The Third of six Discourses on Safar,
2nd August 2008,
The Jumu’a Mosque of Cape Town, South Africa
We are taking the theme of Safar, and our first examination was looking at the journeys the great Prophets took in the past, in their fulfilling their task allotted to them by Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, as Messengers and Prophets. Then we looked at the Safar of time itself, and how we found in the Qur’an that there are two times referred to: the time inside the universe – the time that we understand, the time that is over events – and then there is the time of Allah which is, of course, in the Unseen, and is not measurable because Allah is, and nothing is associated with him. Nevertheless, He has indicated that He has times and these are moments of unveiling when the Unseen makes appear in the manifest great events like the investing of a man with the position of being a Messenger of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala.
Now we are going to look at the Safar of the Qur’an. For this we shall turn to Surat al-Qadr (97):
In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful
Truly We sent it down on the Night of Power.
And what will convey to you what the Night of Power is?
The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.
In it the Angels and the Ruh descend by their Lord’s authority
with every ordinance.
It is Peace – until the coming of the dawn.
Ibn Abbas and others have said that it is a Madinan Surat. We will now see what Ibn ‘Atiyya says in his famous commentary:
The pronoun ‘hu’ in “Anzalnahu” refers to the Qur’an, and the meaning is not explicit.
Ibn Abbas and others have said:
Allah sent it down entirely on the Night of Power to the lowest heaven.
The lowest heaven is what is called As-Sama’ ad-Dunya – the worldly heaven.
Then Ibn Abbas said:
He gathered it with Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, over twenty years.
The Hadith of Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, says: Seek for it in the last ten nights of Ramadhan.
Sayyidatuna ‘Aisha, radiyallahu ’anha, said, “I fear within myself the sending down of the Qur’an and the Night of Power.”
You must appreciate what this means. “I fear within myself the sending down of the Qur’an”. When you reflect that in the Qur’an there is the defence of Sayyidatuna ‘Aisha, so there was sent down the Qur’an which contains in it that defence of Sayyidatuna ‘Aisha before the unfolding of the event which led to her being accused and exonerated by Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. Therefore she understood, from a Ruhani point of view, the immensity of this Revelation, because she was the proof of it.
It is a night that Allah has distinguished and made better than a thousand nights. Ibn Abbas and others have said:
It has been called the Night of Power because on that night Allah determines deaths, provision, and all occurences in the world, and He informs the Angels of it.
Az-Zuhri said:
The Night of Power is immense and the honour of it is immense.
Abu Bakr al-Waraq said:
It was called the Night of Power because it is unique. There has not been anything like it. It has a great place with Allah. The Night of Power is in the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramadhan.
Malik said:
It means the last nine nights, starting with the twenty-first.
Ibn Abbas and a group of the Sahaba said: It is the twenty-seventh night.
Ibn Abbas also said:
The Rizq is determined on the twenty-seventh. On that night the provision of your life is determined.
Ibn ‘Attiya said that the Rasulullah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said:
One who observes the Night of Power with Iman and accountability, Allah will forgive his wrong actions.
Truly We sent it down on the Night of Power.
And what will convey to you what the Night of Power is?
The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.
In it the Angels and the Ruh descend by their Lord’s authority
with every ordinance.
Ibn ‘Attiya says that the Ruh referred to is Jibril.
It is Peace – until the coming of the dawn.
Ash-Shabi al-Mansur says that “Peace” here means greetings from the Angels to the Muminun. So it is a Divine event where the Unseen world appears and manifests itself to the Muminun. Peace refers to the night of the twenty-seventh. It is very interesting because Ibn Abbas, who is full with these enormous secrets and insights as you know, because of his closeness to Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said:
This word ‘Peace’, is the twenty-seventh word in the Surat and this is the evidence that that is the night on which the Qur’an was sent down.
Of course, “Until the coming of the dawn” means that at that point the matter ends.
This descent, this journey, according to Hadith, was to the nearest heaven and from there into the heart of the Messenger. Now let us look at Surat al-Waqi‘a (56:75):
And I swear by the falling of the stars
This word ‘Nujum’ is the word that is used to describe this descent of the Qur’an into the heart of the Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. This indicates the intermittent flashing of the lights of the descent from the heavens into the heart of Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. So this journey never ceases as long as tongues recite the Qur’an silently and aloud.
Now look at Surat ad-Dukhan (44:1-6):
Ha Mim
By the Book which makes things clear.
We sent it down on a blessed night –
We are constantly giving warning.
During it every wise decree is specified by a command from Our presence.
We are constantly sending out as a mercy from your Lord.
