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Theme Changer

 Topic: Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power

 (Read 2753 times)
  • 1« Previous thread | Next thread »
  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     OP - July 15, 2015, 07:35 AM

    Just sharing my Facebook post:

    Isn't searching for Laylatul Qadr like playing a lottery or Easter egg hunt? Surely the Lord of the worlds would be above such a thing? I have a problem with the whole idea that God responds to du'a & grants requests. In my 56 years I have seen no evidence that this is any more true than were I to ask Puff the Magic Dragon. But even more puzzling is the idea that on this particular night one will receive the mother load of granted requests, simply because of finding the right moment in time.
  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #1 - July 15, 2015, 12:21 PM

    That’s funny, because puffing the magic dragon always seemed to make my prayers come true.
  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #2 - July 15, 2015, 02:13 PM

    As you know, I contend this weirdness came about because the Laylat al-Qadr is a secondary imposition on a Syriac Christian text (which was basically a paraphrase of Ephrem's Nativity Hymn No. 21) ... the original Laylat al-Qadr actually made some sense in terms of ritual logic, but the Islamic version does not make any sense at all.  Islam did not preserve a coherent explanation of what this night was, when it fell, and why worship was so incomparably meritorious on it.

    In Syriac Christianity, the Christmas vigil was incomparably meritorious because the descent of the Lord and his incarnation on this specific night, the restriction of the infinite, 'divinized' our material reality, starting with Mary's womb, and extending to his worshipers who ritually reenact the night.  That is why the night is incomparably more meritorious than profane nights -- the nexus with the incarnated deity that is ritually joined by his worshipers, they become one with the revelation, the entire world was renewed and made divine.

    As Islam developed and rejected this Christian incarnation ritual (in Christianity the descent of the Lord had been unmediated by any prophet or angels, but in Islam the Lord was now hidden away behind the Arabian prophet and the angel Gabriel who gave him the revelation), the Laylat al-Qadr became incomprehensible, and the night of Q 97 became reinterpreted as a random night in which random blessings were bestowed for random reasons; du'a on this night was much more powerful for unknown reasons, even though nobody has ever seen any evidence of it.

  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #3 - July 15, 2015, 02:35 PM

    Interesting. Could you quote the piece of Ephrem's Nativity Hymn No. 21 that is paraphrased by Surat al-Qadr?
  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #4 - July 15, 2015, 02:49 PM

    Interesting. Could you quote the piece of Ephrem's Nativity Hymn No. 21


    St. Ephrem the Syrian Hymns”Hymns on the Nativity_ Hyman-1

    That is from this book  of  Kathleen E. McVey Trnslation .  you may find that hyman-21 from that book


    Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns (Classics of Western Spirituality)., that book is in amazon Jungle

    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim
     
  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #5 - July 15, 2015, 02:55 PM

    I know how to use google as well, yeez. Grin I found that.

    I was wondering what specific piece was paraphrased in Surat al-Qadr. Was it this?

    Quote
    84    Mary today has hidden in us the leaven from the house of Abraham; 61
    let us, therefore, love the poor as Abraham [loved] the needy.
    85    Today she has cast rennet into us from the house of David, the compassionate one; let man have mercy on his persecutor as the son of Jesse on Saul. 62
    86    The sweet salt of the prophets today is scattered among the peoples;
    let us acquire by it a new taste by which the former people would lose its flavor. 63
    87    On this day of redemption let us speak a speech of interpretation; let us not speak superfluous words, lest we be superfluous to [the day].
    88    This is the night of reconciliation; let us be neither wrathful nor gloomy on it.
    On this all-peaceful night let us be neither menacing nor boisterous.
    89    This is the night of the Sweet One; let us be on it neither bitter nor harsh. On this night of the Humble One, let us be neither proud nor haughty.
    90    On this day of forgiveness let us not avenge offenses. On this day of rejoicings let us not share sorrows.
    91    On this sweet day let us not be vehement. On this calm day let us not be quick-tempered.
    92    On this day on which God came into the presence of sinners, let not the just man exalt himself in his mind over the sinner.
    93    On this day on which the Lord of all came among servants, let the lords also bow down to their servants lovingly.

