Seeking the Night of Power in the Sacred Mosque

MECCA. From the Kaaba, a blessing of prayer goes out to the world. You feel to the marrow of your bones how the cries of those servants who come running to this blessed place, the first house of worship built on earth for people by God, saying in answer to God's call, "This house is Your house, this servant is Your servant; You called, and here we have come, command us!", change the world, the perception of the world, and the approach to the world.

In the last ten days of Ramadan especially, people at the blessed Kaaba are seeking a blessed time. They are trying to catch that time. That night could in fact be any night of the year, but the Messenger of God said that it is very likely to fall within the last ten days of Ramadan. For that reason, he and his companions generally spent the last ten days of Ramadan in seclusion in the mosque (itikaf), trying to meet that night in a state of worship.

Just think: even God's Prophet was not given certain knowledge of that blessed night... (According to one narration, this time was made to be forgotten by the Messenger of God.) Of course, the wisdom in this has to be reflected upon at great length. To be left longing for a particular time. For a night better than a thousand months to be hidden for a whole year, and to be obliged to seek it...

This is, in fact, a tremendous warning that being a Muslim is not an opportunity, a rank, a right or an attainment secured in one go, but something one must continually earn.

Hasn't this always been the reason for the downfall of earlier generations, of the so-called "chosen nations"? Nations that saw themselves in a position where, whatever evil they might do, they would never cease to be God's beloved servants gradually began to behave like God's spoiled children and took on airs of absolute superiority over other people. This feeling by itself is sufficient reason for God to take back the trust.

So that the same thing should not happen to Muslims, God willed to subject them to a special training. By making even His Prophet forget the exact knowledge of a blessed night, the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr), better than a thousand months, the night in which the Qur'an was revealed, God shows mercy to His community, and wills to tell them that they cannot be saved merely by performing a good deed or two, or by performing certain acts only on a certain day or night. Nor does He stop there; He trains them in this direction within an intense discipline.

Perhaps this situation reflects one of the most important characteristics of Islam as a religion: never being in complete security before God, relying on one's own deeds. Islam is a religion in which no one bears anyone else's sin and no one can save anyone else. Individual responsibility finds its magnificent expression in the Prophet's words to his own daughter Fatima, "Take care, even I cannot save you." Performing good deeds is very important, but one must not rely even on them sufficiently. For one must constantly try to remain vigilant against the danger of ostentation (riya), hidden polytheism (shirk), or other motives that may seep into these deeds without a person being able to notice it.

There is no guarantee for this vigilance either, in what we are aware of and what we are not... How aware can a person always be of their own states? This is a tension that, whichever way you look at it, can never be resolved. A tension that cannot be resolved by a few acts, a few litanies of remembrance, a membership, a closeness. This tension drives a person to supplication.

Supplication drives a person to constantly examine themselves, to know themselves, and in the meantime to know God, and to know their place. It is hoped that never being in complete confidence of salvation, but of course never being in despair either, will ensure a perfect balance of fear and hope (khawf-raja). Without our supplications we truly have no worth before God. Supplications, especially those the Prophet made, each of which is a separate lesson for all Muslims, magnificent supplications that make God known, and that explain to, show to and make a person feel their own place before God...

With this awareness, in Mecca, at the Kaaba, the entire last ten days of Ramadan are being met as if they were the Night of Power, even if it is assumed that this night might in fact not fall within these ten days.

For that reason, during the last ten nights, in addition to the tarawih prayers, which are performed with the complete recitation (hatim) of the Qur'an throughout Ramadan, night prayers that begin at 1 o'clock and again last nearly two hours, also with a complete recitation, are performed. In these prayers the famous imams of the Kaaba, Abdurrahman Sudais, Dr. Maher al-Muaiqly, Abdullah Awad al-Juhany and Ibrahim al-Shuraim, alternate, and each with his own style and maqam, their magnificent Qur'an recitations carry people from state to state. In the witr prayer performed after the night prayer there is a supplication by Sudais in which you feel that all the veils between you and God have been lifted. Although its content changes every night, the oppressed throughout the Islamic world, especially those in Syria, Palestine and Myanmar, are never left out of the supplication.

Among the Muslims gathered here from every corner of the world, whose numbers comfortably exceed one million, there is a complete consensus of feeling and opinion on Syria. For that reason a distinct and fervent participation in the supplications offered for Syria is immediately felt. Frankly, these days hearts are beating for Syria at the Kaaba too.

The time of the Night of Power has not been made precisely known, but there is a view that it falls mainly in the last ten days of Ramadan, and even more so on the 27th night. Because this view is accepted in Mecca as well, within the last ten days the 27th night is revived in a special way. Within the last ten days, especially toward the 27th night, the crowd grows greater and greater, turning into a throng of the Day of Gathering, no less than that of the hajj season.

On top of this crowd, the fact that the summit of the heads of state of the Islamic countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is convening precisely on this blessed day in Mecca, right next to the Kaaba, gives it an altogether different meaning. You read some of my impressions yesterday. Today all I can relay is the 20-minute supplication, which penetrated the soul, of Sudais, who led the prayer at the end of the night prayer for the magnificent crowd of the Night of Power. Part of the supplication was for the leaders of the Islamic world gathered on this blessed day in this blessed place:

"May God guide the leaders of the Islamic world to the right path. May He place affection for one another in their hearts so that the Islamic world may unite and become one body. Give them the strength and will to make Your religion prevail. In the work they will do for the good of their own peoples and homelands, may God show them the right way and help them. May He make the decisions they will take for the deliverance of our oppressed, wronged and downtrodden brothers in Syria, Palestine and Myanmar and everywhere in the world blessed and well-aimed."