He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.
Do you see the importance of the word ‘Kuna’? Allah is saying: “We sent it down,” and then He says that “We are continually sending it down.” Do you follow? This is the whole point! “We are continually sending it down.” “We sent it down on the Night of Power and We are continually sending it down.”
Now go back to Surat al-Qadr and look at the fourth Ayat:
In it the Angels and the Ruh descend by their Lord’s authority
with every ordinance.
What you are required to understand of this is that the Qur’an was sent down on the Night of Power, but that Allah is continually sending it down, “With every ordinance,” with every command. This descent has two elements: the Divine Command, and the pure servant. The Command, to be received, requires a pure heart, thus the entering of the descent, the Revelation, is the arrival at a pure heart. On the Night of Power it descends into the heart of Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is that not true? Also, every time someone recites the Qur’an – this event that has come into the world – aloud or silently, there is a descent into that person’s heart of the Qur’an. Do you see the immensity of this situation?
The descent is unified as Qur’an and it is distinguished as Furqan. So it is a Ruhani event of the gatheredness of the Qur’an and at the same time it is a Furqan, as it gives distinguishing, particular illuminations to the one whose heart receives it and whose tongue then speaks it. Now look again at Surat ad-Dukhan (44:1-8):
In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful
Ha Mim
By the Book which makes things clear.
We sent it down on a blessed night –
We are constantly giving warning.
During it every wise decree is specified by a command from Our presence.
We are constantly sending out as a mercy from your Lord.
He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing:
the Lord of the heavens and the earth
and everything in between them,
if you are people with certainty.
There is no god but Him –
He gives life and causes to die –
your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers, the previous peoples.
The fourth Ayat of this is:
During it every wise decree is specified.
Thus it is a Qur’an and it is a Furqan. It is both a gathered, Ruhani event, and it contains in it discrimination – particular references and guidances in matters of this world. It is known among the Awliya and the Salihun that certain of the Elite have spoken Ayats, never having learned the Qur’an. It is said that Abu Yazid of Bistami, before his death, knew all the Qur’an by heart, no-one having taught him by the normal methods. The Qur’an journeys in its descent continually and ceaselessly, as we have seen from the words of the Qur’an.
The memorisation of the Qur’an by Abbas does not pass that memorisation to Zayid. The memorisation into one heart does not pass it on to another heart. It only enters that heart which is prepared for it. When the master gives the student an Ayat, it descends into the heart of the student from the heart of the master, and the student retains it. If the heart of the student is distracted, the Qur’an, again, has to descend on the teacher that it may again descend on the student who then is ready to receive it. The Qur’an is alive. The Qur’an is in perpetual descent, following the Messenger having received it in its first primal descent. If someone says, “Allah has sent down the Qur’an on me,” he is not lying, for the Qur’an travels ceaselessly to descend on the one who retains it.
This is what we are dealing with in this matter of Qur’an. This is why the kuffar do not understand why we have this intensity and passion for the Book of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala.
In the Divine Revelation, as it was sent down on the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, Jibril was instructed to teach him the Adab of the slave in transmitting the Message of the Rabb. In other words, the Messenger himself had to be disciplined into this matter of letting it out, not to anticipate the moment of letting it out. Look at Ta Ha (20:114):
High exalted be Allah, the King, the Real!
Do not rush ahead with the Qur‘an before its revelation to you is complete,
and say: “My Lord, increase me in knowledge.”
“High exalted be Allah, the King, the Real!” This first statement is an exaltation of Allah, the Supreme Power. The second is: “Do not rush ahead with the Qur’an before its revelation to you is complete.” So you see these two coming together.
This event involves the man – being Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam – and receiving the Message. It is man and his reality that IS the incomparable Qur’an. From his own presence, to the Divine Presence, its hiddenness is the Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power. Each descent of the Message on the Rasul is therefore the Haqq of that moment. That moment’s reality is Allah Himself. When one of the Sahaba told the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, that he found himself that morning truly a Mumin, Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam replied:
“From every truth, the Reality.”
If you found that in your experience, then it is a Divine event. It is Haqiqat.
We go to Surat al-Qalam (68:4):
Indeed you are truly vast in character.
Of course, the word ‘Khalq’ in Arabic is much more rich in meaning than ‘character’. Khalq is, in itself, a term of the created form of something. So Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, is saying: “You are truly on a tremendous form.” Now, Sayyidatuna ‘Aisha was asked, “What was he like?” and she replied:
“His Khalq was the Qur’an.”
So the form of Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was the Qur’an itself. So the form of the Qur’an was the man, and the man was Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam.
