314
the King,’ said the vizier, ‘what a trick this woman played off upon the folk! And I have heard tell also that
THE MAN WHO SAW THE NIGHT OF POWER.
A certain man had longed all his life to look upon the Night of Power,[1] and it befell that, one night, he looked up at the sky and saw the angels and Heaven’s gates opened and beheld all things in the act of prostration before their Lord, each in its several room. So he said to his wife, “Harkye, such an one, God hath shown me the Night of Power, and it hath been proclaimed to me, from the invisible world, that three prayers will be granted unto me; so do thou counsel me what I shall ask.” Quoth she, “O man, the perfection of man and his delight is in his yard; so do thou pray God to greaten thy yard and magnify it.” So he lifted up his hands to heaven and said, “O my God, greaten my yard and magnify it.” Hardly
- ↑ One of the last nights of Ramazan, (supposed, on the authority of a tradition of the Prophet, to be either the 20th, 22nd, 24th or 28th of the month, on which the Koran is said to have been revealed en bloc to Gabriel, who communicated it piece-meal to Mohammed, beginning at once with chapter xcvi. (or, according to some, chapter lxxiv.). On this night the Muslims believe that the affairs of the universe are settled for the ensuing year, that all created things prostrate themselves in adoration to Allah (cf. the mediæval legend of Christmas Eve, when the cattle were fabled to worship God in the stalls, etc.), salt water becomes sweet, the angels descend to bless the faithful and all prayers, prayed in cognisance of the fact, are granted. “Verily we sent it [the Koran] down on the Night of Power, and what giveth thee to know what is the Night of Power? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months; the angels and the Spirit (Gabriel) descend therein, by leave of their Lord, with every commandment. Peace is it till the breaking of the dawn.”—Koran xcvii. “By the Manifest Book, we sent it down on a blessed night . . . . . . whereon is apportioned each determined decree, as a commandment from us.”—Koran xliv. 1, 2 and 3.
