رمضان کے عشرۂ آخر کی فضیلت و عظمت

It is narrated from the Mother of the Believers, Aisha as-Siddiqah (may Allah be pleased with her): “In the last ten days of Ramadan, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would strive and exert himself in worship, and bear hardship, to a degree that he did not exert himself on other days.”

Just as the month of Ramadan holds precedence over all other months, so too the last ten days of Ramadan possess greater merit than the first two ten-day periods. The blessed night which the Qur'an declared better than a thousand months falls within these days. The importance of these days is heightened further still because they are the closing days of this precious and blessed month — the best and last opportunity to make up whatever shortfall has occurred so far and to compensate for whatever deficiency has remained in good deeds. Thus the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to devote himself greatly to worship in the last ten days of Ramadan, and would encourage and urge others to do the same.

In the last ten days the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would engage in far more worship and striving than even his own habit and routine. He ﷺ would also wake the people of his household — his pure wives and other relatives — during these nights. One wisdom of this may be that the last ten days of Ramadan are the blessed days one night of which is Laylat al-Qadr; so he ﷺ would fully devote himself to worship and inspire others toward it, and would engage in such effort, exertion, and abundant worship during these days as he did not on other days.

In fact, one wisdom in keeping Laylat al-Qadr hidden may be that the one who seeks and longs for it, in his eagerness to attain it, would spend — if not all the nights of Ramadan — then at least the nights of the last ten days, or at the very least its odd nights, in the remembrance, obedience, and worship of Allah, and thereby also be granted Laylat al-Qadr. It was probably for these very aims that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to observe i'tikaf every year, except for one year in which he was travelling; perhaps this i'tikaf was, besides worship, also for the purpose of seeking Laylat al-Qadr.

How better can the importance of the last ten days of Ramadan be gauged than this: the best and highest of humankind, the leader of the prophets, the beloved of Allah (upon him be blessings and peace), fully versed in the ways of both seclusion and society, had in his noble habit and routine the i'tikaf of the last ten days of Ramadan. The whole fasting month passed in worship and remembrance of Allah, but in the final ten days the fire of longing burned even more intensely; detached from wives and companions, this entire ten-day period passed within the four walls of the mosque, and the servant attained all the delights of secluded intimacy with his Lord.

Today we should all, deeming it a prize, gather to ourselves as much as possible of the lights and blessings of these ten days — for Allah alone knows whether these precious days will be granted to us next year or not. How much importance and merit these ten nights of Ramadan hold among all the nights of the year is well understood from this hadith: that among these nights is one night which is better than a thousand months, and in which the chief of all the books of this world was revealed upon the most excellent of all humankind.

All the scriptures of guidance descended in this month; in this very blessed month came the leader of all speech (the Qur'an). In it came one night better than a thousand nights — the night in which, from the spring of mercy, a greeting came to the servant.