The Night of Majesty is here!
It feels as if it was yesterday. But alas! We have now entered the climax in the spiritual season of the blessed month of Ramadan. Here I am referring to the last ten days of this glorious month; days in which the night of Majesty would occur; a night which is better than a thousand months spent in worshipping the Almighty. In other words, when the Almighty says “the night of majesty is better than one thousand nights” it is meant to call our attention to the fact that the night is equal in importance to 30,000 days of worship; it is equivalent to 83 years of complete devotion to the Almighty. To hold the night sacred, to consecrate the night to the worship of the Almighty, therefore, is to partake in such rare divine blessings as would not be seen again until next year.
Put differently, the night of majesty is that in which the affairs of the cosmos or the universe (why is this not referred to as multiverse?) is reviewed; laylat al-Qadr, the night of Majesty, is the night in which your destiny and mine could be re-written for the better provided we avail ourselves of the opportunity therein. Yes! Have you forgotten what your lord and sustainer says in chapter 44 verses 1-5 of the Quran? Your lord says: Ha M’im; We swear by the Glorious Book; That We revealed this Qur’an in a blessed night (Layla-tul Qadr); for We wanted to forewarn mankind; In that night every matter is decided wisely by a command from us…”
When carefully contemplated, these verses appear to give some clues to some of the vexed issues which have constantly bothered humanity: the issue of destiny, the challenge of knowing the unknowable. Here the Almighty unveils part of the hidden to us all; we are being summoned to partake in divine politics if as such it may be described. When He, the Almighty, says “In that night every matter is decided wisely by a command from us…”, it is like an invitation from His majesty to humanity to actively partake in a process which will ultimately lead to the distribution of divine blessings; the blessings of life, of wealth and health, of terrestrial and celestial successes. Unlike our experience on earth where the so-called legislators appropriate the national resources at the beginning of each year by giving sole consideration to their prosperity, the night of Majesty open the celestial space to the poor and the rich, the mighty and the lowly to present their “proposals” to the Almighty. Brethren, on this night we are being invited to “join” the angels in the process of “appropriating” earthly fortune; you are being asked, on the night of majesty, to have a say in how your future is going to look like.
In a statement credited to Prophet Muhammad (s.a w) the Almighty is reported to have said that on the night of Majesty “the number of Angels who will descend to earth will be greater than the number of pebbles on the whole planet”! But why would the earth play host to such an indescribable number of angels? Angels of the Almighty, you would remember, are luminous creatures; they are entities created from light; some of them bear two wings, others three, yet others four wings. The wings of the angels, I should remind you, are signifiers, the signified being divine authorities; the wings of the Angels are metaphors for the unknowable features of those divine messengers. Again, Angels are entities without freewill; they are incapable of rebelling, like humans, against the Almighty’s plans and will. Thus they would descend in abundance during the Night of Al-Qadr, in obeisance to His command and in celebration of the abundant blessings of the night; the same way they descend each time the Qur’an is being recited. But how might you go about partaking in your own destiny during this night? This question was also posed by Aishah (r.a) to Muhammad (s.a.w). She said: “I said “O Messenger of The Almighty, on the night of Laylat al-Qadr, what should I say?’ The Prophet then replied: “Say: Allahuma innaka ‘afuwwun tuhibbu al’afwa fa’affu ‘anni” meaning “O the Almighty! You are oft-forgiving and You love forgiveness, so forgive me”.
In the course of preparing this sermon, I was struck by one other fact: that each time the month of Ramadan enters the last ten days, the Prophet used to gird his loins. The phrase “gird his loins” is a metaphor for the Prophet’s preparation for “consolidated” acts of worship. In other words, during the last ten days of Ramadan the Prophet used to increase his acts of worship. He would forsake the bed of his wives, and resort to the hallowed precincts of the mosque in order to do I’tikaf-seclusion.
As you set about to increase your spiritual capital during the coming days, remember your brethren all around the world who are presently going through trials, tribulations and strife. Remember your sister in Syria, your brother in Gaza and your compatriots in the North Eastern parts of this country. Not to spare a thought for them is to suffer spiritual deficit.