The other face of the Night of Power
So, from the very beginning I would like to pay particular attention to the fact that the phenomenon of revelation, the recipient of which was Muhammad in Hira cave at that historical night in 612, was “preceded” by the noumenon of another “sending down” tanzil that logically poses the question of the non-historicity of the Quran and of that fateful night.
Islamic tradition tells us that the Quran was initially revealed to Muhammad as entire word kalima jami’a before being “fragmented” in time “star by star” . This totality of the word is sent down to the Prophet precisely in the Night of al-qadr. How should we interpret this night though? The text of the Quran poses the same question:
“We have indeed revealed this (Message) in the Night of Power:
And what will explain to thee what the night of power is?
The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.
Therein come down the angels and the Spirit by Allah's permission, on every errand:
Peace! This until the rise of dawn!”
Obviously, this verse does not simply denote an explanation of the meaning of that physical fragment of time which we usually describe with the term “night”. In the minds of most Muslim believers, however, the Night of Power, as extraordinary as it is, remains a natural phenomenon above all. This rather limited interpretation of the Night al-Qadr is expressed in the traditional ways of its identification during the Holy month of Ramadan - the month when the Quran was revealed. There are number of ahadith by the Prophet Muhammad in which he pointed out that laylat-ul-qadr is to be found on an odd date in the last decade of Ramadan during the last third of the night. The Prophet mentioned several options – the 25-th, the 27-th or the 29-th Ramadan – but he never fixed a particular date. To those who asked insistently about the precise date he gave evasive answers and asked them to discontinue posing any more questions. The ahadith describe the Night of Power as a luminous night that is neither hot nor cold, which should be spent in a vigil as soon as the believer identifies it as the laylat-ul-qadr.
In the history of Islam there is no evidence that the Muslims anywhere in the world witnessed in great numbers the phenomenon of the Night of Power. How could it be otherwise if the very omens that the Prophet mentions cannot refer unconditionally to the physical aspects of the night?
If we compare the number of ahadith which deal with the topic of the Night of Power and the omens that accompany it, we shall find out the following: in spite of nuances in the separate ahadith, the aspects of laylat-ul-qadr that remain unchanged in all the texts are the facts that this Night comes in the last decade of Ramadan, on an odd date, during the last third of the night. This marked “oddness” should be reviewed through a more mystical prism, it should be analyzed from the perspective of the symbol without disregarding its purely sensory aspects. We could be helped here by texts, generated from another vision of the being – I would call it a vertical vision, according to which the Quran and most of the ahadith can be interpreted in a metahistorical order.
A typical example for such an interpretation is presented by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi in his “Meccan Revelations” al-Futuhat al-Makkiya:
“Allah Almighty descends in the last third of the night, which in itself is the topos of the “descent” of the True One into time and of His Attribute – the Quran”. The last third of the night, when God descends, is in fact the impenetrable secret al-ghayb of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or in other words the secret of Man. And because the secret is a kind of veil, like the night is a veil as well, this is why the last remaining third is called in this way. Furthermore, the humanness dwells forever in the hereafter, while the first two thirds pass away with the coming of the last third of the night when the True One descends and orders it to stay. This is such a night that no dawn can replace, a night which does not pass away but it only changes its states going from one home to another like the ordinary night which changes its position with reference to the sun from one place to another…”
After this refined interpretation Ibn Arabi adds a paradoxical comparison between the mysterious night and the brilliance of the Divine Light. The Night al-qadr acquires the features of the day for the believer as the darkness cannot annihilate its light and in fact just the opposite takes place. This is why, Ibn Arabi tells us, Allah calls Himself Light nur in the Quran. It is pretty obvious that laylat-ul-qadr is an extraordinary night within the framework of the natural, physical night. Some sheikhs of the external exegesis could question such an approach to the interpretation of the phenomenon, described in the Quran, and point out that it is an attempt at semantic deviation tahrif al-m’ana, distortion of the essential meaning.
