Laylat al Qadr
Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani
Nights are the time which Allah `azza wa
jall has designated for the attainment of spiritual blessing and power.
Allah told His Beloved in the Quran:
Rise to pray in the night except a little (73:1)
Allah ordered Prophet (s) to spend most of
the night in worship in order to prepare his heart for the tremendous
revelation of Quran. This night worship was the means for the Prophet (s)
to ascend and to attain more and more power. His Companions would join him
for the night prayer 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)
Laylat al-Qadr is a holy night. All nights
of Ramadan are holy nights but Laylat al-Qadr is the holiest night of this
holy month. It is also the holiest night among all other holy nights
throughout the entire year. It comes only once a year and Allah Almighty
grants to His most praised, most respected and most beloved servant
Sayyidina Muhammad (s) this holy night, the Night of Power. About this
night, God, the Glorious and Exalted said:
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 like!
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 affair.
Peace it is, till the break of dawn.
[Quran, Chapter 97]
"Night of Power" is a very
strange translation for "Laylat al-Qadr" but it attributes to it
a good meaning: whoever may attain the blessings of this holy night should
attain perfect power in his spiritual life. One can attain perfect power
by means of this night because its value is more than one thousand months
of worshipping. Every worship performed increases the spiritual power of
people and in this night any worship is going to be valued as one thousand
months of worshipping on any other night. It is condensed power. God, the
Almighty, makes it a mighty night by placing in it such incredible power,
making it a much mightier night than other nights. Allah Almighty says it
is much more valuable than one thousand months of worshipping. That means
Allah Almighty granted such huge power to that night.
It is just such a mighty night that is
highly respected and given such a high value by the Lord Almighty. It is
so mighty that it is said that it is the most mighty night, that Night of
Power. Allah Almighty puts in it power for His servants to come closer to
His Divine Presence. In a short time that great power adorns worshippers
in this night and they may be able to penetrate through the entire heavens
and reach the Divine Presence.
People on this night are going to be on
several different levels. No doubt we are on the lowest level, so we are
hoping in this night to attain the honor and illumination granted in it.
When we reach a higher level and as it is a holy night in the heavens as
well, we will begin to sense something [of the great power being
manifested] on this night. Whoever is at the highest spiritual level must
be present for this night in the Divine Presence of the Lord.
That appearance will occur in a matter of
seconds, perhaps within a single second. Perhaps one second is an enormous
unit of time [in comparison] to that moment. It may be more than a second
or much less, but it is an instant in time when an appearance from Divine
Presence is manifested to creation. When that Divine Appearance manifests
(Ar. tajalli), no one will remain standing throughout the heavens and the
earth. Everything falls into prostration, throwing themselves down in
prostration for that moment. That manifestation of Divine Power--that
Divine Light--appears, and whoever is prepared and who has also been
invited to attend that appearance sees it and falls in prostration.
Everything in that moment falls in prostration (Ar. sajda): all
animals--even ants, even elephants, even giraffes, even dogs--on that
night they are not sleeping but are hurrying to make prostration on
experiencing that divine manifestation. All trees-- even buildings--bow
down in prostration and then rise up to their original positions. This is
mentioned in Quran:
Sūrah
ar-R`ad, 15
And unto Allah falleth prostrate whosoever is in the heavens and the
earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the morning and
the evening hours.
Sūrah al-Hajj, 18
Hast thou not seen that unto Allah payeth adoration whosoever is in the
heavens and whosoever is in the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the
stars, and the hills, and the trees, and the beasts, and many of mankind,
while there are many unto whom the doom is justly due. He whom Allah
scorneth, there is none to give him honour. Lo! Allah doeth what He
will.
May God forgive us because we are sinners.
Every few minutes, or even every few seconds we commit so many sins, thus
we are in need of our Lord's forgiveness for the honor of His Most Praised
Servant Sayyidina Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him. This
holiest of nights is granted to him from his Lord Almighty Allah. In it
all powers adorn him, all lights illuminate him and all angels come to
him. The Archangel Gabriel comes to him, and he is dressed with countless
honors on this holy night. The angels ask forgiveness [from Allah for
people] for the sake of the master of humanity (Sayyid al Bashar), to the
Owner of creation (Rabb al-Ka'inat).
For his honor, may God forgive us and take
away our bad states. May Allah change our conditions from bad to good and
change everything in us to be for His Sake. May we be good servants,
obedient servants, beloved servants, respected servants, praised servants.
Try to be servants such as this. For that reason, attend humbly to worship
on that night as our Beloved Prophet (s) directed us:
"Whosoever offers voluntary prayers
during the Night of Power out of belief and expecting from Allah its
reward will have his past sins forgiven." [Bukhari and Muslim]
Now I would like to pray the Prayer of
Recollection (salat ul-tasabih) to express a little bit of praising from
our side to glorify our Lord Almighty Allah. That glorifying Allah
Almighty in salat ul-tasabih consists four cycles of prayer (raka'ats) in
which we are glorify our Lord 300 times by saying "Glory be to God,
all praise be to God, there is no god but the One God Allah, God is Most
Great!" (Ar. "Subhanallahi wal hamdulillahi wa la ilaha illa
Allahu wa Allahu Akbar." May Allah Almighty glorify His beloved and
most praised servant, Sayyidina Muhammad (S), and may mercy from His
endless mercy oceans fall on you, and fall on our descendents, and fall on
our ancestors, fall upon east and west, and may its blessing fall upon all
from North to South, upon all oceans and upon all continents.
Allah Allah...Karim Allah...Aziz Allah...Subhan
Allah...Sultan Allah Oh our Lord You are the only Sultan. Raise up Your
Work and bring down the work of destructive disbelief and evil which seeks
to harm Your human beings and all other creations by means of a destined
appointed and authorized sultan from your Divine Presence.
Bihurmat al habeeb wa bi hurmat al fatiha.
[for the sake of the Beloved, for his sake we recite the Opening Chapter
of Quran]
As-Sayyid Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani
speaks on Laylat al-Qadr at the Peckham Mosque, London on Laylat ul-Qadr
Ramadan 1415 (Feb-Mar 1995)
excerpt
from
http://sunnah.org/ibadaat/fasting/laylat_ul_qadr.html
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