A living, thriving spiritual role model is a psychological and
emotional need of all human beings. For, humans are genetically programmed, as it
were, with an innate capacity to rise above their mundane self and seek to reach their Creator. Without the light
of Divine revelation and clear spiritual guidance and leadership in every age,
men are prone to fall into trials and tribulations, error and sin, evil and misdeeds.
As a religion designed and perfected by the Creator Himself, Islam offers the
possibility of meeting this easily recognizable, almost inherent quest of humankind for perpetual Divine guidance.
The appearance of a Mujaddid/ Muhaddith/
Muhyi-ud-Din /Khalifatullah/ Massih is indeed based on the glad
tidings vouchsafed to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) in this regard. Abu Hurairah (ra) narrated that the Holy prophet Muhammad (sa) said; “Allah shall raise for this Ummah at the head of every century a man who shall renew (or revive) for it its religion." [Sunan Abu Dawood, Book 37: Kitab al-Malahim [Battles], Hâdith Number 4278]. In its own
way, the appearance of a Mujaddid
to teach the Holy Book and to illuminate the Divine path confirms an enduring
practice of Allah the Most High- the
raising of His Messengers in every age, among every people, in every land.
The mystical phenomena of Divine revelations and the descent of the Holy
Spirit on the Night of Majesty (or Laila-tul-Qadr) is a theme with profound spiritual
connotations and has inextricable linkages with the appearance of a Divinely-raised soul in Islam. In his Friday
Sermon of August 17, 2012, Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim (aba)
of Mauritius offers an illuminating
commentary on the subtle, deeper meanings of Laila-tul- Qadr for
our times.
Read the Extracts from the Friday Sermon:
“
Surely We revealed it on the Night of Majesty; 
And what will make you understand
what the Night of Majesty is? 
The Night of Majesty is better than a thousand months.
The angels and the Spirit descend therein
by the permission of their Lord for every matter.
Peace it is until the emergence of dawn.”
(97: 1-6)
Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah the Almighty today, I continue the second part of my sermon which I started last Friday 10 August 2012 on the Night of Majesty (Laila-tul-Qadr).
As regards this
special night, Hazrat Ayesha (May
Allah be pleased with her) once asked the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) what
supplication she should make if she ever experience that extraordinary night of
grandeur, and this is the prayer he gave to her: “O Allah! You are the Forgiving and You love to forgive, so please
forgive me”.
Here, many
people infer from the expression “min kulli ‘amr” (for every matter) that on this night all
decisions for the following year regarding the administration and other affairs
of the world are determined. This deduction is not correct. Kul (every)
is a relative word and its application depends on the context or the situation
and covers only matters that are under discussion. For example, if on the
occasion of a feast it is said that all the people have arrived, it cannot mean
that all the people in the world are present there. What it means, in fact, is
that all the invited guests are present.
Similarly, when
the prophet of Allah Hazrat Nuh (upon him be peace) was given the following
command in the chapter Hud: “We (Allah) said: “Carry in it two of all things, a
pair”, it did not mean that he had to take a pair of all the animals on
earth, but the order extended only to those animals that he would need later
on. So here the expression “min kulli ‘amr” (for every matter) does not refer to all the matters of the world but
only to such spiritual blessings and favours which are pertinent to that
glorious and honourable night on which the Holy Quran was revealed.
Ar-Ruuh (the Spirit) refer to
those angels who descend with the word of Allah on the hearts of the righteous
infusing them with spiritual life. That is why they are called the Spirit. As
for the word “Salaam” it means peace and freedom from every kind of fear
or anxiety. In other words, everything that descend on that night is aimed
towards the giving of physical and spiritual blessings to man. Thus if we study
the Holy Quran which was revealed on that Night of Majesty (as I have explained
in my previous sermon) we shall discover that it contains a message of complete
peace, the chief objective of which is to save man from sin and evil, trials
and tribulations and make him attain a life of peace and tranquillity.
Therefore, if a
person derives the benefit of this night and through worship and strenuous
efforts towards goodness, he makes his heart worthy of spiritual blessings,
then it is inevitable that the angels will bring divine communication and
spiritual blessings to his heart with such force that his soul shall be freed
from the straight-jacket of sins and shall enter the sanctuary of peace. The
question arises as to why the angels descend only on the heart of the pious
human being. The fact is that it is always
the heart of the pious which receives constant divine communication and
spiritual blessings through angels as has been mentioned concerning it in the
Holy Quran itself: “Say: whoever is
an enemy to Gabriel- for surely he revealed it to your heart by Allah’s
command...” (2: 98).
This verse
proves that it is the hearts of righteous people that receive spiritual
blessings and divine communication (not any Zaalim
or Sorcerer). These divine communications receive through the agency of angels
through whom Allah inspires righteousness. However, those people whose hearts are
closed to spiritual blessings and who are under the sway of satanic forces will
find it impossible to receive angelic inspiration.