Therefore, the Absolute Light is the other name of the Night of Power – the eternally luminous night when the Quran descends with a retinue of angels. Ibn Arabi describes this night as a child to heaven and earth which are symbolized by the first two thirds of the night respectively. Here we witness a powerful accumulation of symbols, layers of meanings and allusions. To this metaphysical and multi-dimensional description Ibn Arabi adds the figure of the Perfect Man al-Insan al-Kamil who is constantly born and represents the Quran itself. He is that mortal and at the same time eternal creature, which embraces both the high and low registers of being. The final chord, though, echoes in the outlines of so called Muhammadan Reality. The mystery of the Night of Power is the mystery of the Prophet himself, of his primordial essence or light, which is the first of the created things. In the last chapter, titled “Odd wisdom in the words of Muhammad”, of his prominent work “Seals of Wisdom” Fusus al-hikam Ibn Arabi dwells upon the topic of oddness, unevenness, which penetrates the essence of the Prophet Muhammad and its manifestations. “The first odd number”, the sheikh says, “is the number three. All the others result from it. Muhammad is the most powerful symbol of his God, because he was the recipient of the “universal words” jawami’ al-kilam that represent the meanings of names that Allah taught Adam. Thus [Muhammad] refers to the triplex essence of the symbol, being a symbol of himself. His true essence is the first oddness, manifested in the triplicity of his being and that is the reason why when talking about love, which is the foundation of all being, he says: “I was made to love three things in your world”. After this utterance and the triplicity that it contains the Messenger of Allah mentions women, fragrances and the prayer, which becomes the “coolness of his eyes” for him.
As strange as it may seem, in these considerations Ibn Arabi gets closer to some concepts that are specific to Christianity and that refer to the issue of the mystery of the Trinity. The well-known hadith about the three things that are loved by the Prophet is analyzed in great detail in the last chapter of Fusus. The sheikh presents there an entirely new concept of Muhammad that is in stark contrast with our trivial ideas of a Prophet who is entirely absorbed by the sensory perceptions. Women come first in this list for no other reason but their high status with regards to the Divine theophany. Femininity is in fact the very topos where God’s manifestation in matter occurs most intensively according to Ibn Arabi; femininity is the container of His most refined theophanies.
Let us now look at the issue of oddness that envelops the mystery of laylat-ul-qadr from a different perspective. The twenty seventh night of the month of Ramadan in the lunar calendar is celebrated symbolically by most Muslims as the Night of Power. When the Prophet Muhammad was asked about the precise date, on which this night comes, he was filled with anger and then answered evasively: “Do not ask me anymore about that”, said he, “Look for it in the last decade of the month”. The twenty-seventh night was chosen mostly because the Prophet indicated it as the most probable one. It appears that the act of distinguishing this blessed Night is not a matter of exertion of body senses. It takes spiritual effort, ascesis to make it perceptible. At another place in Futuhat Ibn Arabi explains that the Night of Power can be contemplated in various other months in the course of the year but most often this takes place during Ramadan. Nevertheless, this mobility gives some guidance. The phenomenon of laylat-ul-qadr, situated as it may be within the framework of the natural night that is perceptible for the senses, is a matter of personal experience, intimate interpretation of the revelation. The Quran, says another mystic of Islam - Shahab al-Din al-Suhrawardi, should be read as if it were revealed to you personally.
The Night of Power transports the believer, who has unveiled its mystery, into another night and another day.
In other words the dawn of the Night of Power announces the coming of the Day of Resurrection. During this night the Supreme Name al-Ismu al-‘adham, which in fact is the name Allah, descends to this world. The other attributes fade into that Name so that the impenetrable essence – the one of God, Muhammad and that heart that is on a vigil during the Night of Power – bares itself.
Il ne faut cependant pas penser que les prédispositions dont il est ici question impliquent une dépendance de Dieu envers ce qu’Ibn ‘Arabî désigne comme les « entités immuables » (al-a‘yân al-thâbita), ni penser que celles-ci puissent corrompre l’unicité de l’Essence divine. Les prédispositions universelles, selon Abd el-Kader, ne sont pas extrinsèques à Dieu et Son action dépend de Sa Science qui, à son tour, dépend de son objet de façon essentiellement intrinsèque. C’est pourquoi, dans le Coran, Dieu est désigné par le nom al-Qayyûm, Celui qui subsiste par Soi-même et qui n’a, par conséquent, besoin d’aucun appui.