Ramadan, Mii Ryouma [best classic novels txt] 📗

Some Muslims stay up late at night in Ramadan and talk about worldly matters such as their traditions and customs. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do.}[Quran 29:45] 

 

          Some other people spend the night watching television as they consider Ramadan to be a season where they can watch comedy shows, competitions, movies and series. Such people do not join the competition of gaining Paradise. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {Race toward forgiveness from your Lord and a garden whose width is like the width of the heavens and earth, prepared for those who believed in Allah and His messengers. That is the Bounty of Allah which He gives to whom He wills, and Allah is The Possessor of great bounty.} [Quran 57:21] 

 

          Some other people spend a lot of time in the markets as they forget that they will be asked about their time and that by looking at what is prohibited, they would be doing something that spoils the mind and disobeying the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ).

 

[] The late hours of the night is a special time that has great virtues throughout the year, even more so in Ramadan. This is the time when Allah The Almighty descends, as the Prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), said in the Hadeeth narrated by Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him: "Allah descends every night in the last third of the night [in a way that befits His Majesty] to the lowest heaven and Says, 'Is there anyone invoking Me that I may respond to his invocation? Is there anyone asking Me so that I may grant him his request? Is there anyone asking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?'" [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

 

These are the hours where people are granted what they want and when their Lord forgives them. These are the hours of the last third of the night.

 

The righteous people knew these hours and observed them. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {They used to sleep but little of the night, And in the hours before dawn they would ask forgiveness...} [Quran 51:17-18]

 

Thus, we must ask: Where are the people who are in need? Where are the sick people? Where are the repentant people? Where are the debtors? Why do they not wake up and utilize these hours?

 

It was narrated on the authority of Jaabir, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), said: "There is an hour during the night in which no Muslim will ask Allah for good in this world and the next without His giving it to him – and this applies to every night." [Muslim]

 

Did Allah The Almighty not Say in the Quran among the verses of fasting (what means): {And when My servants ask you, [O Muhammad], concerning Me - indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided.} [Quran 2:186]

 

[] For everyone who witnesses the month of Ramadan, be keen on invoking Allah The Almighty during the Sahar (last third of night). Be wary of missing this opportunity because of watching television or going to the markets. Never waste the night without invoking Allah The Almighty, to Whom belongs the depositories of the heavens and the earth. Allah The Almighty Says in the Qudsi Hadeeth (sacred narration):

 

"... O My slaves! All of you are misguided except those whom I guide, so seek My guidance and I will guide you. O My slaves! All of you are hungry except those whom I feed so ask Me for food and I will feed you. O My slaves! All of you are naked except those whom I clothe so ask Me for clothing and I will clothe you. O My slaves! You make mistakes by night and by day and I forgive all wrong actions so ask for My forgiveness and I will forgive you. O My slaves! You can never reach a level where you can do Me any harm or can you do Me any good. O My slaves! If the first and last of you, all the jinn and all the men among you, possessed the heart of the most pious man among you, that would not increase My kingdom in any way. O My slaves! If the first and last of you, all the jinn and all the men among you, possessed the heart of the most evil man among you, that would not decrease My kingdom in any way. O My slaves! If the first and last of you, all the jinn and all the men among you, were to stand in a single place and ask of Me, I could give every man what he asks without that decreasing what I have any more than a needle when it enters the sea." [Muslim]

 

Do you not want guidance? Do you not want Allah The Almighty to grant you forgiveness? Do you not wish that Allah The Almighty would reform your life and Hereafter? Do you not want Allah The Almighty to forgive your sins? Do you not want your debts to be repaid? Do you not think of Al-Firdaws? Then, you have to be keen on staying up and supplicating at Sahar (last third of the night).

 

 

 

The Night of Al-Qadr (Lailat ul Qadr)

 

 

 

 

          The Night of Qadr (Lailat ul Qadr) is a special night that occurs every year in Ramadan and represents a golden opportunity for Muslims to gain blessings and forgiveness from Allah (God).

 

          The word Qadr can be best translated as: value, valuability, worthiness, or stature. However, from the same root of this word, another word, Qadar (which means destiny or pre-destination) is derived.

