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The Night of Power: Do You Have An Ambitious Plan?

By Deana Nassar

-The Night of Power-
Every Ramadan and without fail, I feel saddened that the month speeds by quickly and every year I find myself in the last ten days

A study by WHO has revealed that 71 years was the average life expectancy at birth of the global population in 2014.

A quick calculation reveals that converted to months this would be equal to 852 months.

Given these numbers I was pushed to think of the last ten days of Ramadan which were approaching where, as Muslims, we’re promised that one of these ten nights will be Laylat al-Qadr, The Night of Power, which is described in the Quran as better than a thousand months in the beautiful verses:

{Indeed, we sent the Quran down during the Night of Decree. And what can make you know what the Night of Decree is? The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months.} (97:1-3)

Wow, better than a thousand months; meditate, contemplate and reflect what a blessing.

A night where all our sins will be wiped clean off the slate; a night where we will be forgiven; a night which is equal to 1000 months of good deeds if we benefit from it and worship.

I remember years ago as a child, my father taught us of the beauty of Ramadan explaining that the first ten days of the blessed month are the days of mercy, the second ten days are the days of forgiveness and the last ten days are to seek refuge in God from the hellfire.

Pondering on the inherent logical sequence of the above, we cannot be exempt from fire without first being forgiven and to be forgiven, we must be graced by God’s mercy.

I recall all too clearly how devastated I was when my father told me that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was made to forget the exact time the Night of Power after it was revealed to him, when he saw two companions arguing and he intervened to clear their differences.

He informed his followers however that the night would be on the eve of an odd numbered night.

“Did the companions have to argue?” I innocently asked my dad. “Now we will never know”. I was distraught.

There is a reason for everything he said, adding I will understand when I am older.

Every Ramadan and without fail, I feel saddened that the month speeds by quickly and every year I find myself in the last ten days, surprised, anxious and bewildered wondering where the month went. Did I waste the days and nights busy with worldly accomplishments, busy with my children or work or have I pushed myself to the limits?

I for one admit I may have slackened and am saddened with regret promising every year that this is the last year I will fall back on worship. I promise myself I will step up to the plate and raise the bar higher and become a better practicing Muslim as I was nurtured to be.

Born and raised in Australia, my parents worked extra hard instilling in my siblings and I the beauty of worship. They taught us that although we may feel we have sinned too long and too badly or fell short during this month to ever be accepted by God, we should not believe it.

Our sin is never too great, and the hour is never too late. We were taught to make up for whatever shortcomings we had during the month on this special night.

Luckily for us as Muslims, we are blessed with the knowledge that God really is All Forgiving. We know that God loves us no matter what and He loves us no matter what we did or who we are. But this doesn’t mean He wants us to keep on doing the stuff that drags us down from the life that we need to live on in preparation for the life after.

Preparing for these special days, we can ask ourselves what we really want from God. Make a list of each and everything, no matter how small or how big it is, whether it deals with this world or not. God loves to hear from us.

Once this list is ready, we can ask Him to give us those things, we can think about what actions we have taken to acquire those things, and lastly we can develop a work plan to get those things in future; consider it a night of power workshop if you will.

As mentioned earlier, the last 10 days are a chance to reflect and evaluate ourselves. There comes a time when we need to ask ourselves those questions that need to be asked.

Do an evaluation of where we are and where we are going. Let this evaluation lead us to feel happiness for the good we have done and remorse for the bad we have done. This latter feeling should make it easier to seek God’s sincere forgiveness when making the supplications we talked about above.

Aisha, the wife of the Prophet, once asked the Prophet, if I am able to worship God on the night of power what do you recommend I do on that night?

The Prophet advised her with this following supplication:

“O Allah, You are forgiving and You love forgiveness, so forgive me.” (At-Tirmidhi)

We were taught that God looks back and sees how far we have come during the month. He never calculates our progression on our passion. He calculates our progression on the scale of the intention to improve and to change and in the process we ask for forgiveness.

How to Get Prepared

We have acknowledged the significance of the night. Now what?

How can we prepare, after all 1000 months as WHO previously confirmed is longer than the average life span and we wouldn’t want it to go to waste. Imagine one night of worship equal to 1000 months or 83.3 years.

Make a Checklist

The end of year exams finally over, I asked my children to make a ‘to do’ checklist for each night since the Night of Power could be any of the last 10 days of Ramadan. The list I told them should define how we would like our night, the one better than a thousand months, to be used.

The list will help us avoid wasting our time in unproductive chats which are common in the festive atmosphere of the Night of Power especially for my youngest who retrieved his cell phone which I had confiscated in order that he study for his tests.

Jokingly, he said he will use all his might to supplicate to God that the people marking his exams overlook his mistakes and that his scores will be high enough to enter the college he has dreamed about for years. I looked at him and made a private prayer that his prayers are answered so that I can say “see I told you so.”

I used his example of hoping the markers overlook his mistakes outlining that with God we can go one step further and ask forgiveness and have it wiped off the slate of our sins.

The Night of power is truly sacred. I also made a prayer that he and my other children received the Godly rewards in order that they enter Paradise, for me as a mother, this was much more important than his college. But then again priorities change with age.

While worldly wishes are good as well, my ‘to do’ list tried to focus on what was significant for myself and my family and learnt that forgiveness or maghfira is the best blessing to ask for. When we ask for thiswe are asking for God to cover up our sin for us and to protect us from the effect of our sin. We ask Him that even though we committed that sin, that He not punish us for it.

Upgrading our supplication we can ask for afw, which simply means we are asking God to completely erase the sin, such that its traces are also removed. This means that our slate is literally wiped clean and there will be no questioning for those sins on the Day of Judgment.

It is good to know that we are responsible for all our actions. The fact that we may have fallen short does not, as we initially thought, mean we messed up totally; it is an opportunity in these days to get back up onto our feet again, if we accept the forgiveness of God and move on from the past we will continue in good deeds and worshipping long after the month is over.

Remember this is a night of ambition where we don’t simply ask for forgiveness, but for removing even the traces of our sin. It is when we ask for a clean slate. When God tells us about afw in the Quran, it is usually with something major as if to tell us, there is no sin too great. It can all be wiped away.

Strive to awaken the heart of your spirit and in turn awaken meaning to life. When the heart begins to thrive, doing good deeds becomes easy, and desires become unattractive and even disgusting. Do not give up on yourself, because God has not. And know that even in this state, you are beloved to God and He wants you close. A worthy scholar once narrated:

“If you were to open the heart of the disobedient believer, its light would blind the universe. What then of the obedient believer?”

These last ten days I have made a conscientious decision to close the door to the past and stop beating myself up for what I did or did not do then. I won’t make my limitations and weaknesses in Ramadan my memories.

Our past may be our worst, but we can make the present our best. We must stop regretting not doing well enough in terms of worship when we are given the opportunity to be able to keep on moving. Learn from our past, don’t live in it.

Years along and my father long gone, I understand his lesson now when I was teary eyed because we didn’t know the exact day of the Night of power.

He said to me then, when something is hidden, it is a sign of its value and those who truly understand this will work to find the hidden treasure in this night and that is why we are advised to work and prepare for it.

Deana Nassar is a published writer, and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, but freely left a promising career to be a stay-at-home mom. As a mother of four, in her home she’s the sole expert on all things related to marriage, children’s psychology, motherhood and creative survival.

Source: OnIslam

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