Laylat al Qadr or the night when Koran was send down to Earth

 Bismillahi Rahmanu Rahim

Laylat al Qadr - it was first time around year 610, on April 6th, when Koran descended to Earth with full blessings from Allah.

This night has a very special meaning to me because from the name of this night, my Islamic name comes too: Kadreyah. First time I heard this name when was my husband spoke to me about his family and he presented to me each one of them by name and by pictures (this was previous my first visit to his family with months). He started with Mama from Egypt - mama Kadreyah and I fall in love with her name and kept in my memory - even that it is not a common name at all :). I kept saying to my husband how much I love this name and what beautiful melody it has.

So my husband, spoke with me about the meaning of the name and his roots.

And so I am today...

Nights are the time which Allah `azza wa jall has designated for the attainment of spiritual blessing and power. Allah told His Beloved in the Quran: Rise to pray in the night except a little (73:1) 

Allah ordered Prophet (s) to spend most of the night in worship in order to prepare his heart for the tremendous revelation of Quran. This night worship was the means for the Prophet (s) to ascend and to attain more and more power. His Companions would join him for the night prayer and would be rising up in station and spirituality: 


Surely We will make to descend on you a weighty Word. Surely the rising by night is the firmest way to tread and the best corrective of speech. (73, 1-5)
Laylat al-Qadr is a holy night.

All nights of Ramadan are holy nights but Laylat al-Qadr is the holiest night of this holy month. It is also the holiest night among all other holy nights throughout the entire year. It comes only once a year and Allah Almighty grants to His most praised, most respected and most beloved servant Sayyidina Muhammad (s) this holy night, the Night of Power. About this night, God, the Glorious and Exalted said: 

In the name of God, the Beneficent the Merciful
Indeed We sent it [the Holy Quran] down on the Night of Power.
What will convey to you what the Night of Power is like!
Better is the Night of Power than a thousand months in that Night the angels and the Spirit descend by the permission of their Lord for every affair.
Peace it is, till the break of dawn.
[Quran, Chapter 97]

"Night of Power" is a very strange translation for "Laylat al-Qadr" but it attributes to it a good meaning: whoever may attain the blessings of this holy night should attain perfect power in his spiritual life. One can attain perfect power by means of this night because its value is more than one thousand months of worshiping. 

Every worship performed increases the spiritual power of people and in this night any worship is going to be valued as one thousand months of worshiping on any other night. It is condensed power. God, the Almighty, makes it a mighty night by placing in it such incredible power, making it a much mightier night than other nights. Allah Almighty says it is much more valuable than one thousand months of worshiping. That means Allah Almighty granted such huge power to that night. 

It is just such a mighty night which is highly respected and given such a high value by the Lord Almighty. It is so mighty that it is said that it is the most mighty night, that Night of Power. Allah Almighty puts in it power for His servants to come closer to His Divine Presence. In a short time a that great power adorns worshipers in this night and they may be able to penetrate through the entire heavens and reach the Divine Presence. 

People on this night are going to be on several different levels. No doubt we are on the lowest level, so we are hoping in this night to attain the honor and illumination granted in it. When we reach a higher level and as it is a holy night in the heavens as well, we will begin to sense something [of the great power being manifested] on this night. Whoever is at the highest spiritual level must be present for this night in the Divine Presence of the Lord. 

 

That appearance will occur in a matter of seconds, perhaps within a single second. Perhaps one second is an enormous unit of time [in comparison] to that moment. It may be more than a second or much less, but it is an instant in time when an appearance from Divine Presence is manifested to creation. When that Divine Appearance manifests (Ar. tajalli), no one will remain standing throughout the heavens and the earth. Everything falls into prostration, throwing themselves down in prostration for that moment. That manifestation of Divine Power--that Divine Light--appears, and whoever is prepared and who has also been invited to attend that appearance sees it and falls in prostration.