 

The Quran describes this Night.

 

إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ ٱلْقَدْرِ

أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ ٱلْقَدْرِ وَمَآ

لَيْلَةُ ٱلْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ

تَنَزَّلُ ٱلْمَلاَئِكَةُ وَٱلرُّوحُ فِيهَا بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِم مِّن كُلِّ أَمْرٍ

سَلاَمٌ هِيَ حَتَّىٰ مَطْلَعِ ٱلْفَجْرِ

 

"We have indeed revealed this (Quran) in the Night of Qadr: And what will explain to you what the Night of Qadr is? The Night of Qadr is better than a thousand months. Therein come down the Angels and the Spirit (Gabriel) by Allah's permission, with every decreed command.

Peace it is until the rise of Dawn!" (Quran 97: 1-5)

 

And in it every decreed matter for the year is conveyed. Allah, the Most High, says:

 

" We sent it (this Quran) down on a blessed Night. Verily, We are ever warning (mankind of Our Torment). Therein (that Night) is decreed every matter of ordainment. A command from Us. Verily, We are ever sending (the Messenger) as a Mercy from your Lord. Verily! He (Allah/ Lord) is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower." (Quran 44: 3-6)

 

The Night of Qadr is the night of spiritual bliss. Prophet Mohammad (s.a.a.w.s) is reported to have said:

 

"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 goodness; and none is deprived of its goodness, except a totally unfortunate person". 

 

          On this particular night, all the provisions, wealth, agricultural products, who is to live and die that year, and everything on the Earth concerning mankind, is to be decided.

 

          The Night of Qadr is also the night in which the Quran was sent down by God based on the Preserve Board (which contains the knowledge of everything in the seven heavens, universe, humans & other creatures, everything that happened in the past, is happening now and is going to happen in the future, etc.). Allah (God) sent down the first revelations of the Quran from the Preserve Board to the first heaven. The book was then taken from the first heaven by the arch-angel Gabriel and brought to Earth, where the first part of it was revealed to the Prophet Mohammad on the Night of Qadr, and the rest revealed to him gradually over a period of 23 years.

 

          The Night of Qadr, as the Quran says, is better than a thousand months. One thousand months are equivalent to 83 years and 4 months, meaning more than a lifetime of average human being. Very 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 from Allah as if he or she has prayed for eighty three years and four months consecutively.

 

          Prophet Mohammad (s.a.a.w.s) said: "The Night of Qadr has been bestowed by Allah (as an honor or privilege) to my Ummah (People/ Nation). It was not given previously to any other Ummah." 

 

          This indicates that previous prophets (Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc) were not offered by God this privileged occasion for their followers.

 

When is it?

 

          It is reported from the Prophet (s.a.a.w.s) that it is within the twenty-first, twenty-third, twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh, twenty-ninth or the last night of Ramadan.

 

          The most correct saying is that it occurs in the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramadan and this is shown by the hadith of Aa'isha (r.a.), who said: "Allah Messenger (s.a.a.w.s) used to practice I'tikaaf in the last ten nights and say: 'Seek out the Night of Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan." 

 

          However if the servant is too weak or unable, then he should at least not let the last seven days pass him by, due to what is reported from 'Ibn 'Umar, who said: Allah's Messenger (s.a.a.w.s) said: "Seek it in the last ten, and if one of you is too weak or unable then let him not allow that to make him miss the final seven." 

 

          This is also confirmed in another saying of Prophet Mohammad's (s.a.a.w.s): "I see that your dreams are in agreement (that it is in the last seven) so he who wishes to seek it out, then let him seek it in the last seven." 

 

          It is also known from the Sunnah, that knowledge of the exact night upon which the Night of Qadr falls was taken up because the people argued. "Ubada ibn As-Saamit (r.a.) said: The Prophet (s.a.a.w.s) came out intending to tell us about the Night of Qadr, however two men were arguing and he said: "I came out to inform you about the Night of Qadr but so and so, and, so and so were arguing, so it was raised up, and perhaps that is better for you, so seek it on the (twenty) ninth and (twenty) seventh and the (twenty) fifth."