Truth is the Night of Power
Truth is the Night of Power,
hidden amid the other nights
so the soul may try each one.
Not all nights are the Night of Power,
yet all nights aren’t empty of it either.
Rumi
Haqq Shab-e Qadrast dar shab-hâ nehân
tâ konad jân har shabi-râ emtehân
Nah hameh shab-hâ bovad Qadr ay javân
nah hameh shab-hâ bovad khâli az ân
— Mathnawi II: 2935-2936
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
“Rumi: Daylight”
لیلة القدر (Arabic) Laylat al-Qadr, (also known as Shab-e-Qadr) 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 Qur’an state that thousand months is Allah’s way of defining eternal time as it cannot be described in worldly 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. Hazrat Ali (salwaat) and others 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).
Rumi-Your hair is Laylat al-Qadr
It’s morning and there’s wine so we’re going to stand on the sky
We’re going to go beyond Taurus to the constellation of the moon
We’re not looking for a fight, and have nothing to say about others
For it’s time for union, and with that we’ll be glad
Your face is a garden of roses, and your lip a land of sugar
We all become like sweet flowers in the shadow of these two
The sun of your sweet face is as boundless as the sun’s beams
So we have to stay up with you all night just like the moon
Your hair is the Night of Destiny, your face is a new day (Nawruz)
We’re between her day and night, just like the dawn
We don’t know this face, because you appeared in that one
But if you appear in another way, we’ll come by another way
You are the sun of the world and we are but hidden specks of dust
Shine on these specks, so that we can be seen
When the sun is lost and bedazzled by your face
It’s no wonder that we specks of dust are all love-dazed
I said, “When you come, you will open 200 doors.”
They said, “This is true, but only if we come…”
I said, “Just as the sea does not come to the stream,
We, like the flowing water, will journey forth to her
O herald of the unseen, speak, so that we
From your glad tidings and good news, will be glad, blissfully.
During Laylatul Qadr Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is reported to have instructed Muslims to say abundantly: ‘O Allah You are The One Who forgives greatly, and loves to forgive, so forgive me’.
In Islam, the duty of seeking knowledge & learning is obligatory for every Muslim. Islam affirms the right to education for all, without discrimination. Remember, the first word of the Qur’an revealed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was “Iqra” which means ‘Read.’
