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The meaning of Ramadan & the Taste of Laylat ul Qadr (The Night of Power)
There are two ways to look at religion, and in fact at existence and all that is in it, including our life and the very meaning and definition of our self.
One way is the human perspective, based on our abilities to generate understanding. The other is what we may call the Divine or Qur'anic perspective, God the Creator's point of view.
The reason why we seek this second perspective is because the first perspective is insufficient. When we examine life and ourselves from the Divine point of view we get a more complete and self-consistent picture of ourselves, our life, our meaning and purpose in life, and in fact of everything in life.
Looking at an example that brings out this difference, let us ask the question: "What is a human being?" the human response is "He is a creature evolved out of the sea, physiologically a warm-blooded mammal, most similarly related to the apes but with a thinking and creative mind; he is a social, gregarious animal, needing to live in communities."
From the Divine point of view, man is the earthly receptacle, container, or repository, of the Divine Spirit (ruh), an earthly creature given a special highly exalted trust and mandate by Divinity Itself, (the amanah).
Comparing the two, we find that the human description defines us physically, socially and anthropologically, while the Divine description defines us spiritually and intellectually as the earthly representative of Divinity (khalifah). The human definition is an outer description, lacking any purpose more than to eat and drink, sleep and reproduce, like the rest of creatures are impelled to do. The Divine definition is an inner description, focused on a clearly depicted purpose and intent for mankind. The difference is remarkable, not only in the philosophical sense, but experientially. When you meet a person who only knows his self in the human sense, and compare his impact upon you with one who knows himself in the Divine sense, you find that the latter's impact makes you want to either get closer to him and be more like him, or run from him as quickly as you can, depending on your inner spiritual configuration and inclination.
Now let us apply this approach to the question, what is Ramadan?
From the human point of view, we can define the month of fasting as the ninth month of the Hijrah calendar, the month in which we avoid food, drink and sensual pleasures from dawn till sunset. This definition gives us a positive definition of Ramadan's sense of purpose, prompting us to step back from the worldly definition of a human being, from the creaturely instincts of eating, drinking and reproducing, to a different, hopefully Divine perspective. From the Divine perspective, Ramadan is the container in time of laylat il-Qadr. The spiritually sensitive soul resonates with this definition, because it speaks to that part of himself that recognizes that he is the container in space, time and matter of a breath of the Divine spirit. The human definition of Ramadan is a time when we step back from the imbroglio of worldly life; the Divine definition of Ramadan is one where Allah draws Himself closer towards you; the Divine ruh descends accompanied by the angels to embrace your affairs and welcome you to a very special contact with the path of Divinity: Tanazzala-l-mala'ikatu wa-rruhu fiha bi-'idhni rabbihim min kulli amr. This is the meaning of the hadith qudsi where Allah says that "all the deeds of man are for himself except for fasting, it is done for My sake and I will reward it." It is as if Divinity Itself is personally involved in the act of rewarding. This also sheds light on the Qur'anic statement that laylat ul-qadr contains more good than a thousand months. The personal involvement of the creator of the heavens and the earth in rewarding you is a far sweeter experience than a thousand months of personal effort on our part.
What is the taste of laylat ul-qadr?
We know that Ramadan has a certain flavor, a unique taste; it is not a taste on the tongue of our body, but a taste that we savor in our soul. This taste is the clue to laylat ul-qadr; it is the flavor and experiential modality of Ramadan. If we liken Ramadan to a cup of hot water, then laylat ul-qadr is analogous to a tea-bag in the cup. By drinking it, you are tasting the tea, not directly, but dissolved in the water. It is perhaps difficult, if not impossible, for most people to directly taste tea by chewing tea leaves, but by drinking the beverage they are really tasting the essence of the tea in a more assimilable form. The same applies to Ramadan. By fasting the month of Ramadan we get to taste the beauty and power of the essence of laylat ul-qadr in assimilable form.
So do not despair. I used to stay up all night on the 27th of Ramadan, or the last ten nights of Ramadan, expecting a July 4th special of spiritual fireworks, to be zapped on the head and come out the next day a saint of some kind. And when it did not happen I wondered what did I do wrong. I interpreted the Qur'anic verse that laylat ul-qadr is better than a thousand months quantitatively, i.e. to mean that two rak`ats of prayer in that one night is equivalent to a little over 83 years of such prayer. But if I interpreted the verse qualitativelyæand there is no reason not to interpret it soæthen it is impossible to reach its equal. For certain qualities are not additive; while three men each half as strong as a fourth man can overcome him, two people half as intelligent as a third person cannot even equal the third. So if the power and grace of laylat ul-qadr is better than one thousand months, or 30,000 days and nights, then it means that even one thousand months' worship lacking this quality cannot match an act of worship performed with the quality of laylat ul-qadr.
