The Great Creative Systems of Ramadan

🌼🔆🌼The Scientific Reality of Layl🌼🔆🌼

🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹

🔅🌹 “Making the Most of the Exalted Month”  “Setting the Soul in Motion”  “The Miracle of the Halal Moon” «»  «» and more … Abstract, with Supplement       1404.12.19    Ali Saei (Abdullah Mishkat) 110.141(903)  🌹🔅

🌼🌸☘️🌷🌹🌻 🕋 🌙  ✳️✅ ❇️ ✨🔆💫🔆

✳️Drawing on the Vast Resources of the Blessed Month of Ramadan

❇️Laylat al-Qadr is a vast enterprise

Laylat al-Qadr is a vast creative apparatus

To grasp Laylat al-Qadr, one needs a vision worthy of Laylat al-Qadr!

A narrow heart and Laylat al-Qadr have nothing in common!

How beautiful are these verses on expansiveness of heart and the cultivation of capacity!

✨🔆 Ṭā Hā: 25   قالَ رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لي‏ صَدْري

🔆 My Lord, expand my breast

✨🔆 Al-An‘ām: 125   فَمَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَنْ يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلامِ وَ مَنْ يُرِدْ أَنْ يُضِلَّهُ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقاً حَرَجاً كَأَنَّما يَصَّعَّدُ فِي السَّماءِ كَذلِكَ يَجْعَلُ اللَّهُ الرِّجْسَ عَلَى الَّذينَ لا يُؤْمِنُونَ

🔆 Whomever God wills to guide, He opens their breast to Islam; and whomever He wills to lead astray for their wrongdoing, He makes their breast so constricted that it is as if they were climbing into the sky. Thus does God place defilement upon those who do not believe!

✨🔆 Al-Zumar: 22   أَ فَمَنْ شَرَحَ اللَّهُ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلامِ فَهُوَ عَلى‏ نُورٍ مِنْ رَبِّهِ فَوَيْلٌ لِلْقاسِيَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ مِنْ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ أُولئِكَ في‏ ضَلالٍ مُبينٍ

🔆 Is one whose breast God has opened to Islam and who stands upon a light from his Lord (like the blind and misguided)? Woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of God! They are in manifest error!

❇️From Laylat al-Qadr to the Night of Knowledge

Without doubt, Laylat al-Qadr has a scientific reality, and manifests the divine will and volition; it also has a dimension of decree, judgment and ratification.

The scientific reality of Laylat al-Qadr is an encompassing realm that embraces every night and all its days; accordingly, it encompasses not only a thousand months but every month in the universe.

❇️The Way of the Night Is the Journey to God

✨🔆 Al-Isrā’: 1   سُبْحانَ الَّذي أَسْرى‏ بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلاً مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى الَّذي بارَكْنا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آياتِنا إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّميعُ الْبَصيرُ

🔆 Glory be to Him who carried His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We might show him some of Our signs. He is indeed All-Hearing, All-Seeing.

✨🔆 Al-Muzzammil: 6   إِنَّ ناشِئَةَ اللَّيْلِ هِيَ أَشَدُّ وَطْئاً وَ أَقْوَمُ قيلاً

🔆 Surely, worship at night is more firmly rooted and more steadfast!

🌙 The blessed month of Ramadan and Laylat al-Qadr are a training ground and a practice hall for the prophetic and the saintly experience.

💫🔆 قَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع‏ التَّقْدِيرُ فِي لَيْلَةِ تِسْعَ عَشْرَةَ وَ الْإِبْرَامُ‏ فِي لَيْلَةِ إِحْدَى وَ عِشْرِينَ وَ الْإِمْضَاءُ فِي لَيْلَةِ ثَلَاثٍ وَ عِشْرِينَ.[1]

🔆Imam al-Sadiq, peace be upon him: The decree is made on the nineteenth night, confirmed on the twenty-first, and ratified on the twenty-third.

❇️Unveiling the Reality of Night

🔶Night has an outward and an inward dimension, an exegesis and an inner interpretation.

🔶The reality of night is that which the Creator of all existence has sworn by!

