Sadullah Khan – Developing a Qur’anic Personality To be and What not be. #25

Tonight is one of the probable nights of

power, Leila Qadr,

and today is also

designated as International Quds Day

in solidarity with the struggle of people in

Palestine and elsewhere.

And therefore, I wish to read a not

give a talk necessarily,

but use the opportunity of a reflective piece

that I wrote

on one of the nights of Qadr

regarding the night of power and the situation

of the Muslims in the world. And I

thought it appropriate that I may read it

here tonight on one of the nights of

power.

I

sit pensively in front of my PC,

my modern day column,

trying to capture my thoughts

and shape in words the echoes of my

heart.

Words may be mere symbols,

but they do carry meaning.

They express feelings,

and they convey ideas.

Through words, we are able to communicate

with one another,

understand

experiences of each other,

shape expectations of one another,

and even relate our dreams and aspirations.

Through these words,

I relate to you.

I am humbled by the silence of the

night,

confronted by the turbulence of my soul,

how through the words of the Almighty,

Surely in the long wake of the night,

the soul is most receptive.

The soul is most receptive

and the words are more effective.

There is perhaps a higher purpose

behind Allah's choosing the night

for the commencement

of the final revelation.

It's not Yomul Qadr, it's Leiratul Qadr. Allah

chose a night.

The night is indeed conducive to quietness,

to serenity,

to calmness,

to peacefulness

and tranquility,

suitable for the nourishment

of the soul.

I reflect on the most auspicious of all

knights,

the night of power, the night of majesty,

the night of grandeur, the night of dignity,

the night of destiny, and the night of

determination.

A night greater than a a 1000 months.

A night celebrated by Muslims throughout the world.

A night of historic significance

marking

the commencement of the final divine communique from

the divine.

A revelation

that affected the nations and their destiny. It

affected the fate of nations and their

forever.

Forever.

The rising of the dawn.

Implying

that the realization of the sanctity of this

night

could act as a shield against all forms

of things that are unsavory,

unpleasant,

or improper.

Allowing those who live by what was revealed

on this night to experience tranquility

and harmony with peace of mind.

I cannot but help and reflect on the

condition of those who commemorate this night with

me all over the world, my Muslim brothers

and sisters.

Images come to my mind.

Images that grip the very essence of my

conscience,

shaking the core of my being in the

darkness of the night.

Images of images of the refugees of Afghanistan

in Syria,

of the poverty stricken in Somalia,

of the abused in Kashmir,

Uighur in China, the Rohingya in Burma, of

the homeless in Palestine, the orphans in Chechnya

and Yemen, and those who are humiliated in

India.

Yes.

They too belong to my faith tradition.

They too commemorate the night of power and

the night of peace,

but they have neither power nor peace.

They are believers who are neither safe

nor are they secure.

They are living in degradation,

bearing the brunt of Muslim subjugation

and Muslim

disunity. They cry

exasperated cries of desperation

while enduring

the obscenities of history at the hands of

oppressors.

I reflect on the night of power.

Those it empowered,

the once powerful,

now powerless Muslims.

Once the bearers of the torchbearers of civilization,

now the victims

of global injustices.

Never in the history has a community of

faith been so displaced,

so victimized

on such a large scale as the ummah

has been in the last 63 years.

The fact that over 70%

of all the refugees in the world at

present are Muslim,

bears testimony to that fact.

All our collective mechanisms of religiosity,

our attempts at spirituality,

and our claim to intellectualism,

all of these are unable to cover the

ugliness of the absence of power.

Not the power to conquer or the power

to rule,

merely the power to at least safeguard

the innocent

amongst our

own. How we long for the fruits of

the night of power.

How we long for the fruits of the

night of power. Per

chance, if we reconnect to the source of

power,

we could insha Allah be re empowered.

Just a reminder to the Jamah that tonight

there will be