Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem
Innaa anzalnaahu fee lailatil qadr
Wa maa adraaka ma lailatul qadr
Lailatul qadri khairum min alfee shahr
Tanaz zalul malaa-ikatu war roohu feeha bi izni-rab bihim min kulli amr
Salaamun hiya hattaa mat la'il fajr
In this Surah, Allah swt confirms about the revelation of Qur'an in Ramadan in a very special night as follows:
v.1 "Indeed we sent the Qur'an down on the 'Night of Decree'".
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After answering WHEN it was revealed, Allah swt introduces 'Night of Decree', something which no one was aware of before. So, by answering one question, Allah swt instinctly makes us ask the next question ie WHAT is the Night of Decree?
v.2 "And what can make you know what is the Night of Decree?"
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Before satisfying our curiosity of what this Night is about, Allah swt stops us in our tracks and questions us as to WHO can tell us about this Night?
Allah swt humbles us about our lack of knowledge about it and gathers our attention towards the next verses, for which we eagerly await to know what the Night Of Decree actually holds.
v.3 "The Night of Decree is better than a THOUSAND Months!" AllahuAkbar!
Not only is this a blessed night when Qur'an was revealed BUT it also holds the power of more than A THOUSAND MONTHS!
And look at the mercy of Allah swt, He didn't limit the blessings of this nights to ONLY a Thousand, but Allah swt says its BETTER than a Thousand!
Exactly how much?
SubhanAllah, only The Most Merciful will let us know on the Day Of Judgement where we will be rewarded for the ibadah we plan to do in sha Allah!
But is there anything MORE to this Night than what has just been said?
v.4 "The angels (malaika) and the Spirit (ar-Ruh) will descend therein by the permission of their Lord for every matter".
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Allah swt continues to describe this Night by saying that Angels descend to this Dunya by His permission, but there is one detail that is often missed in this verse!
Allah swt says in this Night, Angels descend BUT after already making the word "angels" plural to include ALL of them, Allah swt makes a distinction and says 'The angels AND the Spirit (ar-Ruh) descend'.
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Tafsir Ibn Kathir explains that a "Spirit" being made distinct from the rest of the group of the Angles, implies that it is an Angel different from the rest ie ar-Ruh (Spirit) here is used to denote Angel Jibreel (as)! SubhanAllah!
The Prophet (pbuh) saw Angel Jibreel (as) in His true form only twice and Aisha (ra) asked about His appearance, so the Prophet (pbuh) said:
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"I saw him descending from the heavens, and due to his tremendous size he filled what was between the heavens and the earth."
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SubhanAllah, other than the unimaginable size of Jibreel (as), from another Hadith, the Prophet (pbuh) has also mentioned that Jibreel (as) has 600 Wings!
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v.5 "Peace it is until the emergence of Dawn".
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The blessings, mercy and the Angles of Allah swt continue to descend upon the Earth until Allah swt commands the Sun to rise and then Laylatul Qadr will come to an end.
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It is truly a RARE and beautiful Night for if we could SEE the unseen, we would do so much more than we lazily do now. And since we can't, we often slack in our ibadah as we forget the reality and beauty of this Night!
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A Thousand Months is roughly ~83 years, which is more than some of us will live, so imagine being in the state of Ibadah for MORE than our entire lifespan!
SubhanAllah!
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We probably don't even spend 83 minutes in total from our day worshipping Allah swt, but just few hours of this blessed Night GUARANTEES us more than 83 years of worship!
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The Gates of Jannah are open, many Shayateen are chained and soon the Angels will descend, all we have to do is ACTIVELY SEEK this Night by worshipping Allah swt.
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So lets find a THOUSAND reasons to do Ibadah before we find ease in our poor excuses, since now only a few Odd Nights remain.
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Salah. Qur'an. Dua. Dhikr. Charity.
Everything multipled by MORE than 1000
So, how much do YOU want to gain?
O Allah, you are the MOST FORGIVING and you LOVE to forgive, so FORGIVE US!
Ameen!
References:
Tafsir Ibn Kathir Surah 97 v.1-4
At-Tirmidhi Vol. 5, Book 44, #3068
Sahih Muslim 174 b
