Lailatul Qadr : The Night of Power

Lailatul Qadr - The Night of Power

Lailatul Qadr falls on the one of the last Nights of Ramadan (some hadiths say its in the 19th, others 21st, others say 23rd) and this is significant event in Muslim history as not only did Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) receive his first revelation that culminated in the Holy Quran, but this day marks the anniversary of his Prophethood on earth. Muslims all over the world spend this night in prayers as it holds special Barakah for those in prayer.

"In the name of God, the Beneficent the Merciful ". "Indeed We sent it [the Holy Quran] down on the Night of Power. What will convey to you what the Night of Power is? Better is the Night of Power than a thousand months. In that Night the angels and the Spirit descend by the permission of their Lord for every errand. Peace it is, until the break of dawn."
- Quran, Chapter 97 Al-Qadr

Many interpreters of this verse in the Holy Quran state that thousand months is Allah's way of defining eternal time as it cannot be described in worldy time. A single moment of enlightenment of the Noor of Allah is better than a thousand months and such a moment of recognition converts the night into a period of Spiritual glory and majesty, and every one of us should try to work towards this.

When the night of spiritual darkness is removed by the Noor of Allah, a wonderful peace and sense of security arises in the soul which lasts until this physical life ends and the glorious day of the spiritual world dawns, when everything will be on a different plane and the nights and days of this world will seem less than a dream. This is the meaning of "until the rise of dawn" and not the literal interpretation as many may construe or understand it. Surely, Allah's realm/time span is larger.

Allah has says in the Quran: Rise to pray in the night except a little (73:1)

Allah ordered Prophet Muhammad (salwaat) to spend most of the night in worship in order that his Lord may lift him to a higher elevation. His Family (salwaat) and Wives and Companions (RA) would join him for the nightly meditation (Baitul Khayal) and would be rising up in station and spirituality: Surely We will make to descend on you a weighty Word. Surely the rising by night is the firmest way to tread and the best corrective of speech. (73, 1-5)

Listen to Sura Qadr Audio File in MP3 Format

Our beloved Prophet Muhammad, praise and peace be upon him, said: "Whosoever offers voluntary prayers during the Night of Power out of belief and charging Allah with its recompense will have his past sins forgiven." - Hadith, compiled by Bukhari and Muslim

Dai Nasir-i Khusraw explains the significance of this night saying: " You illuminate the mosques on the Night of Qadr and make it as bright as the day, while your hearts are as dark as the darkest night. Know that illuminations are not enough. When you light the lamps, remind yourselves that your dark hearts, without inner purifications, will not become enlightened by the lamps".

The Glory and Majesty of this night cannot be explained in any human terms. This Night is an opportunity to open out our hearts unto Him Who revealed the Holy Qur'an to Prophet Muhammad, who kept Allah's message everliving and appointed his heirs, the Imams, as the carriers of the Divine mission.

This night is therefore, not only the Anniversary Night of the Holy Quran, but it is also the Anniversary of Hazrat Nabi Muhammad's Prophethood.

For You what then is the significance of Lailatul Qadr?

O Allah treat me as one of those who are free from Hell, in the name of this Holy Book sent by Thee, whatever there be in the Book. Including Ism-e-A'azam and Asmaa-e-Husnaa and the things to be dreaded, the things that may be expected and desired, like blessings of Jannat. Do forgive through the grace of this book

"Alaahumma inni asaloka be kitaabekal munzale Wa maa feeh, wa feehismokal akbaro wa asmaakal husnaa, wa maa yokhaafo Wa yurjaa an taj-alani min otaqaaeka minan-Naar",

Pakistan's mystical Islam thrives

By Asim Butt, Karachi

The Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine is a magnet for devotees

The mystical form of Islam espoused by Sufi saints for hundreds of years continues to thrive in Pakistan despite opposition from religious hardliners and the authorities.

As the sun sets on a Thursday evening, hundreds of working class people descend on a shrine to the eighth-century mystic, Abdullah Shah Ghazi, in Karachi.

The shrine is located on a hill in the upmarket Clifton district of Pakistan's financial capital, flanked by swanky shopping malls and the posh residential area of Defence.

In the grounds below the shrine gather electricians, plumbers, construction workers, vagabonds, transvestites, prostitutes. Encircled by a cheering crowd, men take turns in a weightlifting competition.

Another circle dances to the drumbeat of the shrine's dhol players.

Devotional singing, or "qawali", emanates from an enclosure adjacent to the open grounds, yet another crowd swaying under its spell.

Holy nights

The men, for this public space is overwhelmingly male-dominated, belong to all the ethnicities and sects that make up Pakistan, mixing freely in a city rife with divisions.

Many homeless people are drawn to the shrine's grounds

Food stalls, bonfires, stereo-players, huddles of ganja-smoking men, smaller ones of heroin users, others swigging local brews, make up this multi-ethnic weekly party that rocks into the early hours of the morning.

Although Thursdays are traditionally holy nights when devotees pray at Sufi shrines, the revelry at Shah Ghazi seems to have little to do with prayer.

Music, dance and drugs, though proscribed by orthodox Islam, are the traditional vehicles of devotion here - as they are at most shrines in Pakistan.

Sufism has historically provided Islam with an alternative to orthodoxy and has won it most of its converts.

Sufi saints created mass appeal through their merging with pre-existing faiths of the region and their ability to align themselves with popular interests.

The mass appeal of saints like Shah Ghazi and others persists in spite of 200 years of opposition from puritanical reformers and the state.

From the late 19th century on, reformers sought to purify Islam by rejecting elements they believe had crept in through Sufism.

Exiled

Under the colonial regime, although landed Sufis were used as intermediaries between government and subjects, ascetics were seen as a threat and criminalised.

The shrine is also a centre of entertainment

Similarly, while ancient Sufis were viewed as genuine agents of spirituality, living mystics were dismissed as frauds.

The 19th Century Sufi, Mewa Shah, also buried in Karachi, was jailed and eventually exiled by the British.

According to legend, Mewa Shah alighted the ship taking him into exile, said his prayers on the waves of the Arabian Sea and mounted a large fish which took him back to the shores of Karachi.

Post-colonial Pakistan has had a schizophrenic policy towards Sufi shrines.

By subsuming them under the Auqaf department, the state has sought to weaken the powers of the spiritual heirs of the saints.

Established under Ayub Khan in 1959, the Auqaf department received its charter from Javed Iqbal, the son of Pakistan's founding visionary poet, Mohammad Iqbal, who actually bemoaned the superstitions of Indian Muslims.

Karachi's dispossessed come for free food

The pamphlets published by the department expunged the miraculous from the legends, repainting the lives of Sufi saints in a modernist light.

The powers of the department were expanded further under the pseudo-socialist government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1976 and have persisted through Zia ul-Haq's Islamist dictatorship and Pervez Musharraf's rule of "enlightened moderation".

Meanwhile, state functionaries and politicians have continued to seek legitimacy from the shrines by turning prayer visits into public appearances and photo opportunities.

Although tributes paid by devotees are siphoned through the Auqaf department, alms are also received by the dozen or so kitchens that run along the front of the shrine.

The money is used to provide two daily meals to anyone in need. The most destitute thus encamp outside the shrine, among them glue-sniffing runaway children, heroin addicts and other homeless men and women.

The Sufi shrines offer the underclass spiritual sustenance, a social valve of entertainment, and a safety net of free rations.

It is a bond that has not been loosened by militant Islam.