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My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, we know that these are the last ten nights of the nights of Ramadan. And it is in these nights that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed us and favored us with a night that is so special, that is so magnificent, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed an entire surah so that we understand how important this one night is. And no other night, no other month, no other era of the year has been highlighted the way that this one night has been highlighted. For Allah azza wa jal revealed an entire surah dedicated to explaining this night. And it is called the surah of Laylatul Qadr, or the surah of Qadr, in order to demonstrate the magnificence of this night. And Allah azza wa jal begins this surah by saying,
We have revealed it on Laylatul Qadr. And notice Laylatul Qadr, it has the Alif Lam, and the Alif Lam as we know is the participle. Allah didn't say this is a night of power, Laylatul Qadrin. No, He said this is the night of power, Laylatul Qadr. Because there is no competition in the whole year regarding this one night. It is a participle, it is a proper noun. There is no competition. There is only one night that is a candidate for the night of power, Laylatul Qadr. And Laylatul Qadr, the concept of Laylatul Qadr, there are some reports about why Allah blessed this Ummah with Laylatul Qadr. And there are also reports from the Tabi'oon and others that this Ummah is the only Ummah that was blessed with Laylatul Qadr. That none of the previous Ummahs, Allah blessed them with Laylatul Qadr. And Imam Malik reports in his Muwatta, with a chain that is slightly weak, but inshallah put together the concept is authentic. Imam Malik reports that when the Prophet ﷺ saw the lengths of the lifetimes of the previous nations. Now we know that from the Quran that some of the previous nations they lived for hundreds of years. Nuh ﷺ, Allah tells us that he preached for 950 years. And we know from the other books of the reports and Athar that the earliest generations, Allah blessed them with much longer lives than this Ummah. So when our Prophet ﷺ saw the length of their lives, he felt that how can my Ummah compete with their Ummahs? How can my Ummah compete with those other Ummahs when my Ummah is only going to live 60-70 years? Hadith in Tirmidhi says,
That the lifespan of my Ummah will be between 60-70 years and few are those who will live beyond 70. This is an authentic Hadith. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying my Ummah is 60-70. And then the previous Ummahs 1000, 1500. How can my Ummah compete with those Ummahs? And there is also another report in which the Prophet ﷺ mentioned a certain person from the Bani Israel who lived for a thousand months. Who lived for a thousand months which is more than 80 years. Not just living, worshipping constantly for that period of time. Not just living, he lived longer. But during that lifespan that he had, this entire 83 years, he spent constantly every day fasting, every day tahajjud, every day doing something that is absolutely amazing. So when the Sahaba said this, they said how can we compete with this Ya Rasulullah? And so both of these reports are mentioned. Put together inshallah the concept is there. That as a blessing for this Ummah, even though our lifespans were shorter, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed us with something He did not bless the previous Ummahs with. And that is a night that is equivalent to a thousand months. A thousand months of course as we know is 83.3 years. And this is longer than the lifespan of a human being. It is longer than the average lifespan. And it is not just the lifespan, but rather what Allah azawajal is saying is that this one night will get us the reward of 83 and one third years of worship. And that is more than a lifespan. Because a lifespan, even if we live for 83 years, we take 20 years to become an adult. And we take at least 20 hours a day to take care of the dunya, sleeping, going to work, eating, taking care of our affairs. We literally, even the most righteous amongst us, hardly worships Allah for 2-3 hours a day. And this is wallahi much more than what the average person does. So even if we were to say the most righteous person, worshipping Allah for 3-4 hours a day, this does not translate into more than 3-4 years of actual worship time of a lifetime of 80 years. But Allah is saying if you worship me on this one night, if you worship me on this Laylatul Qadr, you will get the quality of worship. You will get the quantity of worship as if you had worshipped for 83 and one third years. Inna anzalnahu fee Laylatul Qadr. And the concept of Laylatul Qadr as we said was a blessing for this ummah, and only for this ummah, in order to have a blessing that no other ummah has had. And that is to give 83.33 years for every year that we are blessed with if we worship Allah on this night. Inna anzalnahu fee Laylatul Qadr. And the meaning here, what will make you understand? How will you ever understand what is Laylatul Qadr? And there is a rhetorical device here that the emphasis is given that Laylatul Qadr is beyond human understanding. It's beyond the blessings of Laylatul Qadr. The magnificence of Laylatul Qadr, it is beyond what we can ever understand. What will make you understand? It's not possible. You will not be able to understand how blessed this one night is. But Allah Azza wa Jal tells us some things that perhaps our mind can grasp around. And so he mentioned some blessings. Laylatul Qadri khayrun min alfi shahr. We are a people who are greedy for time. We are a people who want to live forever. We are a people that the biggest thing that we want is a longer life. In fact, was it not this desire that seduced our own father Adam? Wasn't it just this one desire that to live forever? This is what he wanted. Who amongst us? If we were told, I'll give you 10 more years of your life, 100 more years. What would we give for those 10 years or 100 years? We are greedy for life. And Allah Azza wa Jal has blessed us with so much quality of life. If only we took advantage of it. Laylatul Qadri khayrun min alfi shahr. If you want life, then I will give you a night that is better than a thousand months. Alfi shahr. It is better by the way. Allah didn't say it is equivalent. Allah Azza wa Jal is simply making us, because there is no equivalent. Laylatul Qadr is beyond our understanding. Wama adaraaka ma laylatul qadr. But just to help us understand, Allah says laylatul qadri khayrun min alfi shahr. That this one night, it is better than a thousand months. So important is this one night. That when our Prophet ﷺ gave the first khutbah of Ramadan, he mentioned, that a blessed month has come to you. And the next thing that he said, in it is a night that is better than a thousand months. It is as if Ramadan itself is blessed simply because of this one month. In it is a night that is better than a thousand months. The whole month of Ramadan, he is summarizing it by this one sentence. That this, it is as if he's saying, this is why it is blessed. In it is a night that is better than a thousand months. In another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, whoever has been deprived of this one night, he has been deprived of all good. Whoever has been deprived of this one night, has been deprived of all good. Because when so much is being given for so little, imagine you're getting a thousand months, for literally it's not even one day, it is 10 hours, it is from Maghrib to Fajr, it's not even a day. You're getting that much reward for simply 10 hours of ibadah, 10 hours of extra worship. Then surely, whoever does not care about this, the Prophet ﷺ said, he has been deprived of all good. There's no good in the person. There's nothing that has been willed good for this person, if he doesn't even care to get the rewards of Laylatul Qadr. And the most important dua that we can say on Laylatul Qadr, and with this we conclude, Aisha said, O Messenger of Allah, if I happen to be worshipping on Laylatul Qadr, what should I say? And the Prophet ﷺ told her to say this dua, so let us memorize this dua, and let us be frequent in this dua. Allahumma innaka afoon tuhibbul afwa fa'afu anna. This is the height of what we want from Allah ﷻ, and that is to have our sins not just forgiven, but forgotten, erased. Because to forgive is one thing, but to erase is much more. And we want Allah to erase our sins as if we never did it