The Special Night

Our Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said, "Whoever establishes the prayers on the night of Qadr out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah's rewards (not to show off) then all his past sins will be forgiven."
AbuHurayrah
SAHIH AL-BUKHARI
1.34
www.e-bacaan.com/artikel_lailatulqadar.htm




Since I was a little girl I have been looking for the special night of Lailatul Qadar. (You know the tell tale signs told to us of trees bowing, water turning into ice, heavy rain, fog and a host of other effects and signs).

Not late years, I have stopped.

You’d be wondering why, indeed.

Late years I have started to read in between the lines more so than ever.

(what I write here is a personal take, and by no means I am an expert on such a serious topic).

Reading the above hadith:

‘whoever establishes the prayers on the night of Qadr..’, this is the easy bit (Hmm..easy as in any physical skill that, once learnt it can be done, like swimming, squash, sewing).

‘..out of SINCERE faith..’, this is the hard bit (this is the intangible spiritual bit).

To be sincere, no matter any which way you look at it, it is HARD!

Being sincere, to me is the highest test on any human.

Perhaps the ONLY TEST!

As to be sincere involves great sacrifices.

The last thing God wants of us, is for us to want to do anything, just for the sake of scoring points.

HE wants us to do it out of our sincerity.

Let’s change the approach.

Let's get into the mind of a sincere person.

Now if one were sincere, without a doubt one would embrace humility. With humility, whatever good that one did, one would always feel that one could have done better. So one would endeavour to strive better and better and never for a moment thought one would deserve the descent of Lalilatul Qadar upon oneself, until one felt that one has done one's best.

With humility, one would always feel one has not done one's best and would continue striving in a never ending circle, so when can one ever for a moment expect Qadr to happen to one? One simply does not. Since one has such a thought, one would only busy oneself in discharging one's duties as best one could and leave the granting of rewards to HIM from above.

One would not dwell on how many points one made today, and therefore how many points one made for the week and the year. After all, how many points do we need to get the ticket to heaven? No one knows? Did we indeed get the points in any case? No one knows! So why dwell in an area of uncertainty anyway?

In any case if a deed was required of one, and being the sincere person, one would just discharge it:

without a thought as to what the reward might be
without worrying what are one's losses
without hesitation
without judgement
without expectation of reciprocal

..but foremost..with sincere thoughts of alleviating a fellow human of his predicament


This is the whole point.

One should just render help, the best one can, as and when help is needed. Just do it out of sincerity! (Did I just hear someone frowned, 'Ooh! That's hard!' Well, it is, my dear. That's why we are faced with all the problems in this world).

Another point, being the sincere person that one is, even say Lailatul Qadar did descend on one, would one tell?

One would perhaps not tell, for one fear of the possibility of embracing Ria’ (embracing useless pride, remember...(not to show off), second part of hadith above).

Well these are the reasons, I have stopped wondering when Lailatul Qadar would come my way as, first and foremost, I have to come to terms with issues of SINCERITY and not worry about the issues of scoring points.

The fact that our Prophet (peace_be_upon_him), did not remember which particular night Lailatul Qadr would happen, reading in between the lines, it is surely then, about us being true, being real and most of all being sincere on all nights perhaps?

Sincerity and the special night of Lalilatul Qadar come hand in hand, I would think. (Ooh! That is truly hard).

Well, this is my personal thought, and I do admit I am not an authority at all here, and even as I write, I am aware the issue of sincerity is the most trying of all.

As I said before, the physical part of the ritual (first part of above hadith) is the easy bit, but the spiritual aspect of any ritual (the second part of above hadith) is the real test, indeed.

I am myself wrestling with this spiritual issue of being sincere all the time.

Have a good rest of Ramadan, my dearest ones.



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