    94    On this day when the Rich One was made poor for our sake, let the rich man also make the poor man a sharer at his table.
    95    On this day a gift came out to us without our asking for it; let us then give alms to those who cry out and beg from us.
    96    This is the day when the high gate opened to us for our prayers; let us also open the gates to the seekers who have stayed but sought [forgiveness].

  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #6 - July 15, 2015, 03:00 PM

    If so, this makes plenty of sense. Especially if you look at the injunctions in 94-96. It describes exactly the practice of Zakatul-Fitr that would occur after Laylatul Qadr. Muhammad is even reported to have said about the poor, “Suffice them from having to beg on this day.”
  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #7 - July 15, 2015, 03:05 PM

    I know how to use google as well, yeez. Grin I found that.

    I was wondering what specific piece was paraphrased in Surat al-Qadr. Was it this?


      that Surat al-Qadr is 5 liner..
    Quote
    1. We have indeed revealed this (Message) in the Night of Power:
    2. And what will explain to thee what the night of power is?
    3. The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.
    4. Therein come down the angels and the Spirit by Allah's permission, on every errand:
    5. Peace!...This until the rise of morn! -  


    What is there in it?  unless we start imagining the stuff adding/making up a story around it ., there is very little in it.,   Those few words in that Sura,  Quran writers could have copied from anywhere from any  silly story floating around Arabia of that time .    Those Syrian hymans contain lot more stuff Mary's   Fertility As The  Model   Of The Ascetical   Life   In  Ephrem "THE SYRIAN’S HYMNS OF THE NATIVITY. pdf


    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim
     
  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #8 - July 15, 2015, 04:28 PM

    That's actually Nativity Hymn No. 1 you are citing HM, but it contains the same theological/ritual concepts, as you have identified.  Nativity Hymn No. 21, confusingly, was numbered as Hymn No. 14 in older compilations of Ephrem's hymns.  The only online translation I know of for Hymn 21 is this one, by Budge, which is a 19th century translation but still pretty good:

    http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf213.iii.v.xv.html

    Here is my exceedingly long article explaining all of these issues about Surat al-Qadr, and showing the parallels:

    https://www.academia.edu/13853915/The_Annunciation_of_S%C5%ABrat_al-Qadr_Celebrating_the_Incarnation_of_the_Deity_Q_97_

    But as you noted in the section from Hymn No. 1, the key is that in Syriac Christianity this night was when the *infinite Lord* descended and became finite, and by his descent his worshipers commune with the deity.  On other nights, worship was akin to Jewish worship, but the miraculous descent of the Lord himself on this night made it *incomparably* superior.  Within Islam, this descent of the Lord became transformed into a revelation that the Lord gave an angel who gave it to the Messenger who gave it to the believers .... and this game of telephone, which insulated the Lord from his creation out of anti-polytheistic fervor, made the Laylat al-Qadr incomprehensible.  No longer did the believer himself directly commune with the deity and the heavens via the Christmas vigil and its concluding Eucharist -- the Lord himself came down to You.  In Islam, only the Prophet and Gabriel were uniquely given those roles in a tag-team combination, so there could be no corresponding night of qadr, the revelation was now akin to Jewish revelation.  Instead random blessings came down on the believer for random reasons.

    Btw, it's important to understand that the noun form Qadr most literally means a "process of measuring," such that it should literally be translated "the night of the process of measuring."  Because that is incomprehensible within Islam (what was measured on this night?  why would that matter?), it is usually more loosely translated by using other forms of the same roots -- destiny, power, decree.  But this confusion is, in my view, all wrong, the literal meaning of the noun is exactly what was intended.
  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #9 - July 15, 2015, 05:19 PM

    That’s funny, because puffing the magic dragon always seemed to make my prayers come true.


    Lol
  • Laylatul Qadr The Night of Power
     Reply #10 - July 15, 2015, 05:21 PM

    As you know, I contend this weirdness came about because the Laylat al-Qadr is a secondary imposition on a Syriac Christian text (which was basically a paraphrase of Ephrem's Nativity Hymn No. 21) ...



    I know Zaotar and I agree with you.

    My post was really addressed to Muslims from the perspective of a believer.

    I only shared it here out of interest Smiley
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