THE MEANING OF LAYLAH AL-QADR IN THE VIEW OF KHUMAYNĪ

A SUFI INTERPRETATION OF Q.S. AL-QADR [97]: 1–5

Abstract

The concept of the Night of Qadr (lailah al-qadr), an event immortalized and mentioned in the Qur'an, has even become part of the name of a surah in the Qur'an and has become a dream for people to be able to obtain or meet the Night of Qadr (lailah al-qadr), which is considered to have a reward exceeding a thousand months of worship. The Night of Qadr (lailah al-qadr) is interpreted and understood in an exoteric sense, referring to the process of the Qur'an's revelation, while interpretations that go beyond the literal meaning or that penetrate further to reveal the esoteric meaning of the concept are rarely found. This article attempts to analyze the meaning of the Night of Qadr in the view of Ayatullah Khumaynī, a great figure from Iran who became a revolutionary leader and a cleric who became a great leader in Iran. Using a Sufi hermeneutic framework such as tajalliyāt, qurb, and maqām, as well as a textual-thematic tafsīr method, this study examines how Khumaynī reads Q.S. Al-Qadr [97]: 1–5 not merely as a ritual explanation, but also as an ontological revelation, a tajallī of Muhammadiyah reality and maqām wilāyah. The results of this study show that, for  Khumaynī, laylah al-qadr is not only the moment when the revelation of the Qur’an was sent down, but  furthermore that night an existential experience where revelation, angels, and al-rūḥ (Jibrīl) function as channels of revelation (manifestation) closely related to the concepts of Nūr Muḥammad, maqām walī/imām, and transcendent time (a night that “transcends” chronological linearity).

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