Ramadan is a great season for Muslims. Throughout the month, they feel very close to God. Only those who fast know from personal experience that to deprive oneself of the pleasures of eating and drinking when hungry, thirsty and tired on a long, hot summer day does not make the fasting person bored or depressed. On the contrary, when he remembers that he is doing that solely to please God, he feels a sense of satisfaction that is very rare in human experience, but it is also very real. He is particularly happy because he is able to overcome even the most pressing of human desires - the one intertwined with man’s sense of survival. When man can triumph over his strongest desires, he becomes well trained in the art of placing duty before self-interest. He gains the sort of freedom to which every human being should aspire. It is freedom from being enslaved by desire.
Examples abound in the history of Islam of people who were so courageous that they stood out for the right they believed in despite facing great dangers to themselves and to their families. They came from all parts of the Muslim world. They belonged to different races, traditions and social environments. They had in common the fact that they had the same training to overcome the pressures of self-interest through fasting.
When we look carefully into this annual 30-day course of training we find that it progresses in a very subtle and gradual way to the high level of its last ten days and reaches its pinnacle with the Night of Power, or Lailat Al-Qadr. Fasting itself works on man and enhances his sense of duty. As he goes on from one day to another, the significance of this hard experience becomes progressively and increasingly clearer. Difficult as the task is, a fasting Muslim is not bored with it. He is after its great prize. When he has been fasting a few days, he is on the lookout for anything that is certain to increase his reward from God. We have been recommended by the Prophet (peace be upon him) to spend a considerable part of the night in worship. People may be slow coming to act on this recommendation in the first few days. More of them do come every day to share in the blessings which are experienced by everyone who goes through his fasting days with patience and stands up in worship for a part of the night after having finished a fasting day. When two thirds of the month have gone by, a Muslim feels that he has been elevated very highly above his own standard 23 days earlier. For 23 days he has been in the company of sincere worshippers, earning God’s pleasure that makes his life blessed, although he may not be physically aware of it. Those 23 days have prepared him for a higher task, following the Prophet’s guidance.
Al-Bukhari relates a report by Lady Aishah, the Prophet’s wife, who states: “When the last 10 days of Ramadan arrived, the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to tighten his robes, stay up the whole night and wake up his household.” This authentic Hadith stresses the fact that the last 10 days of Ramadan are singled out for special significance. Although we are recommended to spend a part of each night of Ramadan in prayer, which is known to all Muslims as Taraweeh, the Prophet’s guidance suggests that we go into a stage of full mobilization, as it were, in the last 10 days. The first is to tighten one’s robes. This is meant metaphorically. It signifies that the Prophet did not have sexual intercourse with any of his wives during this period. This he did voluntarily. It is not forbidden to have sexual intercourse with one’s wife in any night of Ramadan. The permission stated in the Qur’an in this regard is very general and applies to all nights of the fasting month. The Prophet’s abstention from sex in the last third was voluntary. When one is in a state of full mobilization, one goes without many things that normally give him pleasure. The abstention here is relevant to the nature of the days in question. When we aspire to a highly sublime standard of spirituality, the most physical of human desires loses its place altogether.
Secondly, the Prophet stayed up all night. A more literal translation of the Hadith may be rendered as “he made his night alive.” This he did through night worship. He spent the whole night praying, reciting the Qur’an, celebrating God’s praises, thanking Him for His bounty, etc. when he did so, his night came alive.
Moreover, the Prophet woke up his household for worship. This tells us something special. Since night worship is voluntary, the Prophet used not to wake up anyone for it. We have reports of the Prophet staying in the houses of some of his companions on different occasions. Some of them took the opportunity to join the Prophet in his night worship. They did so of their own accord. The Prophet did not make even an implicit reference that that was required of them. In the last 10 nights of Ramadan, however, he broke his habit so as to wake up members of his household for worship. According to a Hadith related by Al-Tirmidhi on the authority of Zaynab, the Prophet’s stepdaughter by his wife Umm Salamah: “When only 10 days of Ramadan were left, the Prophet (peace be upon him) woke up everyone in his household who could manage to stay up for night worship.” The fact that the Prophet took extra care to wake them up means that, while night worship remained voluntary, its reward on these 10 nights was so great that no one could afford to miss it.
Moreover, one of these 10 nights is the Night of Power. It is the night when the revelation of the Qur’an started. God tells us in the Qur’an that the Night of Power is better than a thousand months.” (97: 3) to stay up on that night and to spend it in worship is to attain the best reward any Muslim hopes for.
When we say that it is on that night that the revelation of the Qur’an started, we mean that the greatest event in human history took place on that night. It is the night when God chose to address man directly, giving him His message that ensures man’s happiness in this world and in the life to come. It means that God in His great majesty turned to this insignificant creature, living on earth, which is no more than a tiny corner of the universe, bestowing on him His greatest bounty: Guidance which spares him all sorts of trouble and shows him the path leading to heaven. Human beings cannot thank God enough for this blessing. The least they could do is to commemorate that occasion by staying up the whole night, engaged in worship, praising God and asking His forgiveness.
Which of the 10 nights is the Night of Power? There are several Hadiths that urge Muslims to seek that night in the odd number of the last 10 days of Ramadan. In Islamic terminology, the night precedes the day. If we say the night of the 21st day of the month, it means the night starting at sunset on the 20th of Ramadan. We must not confuse this with the Western way, which considers the point of midnight the end of one day and the start of another. Our days start and finish at sunset.
Most people think that the Night of Power falls on the 27th of Ramadan, that is the night, which follows sunset on 26 Ramadan. There are certainly Hadiths to support this view. If we take all the authentic Hadiths with reference to this point, we cannot come up with any definite conclusion other than saying that the Night of Power is one of the odd nights of the last third of the month. It is important, therefore, to seek it in one of the five nights of 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29 Ramadan. Some people always ask: How to worship and what to pray for on the Night of Power? The answer is that whatever one does of worship is good and will be amply rewarded by God. One can pray, recite the Qur’an, say tasbeeh or glorifications of God, and pray for himself, his family and community. It may be of interest to remember that Aishah asked the Prophet this very question. She said: “Messenger of God, if I happen to know the Night of Power, how should I pray?”
He answered: “Say: My Lord, You are much forgiving and you love forgiveness; therefore, forgive me.”
That is all the Prophet said to her. It is very simple but also very significant. What does nay human being want more than to be forgiven? Is there any greater prize than God’s forgiveness of all our sins?
