Notes on Muhammadanism/Chapter 36
XXXVI.—SHAB-I-BARA′T.[1]
Shab-i-Bara′t, the "night of record," is observed on the fifteenth day of the month, Shʾabán. It is the "Guy Fawkes Day" of India, being the night for display of fireworks.
On this night, Muhammad said, God registers annually all the actions of mankind which they are to perform during the year; and that all the children of men, who are to be born and to die in the year, are recorded. Muhammad enjoined his followers to keep awake the whole night, to repeat one hundred rakʾat prayers, and to fast the next day; but there are generally great rejoicings instead of a fast, and large sums of money are spent in fireworks. The Shab-i-Barát must not be confounded with the Laylat-ul-Qadr (night of power), mentioned in the Qurán, which is the twenty-seventh night of the Ramazán. The Shab-i-Barát, however, is frequently called Shab Qadr, or the night of power, by the common people.
- ↑ The Persian title; the Arabic being Laylat-ul-Mubaraka.