question mark (39) | What is the secret of the night?

(1)

You wait until night falls, and the people of the house go to their beds, everything around you is darkness, and you seek the light, alone among them you get up, sneak quietly, purify yourself. And your world, which you thought of sadness as a prison, becomes a paradise, reaching the sky, crowding with the angels, sharing with them the glorification of the Lord, and the sun that you thought had set has come back to shine again, this time from your chest from which the decisive verses come out.

Get out of the world of calculations, do not specify how many rak’ahs your prayer will be, nor how many verses you will recite from the Qur’an, then stand up, turn your back on the world, and turn towards the qiblah, raise your hands and declare: “God is great.”

(2)

You know?!

There's something hidden about getting up at night when everyone else is asleep, and I've struggled to find out why.

I asked and asked and asked...

It was said to me: The night for the people of the night is like the unseen to God Almighty. We are not accustomed to the unseen, so we do not know it. It is the matter of God Almighty and His secret. Likewise, no one knows the secret of the night and the state of its people except those who are accustomed to it. for existence.

It was said to me: The day is the realm of the eyes, the hearing, and the bodies, while the night is the realm of the spirits, and that man - as it is known - is a body and a soul, as for the body, its place is the world, and that being alone at night is only an opportunity for the soul - that divine breath - to soar and return - even if A little time - back to its natural place, to the home of its native land.

I was told: At night, your bustling city, in which you get lost when the sun illuminates it, becomes an enchanted ghost, which you can hardly see. Your conscience and feeling.

(3)

Do you want my advice?

When the alarm bell rings in the last third of the night, do not hesitate for a moment, do not slow down, get up immediately and perform ablution with cold water.

Then do as Abu Abdullah Ali ibn Umar al-Shazly and his companions did: bring coffee beans, roast them until brown, mix them well with ginger, make your coffee, sip it sip by sip, and use it on alertness.

Get out of the world of calculations, do not specify how many units your prayer will be, nor how many verses you will recite from the Qur’an, then stand up, turn your back on the world, turn towards the qiblah, raise your hands and declare: “God is great.”

Then recite whatever verses of God are easy for you, or grab your phone and recite from it.

You are now out of place, out of time, and out of the whole world. You are now in the hands of someone who is greater than existence. Your heart gets high with remembrance. You cry once and smile once.

When our Lord descends to the lowest heaven, and transfigures Him, He meets those He loves, and He finds you standing, you fear the Hereafter and hope for the mercy of your Lord, and your heart has abandoned the world and what is in it, and attached to Him, attached to Him alone, the Mighty and Sublime.

At that time, you will taste a pleasure that makes you regret every night that you were absent from this meeting, and I was hostage to your cover, a prisoner of your bed, and you lost yourself the Tahajjud prayers, the lamps of light that illuminate the darkness of the isthmus.

Yes, the night has its people, just as the day has its people

(4)

The first times: you fall asleep, you are not aware of what you read and what you recite, you almost do not understand anything, you say: I will stop and come back tomorrow, more prepared, believe me, you will not return, and if you return, you will have the same feeling, the predominance of sleep and the desire to procrastinate.

Resist, for one gets used to it by getting used to and repeating, be insistent on being vigilant, do not neglect the meeting.

Months and months pass while you are like this, then slowly your situation turns upside down, or say your condition improves, and if a wonderful feeling takes over you, and if you enjoy it in an indescribable way, you even wonder: How did you deprive yourself all these years of that pleasure?

How is that when you thought you had sacrificed your sleep while others were having fun?!

Now.. you feel that you are being given rather than blowing, taking rather than giving, and if the light is spreading within you.

My God..

It is an indescribable state, to the extent that you become resentful of the summer with its short nights, and discover that it is nothing more than a two-rak’ah prayer in the dead of night.

A journey in which you leave creation, leave yourself, and become in the presence of the Creator, complaining about yourself to Him, secreting to Him what hurts you, and everything you wish for, the Almighty speaking to Him about the fear that dwells in your heart.

And with "Peace be upon you"... you are overwhelmed with tranquility, the tranquility that you searched for so much tired of!

(5)

to imagine..

You are now one of the people of the night, and I am one of the guardians of God. You are now one of the best-looking people, for I was alone with the Most Merciful, so He clothed you with His light.

Al-Hassan Al-Basri said that.

Saeed bin Al-Musayyib also said: “A man prays at night, and God puts a light on his face that every Muslim loves for him, so he who has never seen him will see him and say: I love this man.”

to imagine..

You are now with the truth, because you are now not familiar with creation, but rather with the Creator of creation. Your heart is attached to the Throne, not to those on earth. Now you find a reason to love the world, in which you stay the night, and in this standing is the highest level of manifestation in the meeting between the servant and his Lord, so it is a blessing that is unique to him. By God, some of his servants and his family, oh if you were one of them.

to imagine..

You are asleep at a time when the Lord descends to the lowest heaven, exchanging love for His servants who have dried up their sleep. God Almighty, the Creator, the Mighty, the Merciful, exchanges love for these servants and says:

“He who claims to love me is a liar, and when the night falls he falls asleep on my behalf.”

Isn't every lover alone with his beloved?!

Behold, I will see my loved ones when the night covers them, tomorrow I will comfort the eyes of my loved ones in my gardens.”