Note [édition originale] : The night of al Kadr.]
The word
al Kadr signifies
power and
honour or
dignity, and also the
divine decree; and the night is so named either from its
excellence above all
other nights in the year, or because, as the
Mohammedans believe, the divine
decrees for the ensuing year are annually on this night fixed and settled, or
taken from the
preserved table by
God’s throne, and given to the angels to be
executed
1. On this night
Mohammed received his first revelations; when the
Korân, say the commentators, was sent down from the aforesaid table, entire
and in one volume, to the lowest heaven, from whence
Gabriel revealed it to
Mohammed by parcels, as occasion required.
The
Moslem doctors are not agreed where to fix the night of
al Kadr; the
greater part are of opinion that it is one of the ten last nights of
Ramadân,
and, as is commonly believed, the 7th of those nights, reckoning backward;
by which means it will fall between the 23rd and 24th days of that month
2.
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1
See chap. 44. p. 401.
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2
Al Zamakh, Al Beidawi, Jallal.