Laylat al-Qadr and the Prophet's Heart

(5 minute read featuring an exceptional dimension of Laylat al-Qadr)
Reza Shah-Kazemi


Outwardly, Surat al-Qadr describes the revelation to the Prophet of the Qur'an, in its entirety, in synthesized form, on one of the odd nights during the last ten nights of Ramadan; inwardly, or esoterically, the 'Night of Power' is interpreted as an allusion to the very soul of the Prophet.
Exoterically, the particular verses of the Qur'an are deemed to have descended 'upon' the heart of the Prophet (26:192-194); but esoterically the essence of the Qur'an is deemed to have descended 'into' the heart of the Prophet.


Kashani, for example, tells us that the Night of Power is 'the Muhammadan constitution in a veiled state' - that state in which, alone, he can receive Revelation, after having had 'essential vision', that is, of the Essence beyond forms, and thus, beyond Revelation (Kashani, Tafsir Ibn Arabi, vol. 2 p. 447). What this kind of interpretation alludes to is the spiritual power inherent in the absolute receptivity of the state of the Prophet's soul. This receptivity can also be considered as total emptiness, and thus as faqr; and, at the highest level, as fana'; a state of total extinction from oneself. Applied analogically, it can be said that every soul must make itself into a kind of 'Laylat al-Qadr', by emptying itself of egotism and worldliness, in order to be 'full' of receptivity to the divine; one aims to become a vessel made empty for the influx of divine grace.


For emptiness of the qualities of the ego implies fullness of the qualities of God. It is for this reason that the heart of the Prophet is compared in Islamic spirituality to a spotless mirror; there is no 'spot' or trace of individualism or egocentricity which might prevent the qualities of God from being reflected by the heart of the Prophet.


The manifestation of divine reality through the spiritual 'constitution' of the Prophet - through him as the Laylat al-Qadr - by no means entails a reduction of the divine to the human. It does not, in other words, imply shirk. Rather it implies the most radical display of tawhid. For the Prophet's soul, being utterly effaced before God, allows the oneness of God to display its various modes of perfection, unimpeded by any individualistic veils; those perfections of unity, or divine qualities, which can be manifested will be manifested - and to perfection - through the effaced soul of the Prophet. The human manifestation of virtue becomes but an appearance; the reality of this manifestation is purely divine: 'And thou didst not throw when thou threwest, but God it was who threw' (8:17), God tells the Prophet.


The Prophets virtues, then, are not his own; they must be seen as the reflections of qualities which are ultimately, or metaphysically, God's own Names and Attributes. These virtues are human and created in form, but divine and uncreated in essence. When, therefore, he is described as ra'uf, 'kind', and rahim, 'merciful' (9:128), one cannot but see these traits, according to the metaphysical logic of tawhid, and in the light of the effacement of the Prophet, as being reflections of the divine qualities, al-Ra'uf and al-Rahim. Herein lies one of the meanings of the 'tremendous character' (khulqun azim) ascribed to the Prophet (4:68); one should note that al-Azim, also, is one of the Names of God.


The spotless mirror, the Prophets heart as the Laylat al-Qadr, not only reflects faithfully the light of the Qur'an revealed to him, it also reflects the very Face of God, that Face which the Qur'an tells is visible, in principle, wherever we may turn (2:115).