Lailat al-Qadr is the Night of Power or destiny.  It is the night in which the angel Jibra’il first brought the revelation of the Qur’an to Muhammad (saws).

(Surat al-Qadr:97)

 

inna anzalnahu fi lailat al qadr – Indeed, We have sent down this message on the NIght of Power. wama anzalanahu fi lailat al qadr – And what will explain to thee what the Night of Power is? Lailat al qadri knayrun min elfee shahar – The Night of Power is better than a thousand months. tanazalu al mailaikatu wa ruhu fiha ithni – The angels and the spirits descend thereon by the permission of their Lord, rabihim min kuli amrin – with His decree for every affair. salamun hiyya hata matlye al fadjr  – It is peace until the coming of the dawn.

Sidi talks about Lailat al-Qadr in several chapters in Music of the Soul.  I will include them here. The first one is called, “Special Time Special Place Special Person.”

bismis’llah ir-rahman ir-rahim

 In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Every year there is a special month called Ramadan (the month of fasting) and in each Ramadan there is a special night.  This special night is the Night of Power (Lailat al-Qadr). When you reach a high station and pray all night in the month of Ramadan, this night is better than a thousand months.  This night is special for the student who walks in the way because he lives with God.

When you learn how to pray on the outside and on the inside, you know the words and the meanings and how to walk in the way and to go through all the stations, then you are Lailat al-Qadr.   Why is this night so special?  Because all the holy books of all the prophets from Adam to Muhammad and everything that came from God was given on this night.  God sent the whole message and the message was completed on Lailat al-Qadr, from the beginning to the end.  But when you walk in the way, every night must be Lailat al-Qadr – every night, you know!

At the end of Ramadan, there are three special days in which all Muslims feast (‘id al-fitr) commemorating the end of the fast.  The people on the outside do not know what it really means.  When God gives you all that you want, and you reach and come to know everything, then you are deeply happy.  This is the real feast on the inside.  But on the outside when Ramadan ends, the people want to be happy, so they eat and dress in their new clothes, etc.  When you know all the meaning in the way, this is not necessary.  He gives you what you want and you sit with Him face to face, soul to soul to be Him.  This is the true feast!  When someone is given new clothes, that is like something to keep a child happy.  But when God gives you what you want, He makes you a special slave for Him, then this is the real feast!  On this day you are born many times.  Your body is born, and your heart is born, and you are born full of strength.

The second big feast is when all the people are on Hajj. This is the ‘id al-adha. All the pilgrims, dressed in white clothes, gather on the mountain of ‘Arafat on this day.  Here on ‘Arafat you are a special person at a special time in a special place, and you can receive a special secret of how to be the mountain, and you can receive the guidance to be the holy rock for God.  Then you can reach.  This is the other holy feast in reality.  After that, you do not need anything because you are He and He is you, and there is no difference between you and Him.  You live with Him all the time, but there are few people who know this – only the family of God.

The same way God  made two feasts, He made two special nights each week for the family of God.  The people from the outside also say this is a holy night, but they do not know in the same way that the family of God knows.  Thursday night (the night of Friday in the Arabic moon calendar) is a special night because God sent the order to make the earth on this night.  He made Adam from the beginning to the end on this night.  He sent all the prophets and everything was revealed on this night.  Therefore this night is holy.  And why is Sunday night (the night of Monday) so special?  Abraham was born on this night, and the people put him in the fire on this night.  God gave Noah the order to build the ship on Sunday night, and He brought Moses out to the desert on this night.   And Muhammad was born on this night and he died on this night.  Every one of these stories is special.  This is why Sunday night is a holy night.

When God puts the fragrance in the rose, everyone who smells this fragrance can feel what this fragrance is. But the human being does not own the fragrance.  Where is the fragrance from?  When there is fragrance with a person, it is there only because God put it there.  This fragrance is the truth.  God says that if you search, you can find this truth.  Yet few people know this truth – only the family of God – and so they are this truth.

