asked the holy Prophet (peace be upon him) what to say during the Night on the assumption that I knew it was the Night."

The holy Prophet (peace be upon him) replied, "One should say: "Lord! You love forgiveness, so forgive me."

Syed Ashraf Ali is former DG of Islamic Foundation, Bangladesh.