Ramadan Series #2
One Night a Year
By a Pioneers worker in the Middle East. This article is the second in a four-part series exploring why Ramadan is such an important time for Muslims, and how Christians may respond. Read part 1.
Adapted from an article originally published by Arab World Ministries. Retrieved from pioneers.org.
“Ramadan is the month… in which Lailat-ul-Qadr (Night of Power) resides,” my local friend told me.
What Is the Night of Power?
The Night of Power commemorates when the first revelations of the Qur’an were given to Muhammad. No one is quite certain when. A friend said he did not know when it was, but it reportedly falls on an odd-number night during the last ten days of Ramadan, possibly the 27th night.
Some Muslims spend what they believe to be the Night of Power praying and reading the Qur’an. Mosques broadcast hours of Qu’ranic readings. In 2021, this will happen the night of May 8.
Why Is the Night of Power Special?
Muslims maintain that a good deed done on this night is akin to 1,000 months of rewards. An act of charity done on that night is the same as if it was done repeatedly for 1,000 months (83 years). Someone calculated that a 35-year-old who filled each Night of Power with additional prayers and worship would have amassed 1,660 years of credit (zakat.org).
A donation to charity made especially for Ramadan receives 70 times the reward. Because the precise date is unknown, some Islamic charities will collect your donation and make a contribution to charity on each of the last ten nights of Ramadan.
On the Night of Power, it is possible to ask whatever you want from God.
A Christian Reflection
God hears our prayers. In Genesis, we read about Hagar, a single mother, and a foreigner. Once she was ushered out of the home of her child’s father, she was helpless. Deserted, she sat weeping, awaiting death.
God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called out to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is…” (Genesis 21:16-19).
God hears our prayers.
The name of Hagar’s son is Ishmael, which means God who hears. God does not hear us only one night of the year.
God is generous. Since He “did not spare His own Son… how will He not also… graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) Jesus speaks of God’s generosity: “If you then… know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11)
May Muslims come to know God as their good Father.
