1a] How to Reap the Rewards of Lailatul Qadr

1a]
5. To be sincere for the sake of Allah and to be onthe lookout for the
destroyers of sincerity to Allah - and they are showing off
(al-riyaa') andarrogance (kibr), amongst others. Allah has said in
regards to sincerity:
وَأَقِيمُواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ وَادْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ
لَهُ الدِّينَ
� And that you should faceHim only, in every Masjid, and invoke Him
only making your religion sincere to Him �. [7: 29]
And in the Hadith Qudsi:
أَنَا أَغْنَى الشُّرَكَاءِ عَنْ الشِّرْكِ مَنْ عَمِلَ عَمَلًا أَشْرَكَ
فِيهِ مَعِي غَيْرِي تَرَكْتُهُ وَشِرْكَهُ
Abu Hurairah narrates that the Prophet (saas) said: "Allah, may He be
blessed and exalted, says: 'I am so self-sufficient thatI am in no
need of having an associate. Thus he whodoes an action for someone
else's sake as well as Mine will have that action renounced by Me to
him whom he associated with Me.'" (Muslim)
Thus, we have to make sure that our efforts on this night, especially
if there are others around us, that they are solely forthe pleasure of
Allah. This can be greatly alleviated ifyou have a certain plan in
mind before you go to theMasjid regarding what you will do. We also
take lessons from the lives of the early generations whoused to be
very cautious in this regards particularlyin regards to weeping from
the fear of Allah. They controlled it so well that a man could stand
next to another and wet his beard with tears without his companion
being aware that he was crying. This was all so thatthey would not
draw attention to themselves.
And the great scholar Sufyaan ath-Thawri once said, "It has reached me
that a servant does a good deed secretly causing Shaytaan to comeat
him until he overcomeshim, upon which the servant makes his good deeds
public (but still maintaining a measure of sincerity). Shaytaan then
continues with him further until the servant wishes that his good
deeds be praised by others, upon which his name is removed from those
who deeds in publicand he is listed among those who show-off (commit
the grievous sin of riyaa')."
That is why the Prophet said we must spend this night in hope for His
reward - in other words, not in hopes of others praising us and so
forth.
Furthermore, some people commit another sin in arrogance by looking
down upon the deeds of others. Maybe Allah gave you the strength to
pray ten voluntary rak'aahs but another only had the strength to do
four. Although you may have bested the other in terms of quantity,
only Allah knows the quality and so his one rakah might be better and
more virtuous than all of what you have done. So let us be wary of
falling into this pit of destruction - may Allah protect us!
6. To push yourself in calling upon Allah and notbe lazy in this
matter. Allah states in the Quran:
وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْإِنَّ الَّذِينَ
يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِي سَيَدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَاخِرِينَ
And your Lord has said:"Call upon Me, I will answer you. Verily, those
who scorn My worship they will surely enter Hell in humiliation."
[40:60]
قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ إِنَّ
الدُّعَاءَ هُوَ الْعِبَادَةُ ثُمَّ قَرَأَ
And an-Nu'maan ibn Bashir (ra) relates from the Messenger of Allah
(saas) that he said,"Indeed the supplication is the worship; and then
he recited the ayah �." (Sahih - IM)
And it is recorded that Sufyaan ath-Thawri said,"Indeed to call upon
Allah in this night (al-Qadr) is more beloved to me than praying in
it." And our example always is RasulAllah and let us remember that
when he recited the Quran in the night prayer that he used to do so
slowly - whenever a verse called for seeking forgiveness hedid so,
whenever it called for seeking Allah's protection from His punishment
he did so, whenever it called for asking Allah for His bounty and for
Jannah, hedid so �. Thus the Prophet (saas) gathered four acts of
worship in one: prayer, recitation of Quran, supplication and
pondering over the wordsof Allah!
And 'A'ishah said: "I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, if I know which
night is Laylat al-Qadr, what should I say on that night?' He said,
'Say: Allahumma innaka 'afuwwun tuhibb al-'afwa fa'affu 'anni (O
Allah, You are forgiving and You love forgiveness, so forgive me)."
So what then is the difference between callingupon Allah by his name
ofal-'Afuww instead of al-Ghafur? They both indicate forgiveness, but
maghfirah means to be protected from the consequences of the sin
whereas al-'afw means that it is wiped away completely.
And how can we pour more sincerity into our supplication and asking
Allah for His forgiveness? As you stand there in these blessed nights
then remember the condition of our Ummah today and that if you were
better, if your sins were not so much then we would not be in this
condition: our mothers like Dr. 'Afiyyah would not have their :->