✨🔆Al-Muddaththir: 33   وَ اللَّيْلِ إِذْ أَدْبَرَ

✨🔆Al-Takwīr: 17   وَ اللَّيْلِ إِذا عَسْعَسَ

✨🔆Al-Inshiqāq: 17   وَ اللَّيْلِ وَ ما وَسَقَ

✨🔆Al-Fajr: 4   وَ اللَّيْلِ إِذا يَسْرِ

✨🔆Al-Shams: 4   وَ اللَّيْلِ إِذا يَغْشاها

✨🔆Al-Layl: 1   وَ اللَّيْلِ إِذا يَغْشى‏

✨🔆Al-Ḍuḥā: 2   وَ اللَّيْلِ إِذا سَجى‏

🔆And by the night as it withdraws and turns away, (33)

🔆And by the night when it retreats and draws to its end, (17)

🔆And by the night and all that it gathers in, (17)

🔆And by the night as it moves toward the brightness of day—surely your Lord is ever watchful over the wrongdoers! (4)

🔆And by the night as it envelops the earth, (4)

🔆By the night as it covers the world, (1)

🔆And by the night when it settles, (2)

❇️The Month of Ramadan: The Supreme Gateway to Knowledge of God

From “عرفنی نفسک” to “الهمنا معرفة فضله و اجلال حرمته”, the endeavour is to open every gateway to knowledge of God.

The gateways to knowledge of God are gateways to divine nearness and love.

The City of God is a unique and extraordinary gateway to knowledge of God.

In the soul and the cup of knowledge of God, we must drain the cup of divine love.

❇️God Is the Teacher of His Own Mysteries

The Exalted God does not abandon His servant to their own devices!

His knowledge encompasses us; we dwell within the abode of God’s knowledge.

Take heed! We are held in the womb of divine knowledge!

He is the architect and sovereign of knowledge!
Allah, Blessed and Exalted, teaches His knowledge in many ways: through prophetic revelation, gracious inspiration, subtle revelation, revelation to the mother of Moses and to Mary, and even through the call heard by the Companions of the Cave.

✨🔆Al-Shams: 8   فَأَلْهَمَها فُجُورَها وَ تَقْواها

🔆Then He inspired it with its wickedness and its righteousness,

💫🔆وَ فِيهِ يَقُولُ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ وَ قَالَ: «فَأَلْهَمَها فُجُورَها وَ تَقْواها» قَالَ: بَيَّنَ لَهَا مَا تَأْتِي وَ مَا تَتْرُكُ.^[2]

🔆Concerning this, the Imam, peace be upon him, said of the verse, “Then He inspired it [the soul] with its wickedness and its righteousness”: “That is, He made clear to it what to do and what to refrain from.”

✨🔆Al-Naḥl: 68   وَ أَوْحى‏ رَبُّكَ إِلَى النَّحْلِ أَنِ اتَّخِذي مِنَ الْجِبالِ بُيُوتاً وَ مِنَ الشَّجَرِ وَ مِمَّا يَعْرِشُونَ

🔆And your Lord inspired the bee: “Choose homes in the mountains, in the trees, and in the structures people build.”

✨🔆Al-Qaṣaṣ: 7   وَ أَوْحَيْنا إِلى‏ أُمِّ مُوسى‏ أَنْ أَرْضِعيهِ فَإِذا خِفْتِ عَلَيْهِ فَأَلْقيهِ فِي الْيَمِّ وَ لا تَخافي‏ وَ لا تَحْزَني‏ إِنَّا رَادُّوهُ إِلَيْكِ وَ جاعِلُوهُ مِنَ الْمُرْسَلينَ

🔆 We inspired Moses’ mother: “Nurse him; then, when you fear for him, cast him into the river. Do not fear or grieve, for We shall return him to you and make him one of the messengers.”

✨🔆 Maryam: 24   فَناداها مِنْ تَحْتِها أَلاَّ تَحْزَني‏ قَدْ جَعَلَ رَبُّكِ تَحْتَكِ سَرِيًّا

🔆 Then a voice called to her from below: “Do not grieve! Your Lord has placed a stream beneath you.”

✨🔆 Al-Kahf: 16   وَ إِذِ اعْتَزَلْتُمُوهُمْ وَ ما يَعْبُدُونَ إِلاَّ اللَّهَ فَأْوُوا إِلَى الْكَهْفِ يَنْشُرْ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُمْ مِنْ رَحْمَتِهِ وَ يُهَيِّئْ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَمْرِكُمْ مِرفَقاً

🔆 “When you have withdrawn from them and from what they worship besides God, take refuge in the cave. Your Lord will spread His mercy over you and make this matter a source of comfort for you.”

🔶God Almighty does not abandon us. He is with us, nearer than any word, any knowledge, or any intermediary!

❇️The blessed month of Ramadan is the book of the highest knowledge of God

Through His blessed month, the Lord Almighty opens our eyes and awakens our sense of servitude to Him, unfurling the wings of love and devotion.

Everything in existence is a sign and a means for expanding our servitude to God, and the blessed month is among the greatest of them.

