٥٨. عَنْ عَائِشَةَ رَضِيَ اللّٰهُ عَنْهَا قَالَتْ: قُلْتُ:
«يَا رَسُولَ اللّٰهِ أَرَأَيْتَ إِنْ عَلِمْتُ أَيَّ لَيْلَةٍ لَيْلَةَ الْقَدْرِ مَا أَقُولُ فِيهَا؟» قَالَ: قُولِي:
«اَللّٰهُمَّ إنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ كَرِيمٌ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّي».
58. Aisha (r.a.) said: I asked the Prophet:
“O the Messenger of Allah! If I get know which night is the Night of Qadr, how should I pray?”
The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) responded:
“Pray saying “O my Lord! You are the most forgiver and generous, You love to forgive; please forgive me!”” (Tirmidhi, Deavat, 84/3513; Ibn Majah, Dua, 5)
Explanations:
One of the manifestations of Allah’s endless mercy and blessing is the Night of Power (al-Laylat al-Qadr). This night is the greatest opportunity blessed to us by our Lord who facilitates things for His servants in every chance. That is because this night is better than one thousand months, or in other words better than 83-year and 4-month long life.
The life span of his followers was shown to the Messenger of Allah (pbuh). The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) found it to be too short comparing to the life spans of the previous people. He thought that his followers would miss the opportunity to perform good deeds as much as the previous people. Upon that, Allah blessed him and his followers the Night of Power which is better than one thousand months. (Muwatta, Itiqaf 15)
One day, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) told his companions about a man from Israelites. This man called Shem‘un-i Ghazi fought for the sake of Allah for a thousand months and worshipped Him during the nights. Muslims got excited and admired him.
Upon that, Allah revealed the chapter al-Qadr in order to show His blessings and mercy to the followers of Muhammad:
“We have indeed revealed this (Message) in the Night of Power: And what will explain to thee 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!” (Al-Qadr; 97:1-5) (See Wahidi, p. 486)
Allah the Almighty made the night that He appointed our Prophet to the prophethood and started to reveal our Holy Book as the holiest one of all nights. This is enough to express the honor and value of and the Noble Qur’an, and also the Night of Power.
By stating “We sent it (Qur’an) down during a Blessed Night”[1] in the chapter al-Duhan, Allah informs us about the blessing and virtue of the Night of Power and abundance of its goodness.
The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said:
“In Ramadan there is a night that is better than a thousand months. Whoever misses the goodness of this night misses something gravely important.” (Ahmad, II, 230, 385)
Acts of worship performed in this night are more rewarding than the ones performed in a thousand months that do not have a Night of Power in them. The things that will take place until the next year are told to angels on this night. In this night, Gabriel (pbuh) and many other angles descend on earth. In this night, people are protected from all kinds of evil; peace and tranquility covers everywhere until the sunrise. Angels descending on Earth greet believers by whom they stop and pray for them and for their forgiveness. They also bear witness to their worship on the Day of Judgment and intercede for that person.
In our first hadith, it is advised that one must search for the Night of Power in the last ten days of Ramadan. In other narrations, it is also advised to search for it in the odd days of the last ten days of Ramadan[2], in the twenty fourth night,[3] and twenty seventh nights.[4] Some of the Noble Companions dreamt that the Night of Power is in the last seven days of Ramadan and told that to the Messenger of Allah. Upon that, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said:
“It seems that all your dreams agree that (the Night of Qadr) is in the last seven nights, and whoever wants to search for it (i.e. the Night of Qadr) should search in the last seven (nights of Ramadan).” (Bukhari, Laylat al-Qadr, 2; Ta’bir, 8; Muslim, Siyam, 205-206)
The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) informed us about the signs of this night as:
“In the morning of the Night of Power, the sun rises without brightness, and it looks like a bowl until it gets high.” (Muslim, Musafirin, 179; Abu Dawud, Ramadan, 2/1378; Tirmidhi, Sawm, 72/793)
“The Night of Power is bright and it is neither hot nor cold. It is without clouds, rain, and wind. There would not be a falling star in that night either…” (Tabarani, Kabir, XXII, 59; Haythami, III, 178-179; Baihaqi, Shuab, III, 334)
The reason of hiding the Night of Power is to encourage people to worship and make them worship more and so elevate their spiritual state. A person who searches the Night of Power learns to take advantage of his time by worshipping and practices this same habit in other days as well. In time, being good and worshipping becomes his nature. Also, the value of something depends on the hardship that is gone through to get it. Therefore, in order to take advantage of this virtuous night, one must try hard.
Hiding the Night of Power prevents people to sin by trusting to take advantage of this night. It also saves those who do not respect this night from the responsibility of sinning intentionally for a thousand months. Taking all these reasons into account, wise people said:
“Consider every night as the Night of Power, and every man you see as Hizir.[5]
In the second hadith, the good news is given that the sins of those who take advantage of the Night of Power will be nullified. However, this is conditioned on having faith and being sincere. In other words, one must believe in the words of Allah and His Messenger and acknowledge the virtue of that night and worship by asking the rewards only from Allah. When this happens, that person gets cleansed from all his sins and reaches the morning as pure as a newborn.
Being forgiven is an important privilege. That is because first a thing gets cleaned and then gets enriched with beauties. For this reason, before everything else, one must hold on tight to asking for forgiveness.
The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) would worship more during the month of Ramadan compared to other months, and devote himself to worship especially at the last ten days of Ramadan in order to take advantage of the Night of Power. During these days, he would spend the night worshipping and wake up his family as well. (Bukhari, Laylatu’l-Kadr, 5)
In the third hadith, one of the prayers that can be said in the Night of Power is taught. As other prayers can be said in the Night of Power, this night can also be spent by performing worships such as praying, reciting the Qur’an, asking for forgiveness of sins and promising not to do them again, remembering Allah, saying praises for His messenger, and deeply thinking. Those who have missed prayers should at least make up one day (five) of those missed prayers. Apart from these, one should spend the day of the Night of Power by performing good deeds such as pleasing and helping others, giving charities and cheering up the needy. The least one can do to take advantage of the Night of Power is to join a congregation in the evening prayer (Salat al-Maghrib), the night prayer (Salat al-‘Isha), and the dawn prayer (Salat al-Fajr). (See Baihaqi, Shuab, III, 340)
To stay up all night might not be possible for everyone. However, in compliance with the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, it is quite possible for anyone during the last seven days of Ramadan to decrease the sleeping time and increase the time spend worshipping and to reserve some time from the early and late hours of the night for the acts of worship.
Those who do not benefit from Ramadan, fasting, and the Night of Power and reach the end of Ramadan without receiving forgiveness are miserable people. They insist and resist on staying away from goodness and Allah’s mercy. For this reason, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said:
“Woe to him who found the blessed month of Ramadan and let it pass by without gaining forgiveness!” (Tirmidhi, Daawat, 100/3545)