Everything in that moment falls in prostration (Ar. sajda): all animals--even ants, even elephants, even giraffes, even dogs--on that night they are not sleeping but are hurrying to make prostration on experiencing that divine manifestation. All trees-- even buildings--bow down in prostration and then rise up to their original positions. This is mentioned in Quran: 

And unto Allah falleth prostrate whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the morning and the evening hours. (ar-R`ad, 15).

and

Hast thou not seen that unto Allah payeth adoration whosoever is in the heavens and whosoever is in the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the hills, and the trees, and the beasts, and many of mankind, while there are many unto whom the doom is justly due. He whom Allah scorneth, there is none to give him honour. Lo! Allah doeth what He will.(al-Hajj, 18).

May God forgive us because we are sinners. Every few minutes, or even every few seconds we commit so many sins, thus we are in need of our Lord's forgiveness for the honor of His Most Praised Servant Sayyidina Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him. This holiest of nights is granted to him from his Lord Almighty Allah. In it all powers adorn him, all lights illuminate him and all angels come to him. the Archangel Gabriel comes to him, and he is dressed with countless honors on this holy night. The angels ask forgiveness [from Allah for people] for the sake of the master of humanity (Sayyid al Bashar), to the Owner of creation (Rabb al-Ka'inat).

For his honor, may God forgive us and take away our bad states. May Allah change our conditions from bad to good and change everything in us to be for His Sake. May we be good servants, obedient servants, beloved servants, respected servants, praised servants. Try to be servants such as this. For that reason, attend humbly to worship on that night as our Beloved Prophet (s) directed us: 

"Whosoever offers voluntary prayers during the Night of Power out of belief and expecting from Allah its reward will have his past sins forgiven." [Bukhari and Muslim]  

Now I would like to pray the Prayer of Recollection (salat ul-tasabih) to express a little bit of praising from our side to glorify our Lord Almighty Allah. That glorifying Allah Almighty in salat ul-tasabih consists four cycles of prayer (raka'ats) in which we are glorify our Lord 300 times by saying "Glory be to God, all praise be to God, there is no god but the One God Allah, God is Most Great!" (Ar. "Subhanallahi wal hamdulillahi wa la ilaha illa Allahu wa Allahu Akbar."  

May Allah Almighty glorify His beloved and most praised servant, Sayyidina Muhammad (S), and may mercy from His endless mercy oceans fall on you, and fall on our descendents, and fall on our ancestors, fall upon east and west, and may its blessing fall upon all from North to South, upon all oceans and upon all continents. 

Allah Allah...Karim Allah...Aziz Allah...Subhan Allah...Sultan Allah Oh our Lord You are the only Sultan. Raise up Your Work and bring down the work of destructive disbelief and evil which seeks to harm Your human beings and all other creations by means of a destined appointed and authorized sultan from your Divine Presence. 

Bihurmat al habeeb wa bi hurmat al fatiha.
[for the sake of the Beloved, for his sake we recite the Opening Chapter of Quran]

Waiting for Ramadan

Bismillahi Rahmanu Rahim

Ramadan is approaching. What are the practical steps that can be taken by Muslims to prepare themselves for this blessed month? 

Here are some special advices from Sheikh Ahmad Kutt (Allah be satisfied with him).

Allah Almighty says,(The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion (of right and wrong).)(Al-Baqarah 2: 185)

Every Muslim should prepare himself to welcome the blessed month of Ramadan by strengthening his relationship with the Qur’an, busing himself with the spirit of fasting, and recharging his spiritual battery to prepare himself to make the whole blessed month of Ramadan a real occasion of sincere obedience.

Ramadan is an event that occurs in the life of the faithful, as individuals and as an Ummah, once a year. It is intended by Allah to help us to recharge our spiritual batteries and thus prepare us for the great mission of realizing His will on earth. Therefore, in order to benefit from Ramadan, we may do well to prepare for it by opening our hearts and minds to embrace it. Let me offer a few tips:

1.We should empower ourselves by learning as much as we can about the precise laws as well as the benefits of fasting.