The literal
meaning of “hattaa
matla-‘il-Fajr” (until the emergence of dawn) is that the spiritual blessings of
that grand night extend till dawn. However, it also conveys a deeper meaning
and that is, that the peace and blessings that descend on the heart of man on
that night continue till the darkness of evil dissipates and heavenly light
suffuses the heart.
Laila-tul-Qadr is generally known as one of the odd nights of the
last ten nights of Ramadan on which the Holy Quran was revealed. But it has a
deeper significance for it refers also to the period of the prophethood of
Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) when the Quran was revealed. This period is
called night because at that time the whole world was shrouded in darkness,
misguidance and unbelief. It is also called Al-Qadr (the Majesty) because the Holy Quran, that
extraordinary heavenly book of divine guidance, was sent down to man, and the
Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), that incomparable guide, was
appointed on that night.
There can be no
doubt; therefore that our prophet’s
(peace be upon him) time was greater than a thousand months and superior to all
other ages. The Laila-tul-Qadr of the previous and also future
messengers after him cannot be compared to the actual Grandeur of his period of
prophethood when his life was the Quran and the Quran was his life. The
blessings that came to a believer for worship and religious service in that age
cannot be compared in any succeeding age. In this regard, the Holy Prophet
(peace be upon him) himself said that the recompense for giving a handful of
barley in that period far exceeded the reward one would get in a later age for
giving a heap of gold as large as Mount Uhud. This is because at a
time of great need, a little assistance merits greater reward than great help
later on when the need is not demanding.
In our Holy
Prophet’s (peace be upon him) time, Islam was faced with such monumental
difficulties and a calamity that the extent of the need for sacrifices by way
of wealth and lives is beyond description. I am not saying that such sacrifices
shall not be seen again, no; It shall be seen but only as a reflection of the perfection of that unique and great golden
era when the Best of Mankind (peace be upon him) lived on earth as the true and
special universal prophet of Allah.
So the reward
for the selfless service of those who sacrificed their lives and property for
Islam in that precarious time and never swerved an inch from the path of Allah
cannot be attained by those who came after when Islam had triumphed in the
world and Muslim had at their command great wealth and power. But whenever
the image of Islam shall be tarnished by the people who are Muslims in name
only and whenever the enemies of Islam try to eradicate the pure religion of
Allah from the surface of the earth, therefore the mirror image of the
perfection of Islam of the times of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) manifests itself once again to bring back the glory of Islam.
Our Holy
Prophet’s (peace be upon him) lifetime was the time when the angels and the
Spirit were descending on earth – on the one hand the Holy Quran was being
revealed and on the other hand the heart of the believers were being suffused
with spiritual life. For every act of sacrifice and selflessness there flowed a
constant stream of assistance and support – angels descended, faith was revived
and strengthened, hearts were invested with spiritual power and even in the
midst of all these dangers the message of peace was silently working its way
into the hearts of people to such an extent that eventually the dark cloud of
unbelief was lifted and the divine light of guidance spread its glorious rays
all over the world. Such glorious days shall come for Islam and this promised
victory shall be verily the victory of good over evil, the victory of Allah
over Satan and that of his allies.
In other words
a mujaddid’s dispensation extends on the average over a period of seventeen
years and the remaining eighty-three years are deprived, as it were, of a Mujaddid.
What a wonderful fact it is therefore, that the Mujaddid and Promised
Messiah of the last century and I are both recipient of the same blessings,
revelations and mission, that is, as Mujaddid (reformer of our respective
age), Khalifatullah (Caliph of Allah), Muhyi-ud-Din (Reviver of
faith) and Massih (Messiah).
As the time of
the appearance of a Mujaddid
is a trying time for religion and there is a crying demand for religious
service, therefore the reward for worship and good actions in this period is
correspondingly greater than in any other age, more so because sacrifice of
wealth and lives is called for. This is the time of a Mujaddid, Reviver of faith, a Khalifatullah of the fifteenth
century when Islam is beset by all kinds of dangers and attacks. There is a
preponderance of false creeds and the darkness of irreligion and misguidance
has overspread the earth. Therefore, for this reason, the descent of Allah’s
angels and his communication are respectively much more numerous and more
powerful now that in the time of any other Mujaddid and so, too, the
deeper knowledge of the Holy Quran and the inspired truths that have been
revealed. He comes in the mantle of the universality of the prophethood of the
Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to give the good news of Islam to all
souls of the world. A reflection, yes, but a blessed one for this era, for all souls living
in this age!
Therefore the
blessings of the Laila-tul-Qadr as our Holy prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him) himself has said in relation to this present age that a sincere Sajdah
(prostration) to Allah now will be worth more than years of worship in another
era. Thus, in this period of godlessness, to put religion above the world and
to sacrifice wealth and lives for Islam in these vulnerable times and to devote
oneself to the worship of Allah in this atheistic age will bring to the sincere
devotee more blessings than that people will receive in later times when the
need for sacrifices for Islam will not exist and when the oneness of Allah and
true knowledge of Him will be prevalent throughout the world. Insha-Allah.
Ameen.