Everything is in the truth.  You can find the deep love in the truth, so be polite with the truth.  Be the mercy and be the peace in the truth.  Everything is very holy!  It is from the message of the family of God to bring the truth into the world.  But know that God makes this truth because He is the truth and you are the truth.  This is what He wants you to know, but you must be born and born again, and walk in the way.  Then you will know everything of this holy truth.  You can be the holy rock for Him and the holy cave for Him.  You are everything.  But to find this you must know that God has a special place and a special time for a special person.  What is the special time?  This is the special time!  What is a special place?  Jerusalem is a special place.  Mecca is a special place.  Every place where the fuqara lives is a special place.  Faqir is the Sufi and fuqara is from al-Qur’an (47:38).  “God is the Rich and you are the poor (al-fuqara).”  Another place is the rock.  There are more and more.  But really you are the special place when you know the truth.  You are the special place because you are this rock now.  This mountain is a special place because it contains everything.  You have everything also, and He wants you to break your mountain to bring the light from inside your mountain to everyone because this is your light (from your heart).  And God wants you to send this light.  The meaning of this light is the mercy and everyone needs this mercy.  This is the special place!

Who is the special person?  The prophet is the special person and after the prophet, the guide is the special person.  The guide lives for the family of God and the family of God lives for him.  He sends the mercy and he gives the religion.  He gives everything for all the people.  But know what this family means.  If it were not for this family, you would not see anything in the world.  You would not see plants; you would not see animals; you would not see water.  You would not see life if it were not for the family of God.  This is the wisdom.  You are!  You cannot ask why.  When He loves you, can you ask Him why He loves you?

This is from your chance when He loves you.  This is what He wants.  Thank Him for the love when He puts you in this place because He wants you to be a special slave for Him.  Thank Him and remember the name.  You do not need to pray for Him, you need to pray for yourself.  When you pray, you change and walk and reach.  What do you reach?  You reach the knowing of your deep self.  What do you want after that?  You want to live all your time in the station of al-itlaq.  There is no being and there is nothing, only He.  Then you live in deep happiness.

No one is like you, only He.  There is nothing, only God.  This is your chance.  Keep with Him all the time.  “O my God, keep me sitting with You, soul to soul, to know Your face all the time.”  Ask Him to send mercy to everyone.  You can send this mercy when you give everything to God.  Allah!

This next excerpt from Music of the Soul is called “Laila (A Letter from Our Shaykh).”

“Laila is the Shaykh on the Night of Power.  This is a message from the shaykh to his murids from the heart of the soul of the eternal night which is greater than a thousand months.

My eye, my holy eye, who sees me in the eye of the heart of the soul continuing to sing on the holy night of Lailat al-Qadr.  When I begin to pray and to remember with the special remembrance, from the beginning I am with your spirit, and all this night you sing with me the song of the prophet David, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, which he sings to our Beloved Allah. You live inside my heart , and for this reason I am sending this letter to explain what is inside my heart about you.  Understand that you are Laila, not another because there is no other, and you are beginning to give me the wine from your cup.  This cup is filled with knowing, but the knowing is different than before.

You stand between the figures as the dance begins.  This dance is different from before because everyone has lost his body, heart, and soul on this holy night, returning to be One; not face to face, but only He.  You are, and this is what I mean about you.  Continue on your way, do not stop. Do not lose any moment, because your life is full of the essence of the deep secret love (al-‘ishq) of Allah who made you to be special for Him and Him to be special for you.

In this moment, I hold all my clothes and all my veils.  I am without anything, only the deep, deep essence of my truth when I see you go through me and make the holy marriage with me on this holy night.  This is what your Beloved wants you to be.  Then in this moment, in your real life, in my life, you change the night to day.  You change everything to be me and there is no one, only Me, in all this world, my holy Bride.  In this moment, every one of your holy brothers and sisters is newborn, to be like you in everything and there is nothing.  This is what I mean.  You are Laila, and there is not another in all this world, only you, my Beloved Laila.  Do you understand what I mean, my spirit?  I drink from your spring the essence of my ‘ishq and inside this spring is the essence of my life, and this life is for anyone who wants life.

This is also what I mean when I say, “Help me to know how to help yourself after you go through me to swim in the secret of my ocean.  In this ocean there is all that anyone needs.  When he washes in this ocean he can realize what he yearns for.”  But after that, when you return to the dunya, keep what I gave you on this night. Then you change everyone around you, because you are the fragrance of your father who gave you all the blessings in every direction.  Everything around you needs the blessing and you are the blessing.

