SHAB-I-BARAT شب برات
The Persian title for the fifteenth day of the month Sha’ban, which is called in Arabic Lailatu ‘n-nisf min Sha’ban, or “the night of the middle of Sha’ban.”
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, it is said, enjoined his followers to keep awake the whole night, to repeat one hundred rak’ah prayers, and to last the next day; but there are generally great rejoicings instead of a fast, and large sums of money are spent in fireworks.’ It is the “Guy Fawkes Day” of India, being the night for display of fireworks.
The Shab-i-Barat is said to be referred to in the xlivth Surah of the Qur’an, verse 2, as “the night on which all things are disposed in wisdom,” although the commentators are not agreed as to whether the verse alludes to this night or the Shab-i-Qadr, on the 27th of the month of Ramazan.
The Shab-i-Barat is frequently confounded with the Lailatu ‘l-Qadr, or, as it is called in India, the Shab-i-Qadr.
The Persian title for the fifteenth day of the month Sha’ban, which is called in Arabic Lailatu ‘n-nisf min Sha’ban, or “the night of the middle of Sha’ban.”
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, it is said, enjoined his followers to keep awake the whole night, to repeat one hundred rak’ah prayers, and to last the next day; but there are generally great rejoicings instead of a fast, and large sums of money are spent in fireworks.’ It is the “Guy Fawkes Day” of India, being the night for display of fireworks.
The Shab-i-Barat is said to be referred to in the xlivth Surah of the Qur’an, verse 2, as “the night on which all things are disposed in wisdom,” although the commentators are not agreed as to whether the verse alludes to this night or the Shab-i-Qadr, on the 27th of the month of Ramazan.
The Shab-i-Barat is frequently confounded with the Lailatu ‘l-Qadr, or, as it is called in India, the Shab-i-Qadr.
Based on Hughes, Dictionary of Islam
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