From knowing the grace and majesty of the blessed month of Ramadan to knowing the self, every page is a page of knowledge of God.

Knowledge of the self, and knowledge of the saint and the prophet, are all bound up with knowledge of God.

With every kind of knowledge, the human essence is transformed, taking on new dimensions.

❇️A devoted and discerning servant of the blessed month

We should make the most of the blessed month of Ramadan in a focused, purposeful way.

Every part and member of the whole realm of our being is engaged in turning toward His threshold.

Do not let Ramadan pass you by in ignorance!

🔶 هُوَ شَهْرٌ دُعِيتُمْ فِيهِ إِلَى ضِيَافَةِ اللَّه‏

It is a month in which you have been invited to God’s feast.

A guest should bring a generous and noble appetite to the host’s table.

The learned are nourished by knowledge.

God’s guest is nourished by the essence of the blessed month’s fare!

God’s guest is nourished by food of light, pure grace, and generous bounty. From being nourished by this sustaining food, one must come to partake of it without intermediary, drawing from the Provider Himself—from effects to the One who brings them about.

❇️A workshop for generating spiritual wealth

The treasures of God’s earthly and heavenly kingdoms must be mined.

The seeker of knowledge has a capacity that opens toward the infinite.

💫🔆وَ قَالَ ع‏ كُلُ‏ وِعَاءٍ يَضِيقُ بِمَا جُعِلَ فِيهِ إِلَّا وِعَاءَ الْعِلْمِ فَإِنَّهُ يَتَّسِعُ بِه‏[3]

🔆The Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, said: “Every vessel grows narrower as it is filled, except the vessel of knowledge, which expands as it is filled.”

❇️The veins and nerves of Ramadan must be revived

The blessed month of Ramadan is an exceptional opportunity to revive the primordial nature, draw it forth, and open it up so it may blossom.

✨🔆Al-Rum: 30   فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنيفاً فِطْرَتَ اللَّهِ الَّتي‏ فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْها لا تَبْديلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ ذلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ وَ لكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لا يَعْلَمُونَ

🔆So set your face toward the pure faith of the Lord—the natural disposition upon which God created humankind. There is no changing God’s creation. This is the upright faith, though most people do not know it.

🔶 In the blessed month of Ramadan, we find ourselves at a moment of natural opening!

❇️Guardians of heart and soul

Be guardians of body and soul. The finest guardianship is to entrust their protection to the Creator of all boundaries.

Guard the treasure within

🔶 وَ أَلْهِمْنَا مَعْرِفَةَ فَضْلِهِ وَ إِجْلَالَ حُرْمَتِهِ، وَ التَّحَفُّظَ مِمَّا حَظَرْتَ فِيه‏

“Sit at the gateway of the heart,” and entrust it to the Creator of hearts, who will protect it in the best possible way.

So make Allah, the Strong and the Exalted, the gatekeeper of your heart.

❇️The great enterprise of the capital of our limbs and inner faculties

The human being is a vast joint-stock company, with both an earthly and a heavenly domain, public and private; the essence of the person is its chief executive and director.

Let us put the immense capital of our purified members and limbs to work in the path that leads to God’s pleasure.

🔶 وَ أَعِنَّا عَلَى صِيَامِهِ بِكَفِّ الْجَوَارِحِ عَنْ مَعَاصِيكَ، وَ اسْتِعْمَالِهَا فِيهِ بِمَا يُرْضِيك‏

Set your members and limbs on the path of spiritual ascent!

Set your members, limbs and inner faculties to work at the highest level, and take flight toward the summit of perfection.

We have yet to set even one part of our body fully and truly to work.

A great revolution in our members and limbs calls for a sweeping turn—from the lowest to the highest.

Let us raise our aspirations so that we may reach the heights.

❇️The soul’s refinery

Purifying the outward and the inward is the secret of ascent!

Corruption of body and soul brings about our fall!

The reason for «صم بکم  عمی» is the corruption of hearts.

✨🔆 Al-An‘am: 39   وَ الَّذينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآياتِنا صُمٌّ وَ بُكْمٌ فِي الظُّلُماتِ مَنْ يَشَأِ اللَّهُ يُضْلِلْهُ وَ مَنْ يَشَأْ يَجْعَلْهُ عَلى‏ صِراطٍ مُسْتَقيمٍ

🔆 Those who deny Our signs are deaf and dumb, lost in darkness. God leaves astray whom He wills (and who is deserving); and whom He wills (and deems worthy), He sets upon a straight path.

✨🔆 Al-Mutaffifin: 14   كَلاَّ بَلْ رانَ عَلى‏ قُلُوبِهِمْ ما كانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ

🔆 No indeed! What they have done has rusted over their hearts.