Lailat al-Qadr – this is more than any language of speaking and more than any feeling.  No tongue can describe what I see on the holy night of Lailat al-Qadr.  If you know Who is then you are Lailat al-Qadr, if you live in me in every moment.  Your Laila becomes day, and this day has no beginning and no end.  This is the life for you.  You sing and everything around you sings with you, the angels, the jinn, and the souls of the prophets and guides before me.  Then you live in the real peace and the real mercy.  This is what Allah wants for you – to send what you take from your beloved father, who gives you his life, to be like him in everything.  This is your way in the world.  The way is full of all that the people need after you understand how to be in this life all the time.  When you understand how to give, then all that you see in this world really comes from you, not from another.  You give the holy food to your children around who need this food, because they have been wanting to eat for such a long time.

My beloved, understand that your water is from His water, and send this water to every tree and to every bird and to everything.  Then you will see that everything becomes like you, and sings as you sing with a language that none can explain but you, because you are the bride returned again to be the real Eve, to give birth again to the real Adam.  The real Adam gives birth to the real Eve from the soul, not from the body; to return to Him, to the first world and to the holy path.  You are the path.  For a long time you have carried Him (your Beloved) inside you.  For this reason, you are crying and weeping, but not like the weeping you knew before.  This weeping is from the deep essence of the ‘ishq.  Then you are the first, and there is no first; you must give birth to Him every moment.

When you realize what I say, then you live all the time in the holy marriage.  This is what I want from you, my beloved.  Then you will understand how to find the real husband or wife in your truth, who would not leave you any moment.  And you could not leave Him any moment in this dark world.  Then you do not care what is around you, because everything around you is changed to be the Beloved.  If you understand what I mean, in that moment, I can say that you are the child of your truth.  There is no another, only you, because you have erased everything, and changed everything.  If you realize who is the real spouse after you have died in your guide, and you have died in your brothers and sisters.  He is your Beloved Allah, and in this moment there is no separation between He and you. What, after this, do you want?

This is my song for you; not only for you, but for everyone who is like you and who dances as you dance, if he can, if he goes through me, behind every word.  If he understands Who moves him and Who put him in this holy way, how can he sleep? Because he is the real oil in this world.   This world is a machine, and you are the oil in this machine.  This machine could not work without you; this is what I mean.  You are Laila in everything and there is no life without Laila.  Be Laila every moment.  If you are my child, be like me.  Then you can hear my voice in every voice which is beginning to sing.  Understand for Whom I sing; I sing only for You Beloved.  This is my life, follow me.  Do not stop.  Then you find everything in this world to be like you.   If you understand Who Laila is and if you look in the eye of the heart of your soul, you see only One.  Then you realize what your father has realized.  Allah!

Finally is a poem written about the Night of Power from Music of the Soul.

Lailat al-Qadr

The Night of Power

bismi’llah ir-rahman ir-rahim

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Every person here is the truth in God,

Like a garden of grapes,

She is the field, the grapes themselves,

The man who works in the field and the wine of purity;

She is the song, the singer, the note,

And the love which is given without asking for anything in return,

Or without holding anything in reserve,

She is the picture and the thing pictured

And the seer, inside and outside –

This picture makes me to flow up.

She is the truth, and the seeking for truth,

and the knowing of the truth.

You are the person who bears the secret names of God.

All of the secrets of the names have been put in you.

When you realize who you are, you will be the Qur’an.

You will be the word of God,

and the people will come to read you.

They will look to you with holiness

Because you are the speech of Him, which is ordered.

All the kings will prostrate themselves before you,

Before that which is given to you,

that which is hidden within you,

 That which you rent.

You are the fuqara,  the poor folk, the image of praying;

The revelation and also the receiver of revelation.

You are the quietness to give from Him to Him.

You are the poor – the picture of Him.

This is your situation when you are fired with love,

When you sleep so deeply, she is the waking of love,

You think you sleep, but you are awake always.

Turning, turning, turning around the throne of the most high;

Laila’s play is the dance of the deep secret knowing,

of the Muhammad soul;

The wine, the cup, the drinking, the drunkenness,

the great war, the victory, the wedding feast;

Laila on the night of Lailat al-Qadr.

Allah