Now what is this quality? It is a quality of the inner state. It points to a maqam (a spiritual state) in which two rak`as of prayer are better than 60,000 rak`as done in a state that lacks this connectivity with Allah. The radiance of Divinity lit in a human heart that was hitherto in a state of darkness, or a qualitative increase in this inner radiance and luminosity transforms our worship towards a state of qurb, or uns, an intimacy with God that fills us with a tremendous practically palpable sense of peace. This is the peace that is described in the final verse of surat il-qadr: salamun hiya hatta matla`il-fajr: Peace until the rising of dawn. It is a peace that strengthens, that calms and soothes, that empowers and directs. You taste this peace in Ramadan when you fast, and feel your soul filled with a sense of tranquility.
One way of understanding this is to re-visit our commitment in bearing witness to Muhammad as the Messenger of Allah. Again we can apply our approach to penetrating deeper into the meanings of this shahadah. At the human level, when we make this shahadah, this bearing witness or confession of Muhammad as God's messenger, what we have done is to make a commitment to try to follow his sunnah as best as we can. And we do this by praying the way he did, fasting the way he did, etc. The inner, or Divine, definition of bearing witness to Muhammad as Allah's messenger means that we try to make the value of our prayer, fasting and other acts of worship, including our inner luminosity or radiance, to equal his. This is our ideal, and it is a far taller order.
When I ask people if their two rak`ats of prayer are equal to two rak`ats prayed by the Prophet, nine out of ten answer immediately with a resounding No! Although quantitatively equal, they feel that their salah is not equal to rasulullah's. But the next question is: How can you make your salah more like rasulullah's? And how can you gauge this difference?
Here is where the Qur'anic description of laylat ul-qadr helps. When the Prophet prays, or performs an act of worship, we may accurately say that he is praying from the maqam of laylat ul-qadr. Therefore the value of his worship is better than a thousand months (83 years) of another person's worship that lacks the content of this state. In order for us to access that value in our worship we have to learn to access this state.
Now we understand another hadith of the Prophet, in which he says: "Many a fasting person gets nothing from his fast except hunger and thirst, and many a person who stands the night [(qam al-layli) meaning doing the qiyam or tarawih prayer at night] gains nothing from it but fatigue." Note here that what gives value to an act is the state with which we perform it.
To make our readings of the Hadith more transformative to our behavior, it is helpful to imagine what it must be like in the company of the Prophet and his companions. Imagine him making this statement. Immediately we realize that he is talking about somebody, perhaps one of us sitting in the audience with him. We would wonder, "Am I one of those the Prophet is referring to?" Feelings and looks of embarrassment would be felt in the mosque when the Prophet made that statement. The Prophet was always polite, and never liked to embarrass people, but he made his points very clearly, and you always knew when the Prophet was talking about you. Applying this hadith to our behavior, not only once in a while but whenever we fast or pray, it is helpful to judge whether we performed well or less than at our peak, and then work hard to make it not apply. Work hard to make more of your prayer have value, more of your fast to have value, essentially to make more of our acts of worship originate from a state of laylat ul-qadr.
And how do we achieve it? By softening our hearts to remembering Allah.
Another point about laylat ul-qadr is when it actually occurs. People debate as to whether it falls on the 27th or the 29th night of Ramadan. As to its original historical occurrence with rasulullah, that is one question, which we will leave alone, for that is not relevant to us. The Prophet urged us to look for our own experience of laylat ul-qadr, and in some ahadith he affirmed that some of his companions experienced laylat ul-qadr in the first ten days of Ramadan. He however recommended for most of his followers to look for it in the last ten days of Ramadan.
What these hadith tell us is that laylat ul-qadr is less "out there" in the realm of time than it is "inside of you, as a state of being, a state of spiritual enlightenment and accomplishment." There are two measures of time; external time and internal time; there is the day in the calendar, and there is the day in your own being. Your concern is with the intersection of these two measures of time. Your life has a beginning and an end. When you die, you will be given a foretaste of the Day of Judgment; and for you it will be as real an experience as the Day of Judgment when all the souls will be arraigned together. Your curiosity as to whether the Last Day will occur in the year 2000 or the year 4000 is irrelevant to you; your last day is when you die; that is relevant to you, and that is what you have to prepare for. (The Prophet answered an Arab bedouin who came asking for when the Last Hour occurred by asking him in return: How have you readied yourself for it?)
