Praying during Laylat al-Qadr
I had not been keeping up with the prayers like I used to. Tonight it was like something I really felt called to do. Tonight begins the 27th of Ramadan, known as Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power. Every year that I've prayed on this night, I feel a big difference in the spiritual ambiance. It feels like the night is suffused with light everywhere, like all space is filled with angels, and every breath, every movement and stillness are a profound blessing. The feeling is simply extraordinary, like the usual weight of the world has been lifted, and existence itself feels transformed into a better version of what it could be. Maybe if you be still and tune into spirit on this night you'd notice it too. In part I must be picking up on the extra devotion of hundreds of millions of Muslims all praying on this occasion-- but I like to think it's also something more-- a special blessedness as a divine gift of love to the universe.
Verses 97:4-5 of the Qur’an, the original source of Laylat al-Qadr, have always held a specially evocative feeling for me, which describe the nature of this experience so vividly as well as helping it to arise:
تنزّل الملائكة والروح فيها بإذن ربّهم من كلّ أمر
سلام هي حتى مطلع الفجر
The angels descend and the spirit, during it, by their Nurturer's permission, concerning every matter. Peace it is, until the rising of the dawn.
(my translation, keeping the unusual syntax of the original)
Every time I overcome my shiftlessness and pray, I'm reminded how deeply I love this feeling, this closeness and wonder why I don't do it more often. But then too I recall how in almost every waking moment I feel the nearness of the divine and how comforting the loving presence is deep in my heart... for me, formal prayer, salat, is a concentrated focus on this... but it has grown to pervade my entire existence even when I'm not trying for it. Thank you, Allah.
Verses 97:4-5 of the Qur’an, the original source of Laylat al-Qadr, have always held a specially evocative feeling for me, which describe the nature of this experience so vividly as well as helping it to arise:
تنزّل الملائكة والروح فيها بإذن ربّهم من كلّ أمر
سلام هي حتى مطلع الفجر
The angels descend and the spirit, during it, by their Nurturer's permission, concerning every matter. Peace it is, until the rising of the dawn.
(my translation, keeping the unusual syntax of the original)
Every time I overcome my shiftlessness and pray, I'm reminded how deeply I love this feeling, this closeness and wonder why I don't do it more often. But then too I recall how in almost every waking moment I feel the nearness of the divine and how comforting the loving presence is deep in my heart... for me, formal prayer, salat, is a concentrated focus on this... but it has grown to pervade my entire existence even when I'm not trying for it. Thank you, Allah.