Lailat-ul-Qadr is the crowning glory of the holy month of Ramzan. It is associated with the sending down of the Qur’an the last Book of Allah on His last Prophet Muhammad for the guidance of mankind. The Qur’an describes this Night. “We have indeed revealed this (message) in the Night of Power: And what will explain to you what the Night of Power is? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months. Therein come down the Angels and the Spirit by Allah’s permission, on every errand: “Peace! This until the rise of Morn!”
The Night of Power is the night of spiritual bliss. Our Prophet is reported to have said concerning Ramzan: “Verily this month has come to you; and therein is a night which is better than a thousand Months. Whosoever is deprived of it is deprived of all good; and none is deprived of its good except a totally unfortunate person”, says one Prophet’s saying. “Whosoever stands up (in prayer) at the Night of Power out of faith and hopeful of reward, all his past sins will be forgiven,” says other saying.
Better than a thousand months: A thousand months are equivalent to 83 years and 4 months. Fortunate is the person who spends this night in prayer. The man or woman, who prays for the whole night during this Night, will deserve blessings and reward for the period as if he or she had been praying for eighty three years and four months consecutively. Since the Night of Power is better than one thousand months no one can actually measure the extent as to how much better it is. The Holy Prophet Muhammad said: “Lailat-ul-Qadr has been bestowed by Allah to my Ummah. It was not given to any people before this.”
How manifest and replete the special bounties and mercies of Allah Ta’ala are upon this Ummah is quite really beyond imagination. It will therefore be extremely foolish to allow ourselves to be deprived of these great blessings at the expense of sheer laziness and a few hours of extra sleep. Which Night is it? Although there are different reports in different traditions regarding the exact night, it is almost unanimous that the blessed night occurs in one of the last ten nights of Ramadan and more probably in one of the last ten odd nights i.e. 21st, 23rd, 25th 27th or 29th night.
(Dr. M. A. Aleem, former Vice Principal and Head of the Department of Neurology, K. A. P. Viswanatham Government Medical College, Tiruchi.)
Published - July 18, 2015 12:00 am IST
