Ramadan is a command. We are commanded by Allah, and we are commanded by the Prophet Muhammad (saw).
Allah gives us the obligatory directive in Suratul Baqara 2, ayah 185
…So whoever of among you who witness the month, should fast…
In sahih Bukhari, Prophet Muhammad (saw) Hazrat Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated that the Prophet Muhammad ordered
, "Search for the Night of Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan."
A search is a pursuit, a quest. What is our quest as Muslims – to get closer to Allah. To be under His shade on the day of decision. We seek to obey Him and perform acts of ibadah that are most pleasing.
Allah, Ar-Rahman, created the human being and nurtures our existence through His Mercy. During the last few days of Ramadan when the prophet Muhammad (SAW) received those first words of revelation, Allah reveals His Grace, His Benevolence and the Blessings He bestows upon all of creation.
We fast so we can learn Taqwa. When we truly have taqwa - that reverence of Allah that’s so sincere and so deep that the thought of doing something displeasing to him feels us with anxiety and fear – then we seek lailatul Qadr with sincerity and humility.
Taqwa is an anxiety that emerges from within the very essence of us our humanity, our fitrah – that innate natural construction of us as human beings. That fitra that makes us incline towards honoring and loving the majesty of Allah and obeying whatever He commands of us.
As we seek out the Night of Decree, we refer to those first few words of revelation with understanding, humility and reverence
Read, declare in the name of your Lord, the one Who created
He created man from a clinging substance
Read, and your Lord is Most Generous
The One Who taught by the pen
Taught man, what not he knew
Suratul Alaq 96:1-5
The first word Read is a command. Allah is commanding the prophet Muhammad (SAW) and He is commanding us to read, meaning to learn, comprehend, understand, recognize and know. Know what? Know and understand that we must declare. Declare what? Declare, meaning to acknowledge, announce, confirm, insist and proclaim! Recognize and acknowledge that it is our Lord, Allah, Who Created.
Created is a global statement. Allah says He is the one who created – everything – the universe and everything known to man. Then the ayah becomes specific and Allah explains He created us, the human being from a ‘clinging substance’ referencing the human being in our most humble state.
In the next ayah, we are commanded again to recognize that Allah is Most Generous and He has taught us what we didn’t know before. Before Allah taught me – we didn’t know of Allah and His Majesty and Mercy. But through Islam, he taught us this in the way that we can understand – by the pen – by the knowledge given in a path understood by man.
The last ten nights, those nights in which we seek lailatul Qadr is also the ashra in which our ibadah gives us salvation from the hellfire. Ramadan is our salvation. It is during Ramadan that our deliberate and sincere acts of ibadah draw us closer to Allah and move us away from the darkness of man’s unnatural desires and evil inclination.
If we’re not close to Allah – what are we?
If we are not close to Allah, what are we close to – each other, idol worship, the whispers of the evil one? Why would we want to be there? We don’t. And Allah, The Most Generous – Al-Kareem, created everything, and He created us. Allah created us for His love and He loves us. In His abundant Mercy, he gives us life and the components of life we value – our families, our community, our salah, the jumaah payer, Ramadan itself and the ability to perform acts of worship.
In Suratul Baqarah, after Allah commands us to fast, He reassures us of His Bounty and Grace.
And when My servants ask you, concerning Me – indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided.
Suratul Baqara 2: 186
“I am near” is a statement of indisputable fact followed by the additional fact that Allah responds to us in our ibadah.
There is nothing that should incentivize us more to increase our ibadah and seek the night of Decree, that night that is better than 1,000 months or an 80+ year lifetime – than knowing that as we seek the Night of Power – Allah responds. He hears our supplication. He listens to all of us who praise Him. There is no one or nothing closer to us than Allah and there is no one or nothing that offers a response greater or more important than what Allah, The Most High in His Mercy, guarantees.
Allah, in His infinite Generosity gives us annual renewal of a concentrated effort to move toward the tranquility of submission that comes from being close to our Lord. As we search for the blessings of lailatul Qadr and the peace and content bestowed upon the believers that night, let us come with enthusiasm, patience, humility, sincerity and Taqwa.
With reverence comes a shyness as seen in this journal entry from an adolescent Muslimah in 1980:
” I felt shy for anyone to see me seeking the night of power, I only wanted that nearness to Allah.”
Author bio: Mahasin D. Shamsid-Deen is the news curator and content manager for Muslim Network TV (MNTV) and contributing writer for Sound Vision. She holds a Master’s degree in English Writing and has worked as both a High School and College ESL Instructor and Writing Instructor for more than a decade. Mahasin has numerous published articles, books, essays and is a published playwright with three award winning stage plays. She is currently writing her dissertation for her doctoral degree
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