إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِى لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ
“Indeed, We sent it down (Holy Quran) during the Night of Decree.”
Surah Al-Qadr, 97:1
“The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months.”- Al-Qadr, 97:3
A thousand months! SubhanAllah! That is more than 83 years, the entirety of a well-lived human life which many of us don’t have as a life span these days, yes more than 83 years. SubhanAllah! Allah Al-A’zeem -The Exalted is telling us, one night, made luminous by the descent of His words, outweighs a lifetime of ordinary nights. The angels descend in multitudes in this night, and also Jibril (a.s). The command of every matter for the entire year is decreed. A night became the greatest of all nights because the Quran came down in it.
And in Quran we read,
شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِى أُنزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْءَانُ
“The month of Ramadan- the one in which the Quran was revealed…” Al-Baqarah, 2:185
Notice how Allah Al-Hakeem (The Most Wise) defines Ramadan. The month in which the Quran was revealed, in the same ayah, Allah ta’ala says – Quran which is هُدًۭى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَـٰتٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْهُدَىٰ وَٱلْفُرْقَانِ (ۚas a guide for mankind with clear proofs of guidance and the decisive authority.)
Identity of the the month of Ramadan by association with the Quran. That is how significant this connection is. AllahuAkbar!
Ramadan became the most sacred month in existence not because of its own inherent qualities, but because the Quran descended in it. A month became the most honored of months- because the Quran came down in it.
Laylatul Qadr is given as a gift, one night of sincere worship equal to more than 83 years. But the gift was not merely a night. The gift was The Book. And the Ummah that received that Book was given a title directly from Allah ta’ala.
كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ
“You are the best ummah produced for mankind…”-Aal Imran, 3:110
خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ.
The best Ummah. Not because of race, region, language, or ancestry. The ayah continues immediately, because you enjoin good, forbid evil, and believe in Allah.
The Quran gave this Ummah its mission. And by giving it that mission, it elevated an otherwise ordinary collection of human beings into something with a purpose, to be witnesses over mankind, to carry the final message, to be a mercy to the world.
The Quran touched this Ummah, and it became the greatest ummah in human history.
Whatever the Quran touches, it elevates. The night, The month, The ummah.
SubhanAllah! But what happens when the Quran’s elevation is accepted as a title, but not as a responsibility?
What happens when people recite the words but do not live by their guidance in personal and collective lives? When they memorize its letters but ignore its commands?
The answer is not theoretical. We are living the sad reality, and repercussions of it.
The Ummah today, on a collective, structural, systematic level has abandoned what the Quran came to guide and build.
The night is elevated because the Quran came down in it. But the night does not carry the Quran forward. We do, but we are not doing it on collective levels.
Collective elevation requires collective carrying, the Ummah was not merely given the book to recite in private. It was given a civilization-building code, a complete system for how human beings ought to organize power, wealth, justice, family, and society.
Laylatul Qadr has not lost its greatness. The angels still descend. The peace still radiates until fajr. The decree is still set. The mercy of Allah Ar-Raheem is still without limit on that night. The night is fulfilling its side of the covenant.The question, the only question that matters after we understand the pattern of Quranic elevation is whether the Ummah is fulfilling its side?
The Quran elevated a night. It elevated a month. It elevated an ummah but conditionally. The condition was never ethnicity or heritage. The condition was always carrying-enjoining good, forbidding evil, believing in Allah with actions and not merely declarations.
When we seek Laylatul Qadr this Ramadan, let us not only seek forgiveness for our private sins. Let us sit with the deeper reckoning, what has our collective abandonment of the Quran’s guidance cost the world and us? What oppression has been conducted in Muslim lands by Muslim hands? The night was elevated by one descent of the Quran. The Ummah was elevated by a lifetime commitment to it.
Laylatul Qadr is the reminder. The night of the Quran’s descent is the annual invitation to re-enter the covenant. Seek it in the last ten days of Ramadan, especially in the odd nights. Weep in it. Ask Allah Al-Ghafoor for forgiveness in it. And then, carry The Book. Because the world needs what the Quran came to offer. And we are still the Ummah that was trusted to deliver it.
May Allah Al-Wahaab grant us a Laylatul Qadr that changes not only our nights, but our lives, the societies, the world!
Ameen ya Al-Mujeeb.