❇️From negative discipline to positive spiritual practice

The journey from purifying the soul to adorning it leads from the lowest to the highest.

Adorning the inner self with the light of majesty and beauty is the duty of every lover.

🔶 حَتَّى لَا تَعِيَ بُطُونُنَا إِلَّا مَا أَحْلَلْت‏

✨🔆 ‘Abasa: 24   فَلْيَنْظُرِ الْإِنْسانُ إِلى‏ طَعامِهِ

🔆 Let each person consider their food (and how it is brought into being)!

❇️Activating the senses and limbs is a heavenly undertaking

Pure fuel is essential for flight to the pure realm.

The Qur’an and the Ahl al-Bayt are the purest, miracle-working fuel of the heavenly realm.

Complete activation

Activating the light

Set the noble virtues in your soul in motion. Set the forces within your surroundings in motion, and witness their wonders.

Every noble virtue within a person is a tremendous force; once set in motion, it can unleash a storm.

The blessed month of Ramadan and Laylat al-Qadr are an exceptional opportunity to activate the intellect to its fullest.

When the intellect is fully engaged, new horizons beyond reason open up.

❇️The miracle of lawful sustenance

Lawful sustenance works wonders: it is nourishment that brings light.

🌼Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)🌼

💫🌹A “craft-based,” systematic perspective on worship

The images of “great industries,” “the machinery of creation,” a “workshop,” and a “company” offer a fresh, systems-based perspective on servitude to God. This approach shows that worship in Ramadan is not merely refraining from sin or performing individual acts; it is a vast, carefully engineered project to rebuild the human being. This way of putting it helps readers grasp the importance of the month’s time and opportunities as a form of “spiritual investment.”

💫🌹The importance of an open heart and cultivating capacity

The verses of Surahs Taha and al-An‘am place the human capacity to receive at the heart of the matter.

 Laylat al-Qadr is no fit for a constricted heart.

Before receiving divine grace, one must purify the soul and turn away from sin, opening the heart to receive divine light. Knowledge and insight cannot be absorbed without the capacity to receive them—a heart made spacious.

💫🌹The spiritual reality of the night and the journey to God

The importance of night in the order of creation

Night—especially Laylat al-Qadr—is not merely a physical time for sleep; it is a “path,” a tunnel for journeying and spiritual wayfaring toward God.

💫🌹The human being as a “great company”

This perspective deepens our sense of responsibility toward the body. The eyes, ears, tongue, and hands must be put under wise management and set on an elevated course, so that they yield spiritual profit. The prayer “وَ أَعِنَّا عَلَى صِيَامِهِ بِكَفِّ الْجَوَارِحِ عَنْ مَعَاصِيكَ» دقیقاً ” affirms this school of thought: fasting is not simply giving up food and drink, but managing the entire capital of one’s being.

💫🌹Knowledge of the self and knowledge of God

It establishes a direct connection between “عرفنی نفسک” and “معرفة الله”،

Ramadan is an opportunity to bring forth the treasure of human nature. That innate nature is a refinery: once its impurities—sins—are removed, the human being can reach the summit of perfection and nearness to God.

💫🌹The miracle of lawful sustenance

“The miracle of lawful sustenance” offers a comprehensive perspective on life in this world and the next.

Spiritual nourishment can come through lawful sustenance, received directly from the Provider. This truth underscores the importance of God-consciousness in earning one’s livelihood. The radiance born of lawful sustenance is the fuel for flight toward the celestial realm.

💫🌹Summary

This text invites us to make the most of Ramadan’s opportunities in an elevated way. Its central message is that, through careful planning, disciplined stewardship of our faculties and limbs, and inner purification, we should prepare ourselves to receive the grace of Laylat al-Qadr.

“Further reflections and development”

 A mystical and practical journey concerning the blessed month of Ramadan and Laylat al-Qadr

🔆🌻Ramadan’s great industries and the governance of the inner cosmos🌻🔆

❇️From “industry” to divine making: the human being as God’s creation

If Ramadan is a great industry, its final product is the “perfect human being,” or the “Godly human being.”

In this month, a person moves beyond merely existing and becomes a being specially shaped and formed. This is an inner industrial revolution, in which earthly beings are transformed into beings of light. In this workshop, let us not allow our tools (our limbs) to gather dust. Instead, we must melt them down in the furnace of excellence and obedience, then recast them in the mould of the divine will.

