Essence of Lailatul Baraat
An occasion to purify the soul
Muslims will be observing Lailatul Baraat tonight with due religious fervour and solemnity. It will be time once again for the community as a whole to remember the Almighty and remember too the core of the message coming out of Islam. The message is one of leading a life of purity, away from all worldly temptations and in all the consciousness that life on earth is but a preparation for life in the hereafter. And yet it is on how men and women conduct themselves in the temporal world that their spirituality or awareness of faith in its widest meaning depends.
Such awareness, especially on Lailatul Baraat, comes necessarily through a readiness on the part of the individual to atone for the sins he has committed over time and to do all that may draw him away from such sinning. It is a hard task, considering that human nature is but a synonym for endless demonstrations of frailties. Tonight, it is expected that Muslims, being cognisant of the limits of human self-control, will nevertheless seek forgiveness of Allah for the mistakes and the deviations that have been a mark of life for them, particularly since they last prayed to the Almighty for the moral and psychological strength to make themselves stay away from avarice and all other flaws that mar the quality of life. Lailatul Baraat is that moment in divinity when the Almighty answers prayers, when those prayers are offered up in the right spirit and in all sincerity. It is thus a night when, apart from thoughts of an expiation of sin, Muslims call forth the courage in themselves to seek the munificence that comes from Allah. On this night, through purposeful prayers and a meaningful acknowledgement of the true meaning of faith, Muslims can ask the Creator for those bounties that strengthen their faith. The Almighty is pleased to respond, for He does not disappoint his creation.
On Lailatul Baraat, it is also important that Muslims reflect on the precarious conditions in which their community lives today. The message that should go out today is that Islam is a religion of peace, that it absolutely abjures violence and killing of the innocent and promotes peace and harmony among different communities in the world. A good Muslim is he who seeks knowledge, in the words of the Prophet of Islam, from the cradle to the grave. Along the way, he meets other people and other cultures and respects them. In the end, it is the beauty of civilised, pious life that a good Muslim upholds and celebrates. Let this thought go out to everyone tonight.
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