إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ
Indeed, We sent the Qur’an down during the Night of Decree.

وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ
And what can make you know what is the Night of Decree?

لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ
The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months.

تَنَزَّلُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ فِيهَا بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِم مِّن كُلِّ أَمْرٍ
The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter.

سَلَامٌ هِيَ حَتَّىٰ مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ
Peace it is until the emergence of dawn.

It’s Friday… It’s one of the last 10 nights… It’s an odd night… could it be?

Only one way to find out: worship tonight like it’s your very last opportunity:  raise your hands to Allah azza wa jall and give thanks for His blessings; beg His forgiveness; seek His guidance; ask Him to grant you good in this life, good in the next life, and to save you from the fire. Seek blessings for your parents, neighbors, coworkers, and friends. If you have anything special to ask, put your face on the ground and ask: God will answer your prayers.

Just in case, do the same tomorrow night, and Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, every night for the rest of Ramadan.

And when Ramadan ends, keep up as much as you can, don’t let this world distract you too much, keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of God.

Maghrib tonight (Tuesday the 7th) marks the beginning of the last 10 nights of Ramadan.

Ramadan is informally separated into three 10-night periods. The first 10 nights are known as the nights of Mercy; the second 10 are the nights of Forgiveness; and the last 10 are of Salvation. And one of the upcoming nights—probably an odd-numbered night, so tonight, Thursday night, Saturday, Monday, or Wednesday, unless we started on the wrong day, in which case it could be yesterday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, or Tuesday nights—is Laylatul Qadr: the Night of Power, the night that is better than 1000 months when Allah azza wa jall sends down His decree for the coming year.

For these last 10 nights, Muslims strive to worship even more than we have throughout the previous 20 nights, and if we’ve been slacking off during the middle, as so often happens, we’re urged to pick it up and finish strong.  The Prophet, peace be upon him, used to spend the last 10 nights and days in the mosque, worshiping more or less constantly, and leaving almost all worldly tasks. Some brothers and sisters engage in Itikaf and book space in the mosque, where they stay from Maghrib on the 21st night until sunset on the 30th night (or the 29th, if the new moon is sighted, thus ending the month of Ramadan and beginning the month of Shawwal).

Don’t let the calculations distract you: they’re not important.

What is important is worshiping God with the best of your ability all of the time, trying to constantly get closer to God, and occasionally—like the last 10 nights of Ramadan—trying to pick it up even more.

I just have no patience for manmade things. Ya Allah, grant me patience for things.

إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُسْلِمَاتِ وَالْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْقَانِتَاتِ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالصَّادِقَاتِ وَالصَّابِرِينَ وَالصَّابِرَاتِ وَالْخَاشِعِينَ وَالْخَاشِعَاتِ وَالْمُتَصَدِّقِينَ وَالْمُتَصَدِّقَاتِ وَالصَّائِمِينَ وَالصَّائِمَاتِ وَالْحَافِظِينَ فُرُوجَهُمْ وَالْحَافِظَاتِ وَالذَّاكِرِينَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا وَالذَّاكِرَاتِ أَعَدَّ اللَّهُ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةً وَأَجْرًا عَظِيمًا

Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so – for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.

Surat Al-‘Aĥzāb, 35

The things that Allah azza wa jall made—living things, plants, etc., and especially people—are easy to have patience for: we’re none of us perfect, and we’re all in need, and we’re all (hopefully) trying to get through this life as easily as possible, and that goes for Muslims as well as everyone else.

But things… I just can’t have patience for the things we make, and I had a pretty hard time today: may Allah forgive me and grant me sabr (patience). Computers and other silicon-based technology can usually set me off in seconds, and my last hour of work today was almost entirely consumed by broken software, and not just any software, not software made by a software company for wide use, not niche games or banking softwares, but internal corporate software.

This did not bode well for the rest of the day… even after a nice long nap, remain testy, unfocused, easily bothered.

Astaghfirullah (both for my lack of patience and for such monstrosities as software made by a corporation whose major areas of focus have no direct relationship to software authoring).

May Allah forgive me, may He grant me ease and patience in this life, and may He guide us all to the straight path that leads to Him, Amin. Continue reading “the Importance of Patience (2)”