The Month of Ramadan

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The Night of Power (Destiny)

The Night of Power (Layl-al-Qadr) is the night in which the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad. It is the 27th night of Ramadan. God describes this night as better than a thousand months. During that night, the angels and the Spirit descend therein, by God’s leave, to carry out every command (97:1-5).

Because the Night of Power is such a special night, those Muslims (Submitters) who want to gain extra credit of righteousness spend the night by commemorating God the Almighty either in their privacy or in a mosque with other Muslims. There are also Muslims who retreat to a mosque in the last ten days of Ramadan to take advantage of God’s blessings further and increase their faith of submission.

To determine when the Night of Power is, one starts counting the night before fasting starts since that night is the first night of Ramadan. Then the 27th day starting at sunset until dawn is the Night of Power.

Another way of determining this special night, perhaps less confusing to some people, is to count the number of days fasted. Then the sunset of the 26th day of fasting will be when the Night of Power starts.

Ramadan This Year

The new moon times to be used for determining the beginning and ending of Ramadan are given below for GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

10:42 P.M. on December 18

3:46 P.M. on January 17

The actual time for each time zone is relative to GMT. For example, Tucson is seven hours behind GMT. Thus when, for example, it is 10 P.M. according to GMT, it is 3 P.M. in Tucson. Based on the above information, the first day of Ramadan

for Tucson is December 19, the last day is January 17. The Night of Power starts at the sunset of January 13.

This will be valid for most of the United States and Canada, except the East Coast where the new moon will be past the sunset by a couple of hours. A common-sense approach to practice could be to use the same starting and ending of the month for the entire country since God does not wish to make the religion difficult for us (5:6). Thus the people in the U.S.A. and Canada all start fasting on December 19. On the other hand, the people in Europe and Asia may start on December 20.

…Do not take God’s revelations in vain. Remember God’s blessings upon you, and that He sent down to you the scripture and wisdom to enlighten you. You shall observe God, and know that God is aware of all things. (2:231)

…Anyone who reverences God, He makes everything easy for him. (65:4)