❇️Managing the Heart’s Crisis and Safeguarding Its Secrets

“Guardian of the Heart”

“Information Security” in the Workshop of Being

The human heart is a command centre and a repository of divine secrets. Its enemies (the devils) are constantly trying to infiltrate this centre and steal its confidential information (dignity and faith).

🔶 A Qur’anic approach: Protecting this centre requires “unceasing remembrance.” Remembrance is the heart’s air-defence system, intercepting every missile of temptation before it can strike its target.

✨🔆 الرعد : 28 الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَ تَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُمْ بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ أَلا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

🔆 Those who believe and whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of God. Surely, it is in the remembrance of God that hearts find peace.

🔶 In Ramadan, the heart’s security must be raised to the “maximum” level so that it can receive the secrets of Laylat al-Qadr.

❇️Spiritual Exports and the Soul’s Resistance Economy

🔶 Ramadan is not merely a season for receiving blessings; it is also a season for “exporting” righteous deeds to the higher realms. Every prayer and supplication offered in this month is a sound currency—a currency of light—that can be traded in the realm of the unseen.

🔶 Just as lawful sustenance carries its own blessings, “giving in charity” for God’s sake is a form of investment with multiplied returns. In this month, openhanded generosity brings forth the opening of God’s unseen hand.

✨🔆 البقرة : 261 مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوالَهُمْ فِي سَبيلِ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ حَبَّةٍ أَنْبَتَتْ سَبْعَ سَنابِلَ فِي كُلِّ سُنْبُلَةٍ مِائَةُ حَبَّةٍ

🔆 The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of God is that of a grain that sprouts seven ears, each bearing a hundred grains.

🔶 Ramadan’s economy is an economy of “generosity,” in which “abundance” takes the place of “scarcity.”

❇️Laylat al-Qadr and the “Zero Point” of the Geography of Light

To understand Laylat al-Qadr more deeply, we should think of it as the “zero point” in the coordinates of spiritual time and space. On this night, all distances disappear.

🔶 The technology of devotion: On Laylat al-Qadr, the technology of devotion is upgraded. With a single act of resolute commitment, a person can travel a thousand-year path. This is the “night for downloading vast packages of light.” If your being’s server (the spirit) has sufficient bandwidth (an expansive heart), it can receive in an instant spiritual knowledge that would otherwise remain beyond your reach in an ordinary year.

❇️From “Outward Fasting” to “Inward Fasting”

“Activating the limbs”: Now we must turn to “inward fasting.” A true faster refrains not only from eating and drinking, but also from “sins of the mind” and “spiritual impurities.”

🔶 Fasting of the eyes and ears: The eyes must not look upon what is forbidden, and the ears must not listen to backbiting. But beyond that, the “heart” must not look to anyone but God, and the “intellect” must not heed anything but the truth.

✨🔆 حديث قدسی: «الصَّوْمُ لِي وَ أَنَا أَجْزِي بِهِ»؛ Fasting is for Me, and I Myself shall reward it.

This shows that the reality of fasting is an entirely personal matter between the servant and God, unfolding in the deepest layers of one’s being and hidden from the eyes of others.

❇️Producing “Men and Women of God” on the Assembly Line of Mercy

Ramadan is a factory that produces “men of God” and “women of God”—people who are no longer enslaved to their passions, but are senior stewards of the sacred domain.

🔶 Qualities of the finished product:

1. Always connected: their being is constantly tuned to the spiritual qibla.

2. The operating system of faith: every aspect of their lives runs on faith and God-consciousness.

3. The battery of devotion: their energy comes from love of the Ahl al-Bayt (علیهم‌السلام) and never runs out.

❇️ The Ladder of Ascension

The “great industries of Ramadan” form a ladder whose base rests on earth—fasting and outward worship—while its summit reaches into the heavens, to spiritual knowledge and Laylat al-Qadr.

This month, we are the engineers of our own souls. Let us bring the project of “shaping a noble human being” to completion through care, oversight, and sustained effort, so that on the Night of Decree we may receive the certificates of “God-consciousness” and “divine pleasure.”

🌼🔆 و آخر دعوانا أن الحمد لله رب العالمین 🔆🌼

[1] Al-Kāfī (Islamic edition), vol. 4, p. 159  al-Kulaynī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Tehran, fourth edition, 1407 AH.

[2] Tafsīr Nūr al-Thaqalayn    vol. 5    p. 586  Ḥuwayzī, ʿAbd ʿAlī ibn Jumʿa, Tafsīr Nūr al-Thaqalayn, 5 vols., Ismāʿīliyān, Iran, Qom, fourth edition, 1415 AH.

[3] Nahj al-Balāgha (ed. Ṣubḥī al-Ṣāliḥ), p. 505 al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.