Similarly, you must look for your own experience of laylat ul-qadr, not the so-called public day of laylat ul-qadr. Just as your birthday is yours and not everybody else's, your own event of laylat il-qadr can happen, according to the ahadith of the Prophet, any day in Ramadan. It is your very own laylat ul-qadr, and has nothing to do with its being the 7th or the 27th day of Ramadan. And as you fast, the joy of fasting, the joy of Ramadan, is the joy of laylat ul-qadr. It is a happiness of proximity to Allah, of disconnection with your animal self; a disconnection from emotional peaks and valleys, from excessive happiness or deep depression, of emotional anger or joy, it is a raising of your consciousness to a higher level, of knowing the lightness of being, of being connected to your Creator in an essential way.
Have you ever asked yourself: why are we commanded to fast during the day, and not at night? And why is it the Night of Qadr, and not the Day of Qadr?
From Allah's point of view, time is all in one plane. Unlike us, Allah is equidistant from all moments in time. Thus our fasting during the day, and the fact that it is a Night of Power is not because of Allah's reality but because of our reality.
When you fast during the day, your nights become more alive; your senses are keener at night. The interplay of fasting during the day and breaking your fast at night creates within you heightened sensitivities. Your sleep patterns are interrupted; the distinction between sleep and awake states of consciousness are deliberately blurred to some extent. Why? To prepare you for a re-connecting with your Creator. Laylat ul-qadr was historically the moment of connection between Allah and Muhammad. Out of this contacting moment came the final revelation of Islam, and the unfolding in history of a tremendous movement. If we were bats or owls, sleeping during the day and foraging for our living at night, we probably would be commanded to fast at night, and would have had a Day of Qadr. Just like God answers the unbelievers who wanted an angel to come down to them, that if you were angels walking on earth, He would have sent angels as messengers to us.
Before laylat ul-qadr, Muhammad the man was just an honorable citizen of Makkah. But after his own experience of laylat ul-qadr, he was transformed into rasulullah, and khatama rusulillah, God's Messenger, the seal of Prophets. And he was given the Qur'an. His impact upon human history is immeasurable.
This is an example of what happens when God contacts Man. When Allah contacts you, and you have tasted your own laylat ul-qadr, you too will be given a mission; and it will not usually be easy. You too will have to perform a hijrah of sorts, from one state of inner jahiliyyah to a state of submission (islam), you may have your life threatened if you do not emigrate to another place or country, and will be brought to ever higher levels of consciousness and awareness. Your emigration may not be necessarily from one place or country to another, it may well be from one state of being to another, from one employment to another. The Prophet's emigration transformed him from being just a Prophet to a Head of State, to a Prophet-King. As challenging as it was, it resulted in his ability to transform all of Arabia. He executed his human role of khalifa of Allah at the greatest height of human accomplishment.
It is one of the greatest gifts of Allah to us, that he vouchsafed for each and every one of you the ability to have his and her own taste of laylat ul-qadr. This is the moment of contact between you and Allah, from which will unfold your contribution to the spiritual heightening of human consciousness, in which also lies your own peak performance of your role as Allah's khalifah.
This higher awareness, this evolution of your soul from one state to a higher one, is what feeds the quality of your acts of worship, this is what makes it more valuable in the eyes of Allah.
Laylat ul-qadr gives us the clue. When you fast, and you feel the joy of fasting, and you break your fast; you say to yourself, how delicious is this date and this glass of water, how delicious is this piece of bread and this piece of cheese. This is your taste buds saying Alhamdulillah! Your body says alhamdulillah, but is your mind and your will also saying alhamdulillah? If it is not, then you are spiritually fragmented, and your taste bud's saying alhamdulillah is thwarted by your will. But when your will is fully blended in with your subconscious being, then you are empowered to articulate an alhamdulillah that reaches the Divine Throne.
Our aspiration is to live a life in which all our actions are worthy of being conveyed to the Divine Throne, and fasting in the month of Ramadan is one of the tools we have to make our actions so. This is part of the inner meaning of the hadith that in this month the gates of heaven are opened wide, and those of hell chained. This hadith does not mean that those who wish to enter hell cannot do so, or that you cannot sin in Ramadan. This hadith expresses Allah's intent, or desire, to forgive more souls in this month, and to make it easier for us to receive Allah's mercy. You are acquainted with the hadith where Allah declares that.
Ramadan is therefore the intersection of "outer time" and "your inner time." Ramadan is not defined by a season of the year of winter or summer, it rotates throughout the seasons. Ramadan is partly defined by our fasting. If no human being fasted, then Ramadan would not exist in the sense defined in this hadith. It is therefore the fact of your fasting that chains the gates of hell, and opens wide the gates of Paradise.
May we all be worthy to enter Paradise by the gate of Rayyan, the gate vouchsafed to those whose fasting is accepted by Allah. Amen!
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