2.We should ensure that we gain true benefits from our fasting, let us make sure to realize the spirit of fasting: this can only be done by abstaining, not only from food, drink, and sex, but also by strictly restraining our minds, hearts as well as our eyes, ears, hands, tongue, and so on.

3.We must embrace the spirit of fasting as stressed in Hadith: to be charitable and compassionate as much as we can.

4.We should strengthen our relationship with the Qur’an; for Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an.

5.We should engage indhikrand condition ourselves to make it second nature.

6.Last but not least, we should build up our community through acts of charity and compassion and extending help to those in need as much as we can.

Let us pray that we come out of Ramadan with our faith recharged, gaining strength in our faith and commitment and relationship with Allah.

Untitled

It is very important to tell your friends what you think and correct their errors. This attitude springs from compassion and is the greatest service that you can bring to your friends. But this way is extremely difficult. It's easy to find strengths and weaknesses of a person and tell him what you think. Many people think they are good if the others say things that others find unpleasant or difficult to speak. If they are not listen and respected, they believe there is nothing to do. But this attitude is unworthy. It's like making someone ashamed, gossiping about him/ her.

If you want to tell someone what you think, you have to see first if the person is available to listen. Therefore, you should start by approaching her, waking her trust in you. Aboard those issues that the person likes and look the best time to talk, so to be well understood. Think well before acting and decide if maybe it would be better to communicate in writing what you said, or before a moment of separation. Praise his/ hers qualities and use any way to encourage it, perhaps speaking to them about your own flaws without being back to his, so to realize which ones are his.

Act like you give water to a thirsty man, and so your opinion will correct mistakes. This art is really difficult. If a person has defects as an old habit for many years, it will certainly not correct. I personally lived the experience. A great vassal evidence of compassion is when he lives in friendship with his comrades, helping them correct their mistakes and put in unison to serve their master. How can you expect someone to turn for the better if you make that person to feel ashamed?

Accept me with simplicity! Accept them with simplicity! Accept yourself with simplicity!

You must be careful to do not to let yourself manipulated by any person, whatever are the intentions. Listen only to your heart. It is your inner teacher.  

People around you have always judged you, and you have automatically accepted their ideas. You suffer from all these judgments, which at your turn turn, you throw over the others. But this is totally unnatural and mankind suffer from it. 

If you want to not be trained in this game, the first condition is not to judge yourself.

Accept yourself, humbly, with imperfections, failures, mistakes, weaknesses. No need to pretend otherwise. Be simply yourself and tell yourself: "I'm afraid, I'm afraid of the dark nights. I'm afraid to walk at night in the woods." What is wrong with this? It's something human.

Once you accept yourself as you are, you'll be able to accept others too, because you will realize that they suffer from the same disease.

And the fact that you accept the others, will help them accept themselves in return.
We can reverse the entire process: you accept yourself and this will make you able to accept others. And because  they are accepted by others, they know for the first time the beauty of acceptance - they experience this state of peace and begin, at their turn, to accept the others.

If mankind reaches the point where everyone is accepted just as it is, 90 percent of all unhappiness will just disappear by itself. This unhappiness has no basic and your hearts will be opened by itself, your love will pour over others.

The Destiny

During a crucial battle, a general decided to attack, even that his army was far outnumbered by the enemy. He was confident in victory, but his men were filled with doubt.  

On the way to the battlefield they stopped at a shrine. After he prayed with his soldiers, the general pulled out a coin and said:
"I'll throw this coin now. If the head will come out, we will win, if it will be Tails, we will lose. Now it's the moment that destiny shows to us. "

Said and done! He threw the coin into the air. All were looking forward to see what fate has decided. Head was out. Soldiers were relieved. Boldly they attacked the enemy and came out victorious.

 
After the battle, a lieutenant remarked: "No one can change destiny!"

"Indeed" replied the General to the lieutenant and he showed him the coin. It had the head on both sides.