Bismillah…
Imam Ahmad and Bazzar in their Musnads, Bayhaqi, and Tabarani in his Mu’jam al-Awsat from Anas related that Sayyid al-Wujud Muhammad (alayhi salat wa salam) used to say these words at the sight of the new moon of the holy month of Rajab (i wonder how then some can deny any blessing from these months leading up to Ramadan?).
It is also reported that he said “Rajab is the month of Allah, Sha’ban is my month, and Ramadan is the month of the community of Muslims,” with a weak chain recorded by Bayhaqi in his Shu’ab al-Iman and by Daylami in his Firdaws al-Akhbar. From this hadith, the Sufis have derived a great benefit in welcoming and accepting these months. Since Rajab is the month of Allah, it is then recommended to increase in acts of devotion related to Allah, specifically for example, the recitation of Qur’an, and adhkar of istighfar and tahlil (in all its variations), the “hawqala” (la hawla wa la quwwata…), and fasting (“fasting is for Me…”). And because Sha’ban is his month, the recommended act is abundant and frequent salawat.
He (alayhi salat wa salam) taught us to welcome seasons of blessed grace and divine grants when he said: “Indeed, in some of your days your Lord has fragrant breezes of grants (nafahat), so expose yourselves to the fragrant breezes of your Lord’s Mercy…” {Sahih hadith recorded by Tabarani in his Kabir and Awsat, Ibn Abi Shayba in his Musannaf, Bayhaqi in his Shu’ab, Abu Nu’aym in his Hilya, Hakim Tirmidhi in his Nawadir al-Usul, Quda’i in his Musnad al-Shihab, and others}.
and Allah Most High HImself tells us to honor those things which He honors (such as the holy month of Rajab), in surat Hajj (v. 30, 32), saying that this is “from the taqwa of the hearts.”
Below are some parts of my translation of some of the writings of my grand-shaykh, Sidi Ibrahim Muhammad al-Bataawi of Cairo, Egypt, (may Allah give him long life and health, ameen), who wrote a chapter on Laylat ul-Qadr in his book “Key to the Supreme Name, and the Way of Arrival to Allah,” which deal with preparation in these two months to become in Ramadan ready for the experience of Laylat ul-Qadr in sha’Allah…
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Each one partakes of the grants of his Lord to the degree of his/her action in accordance to the words of his Lord. Whatever it (laylat ul-qadr) is, we can say it is a pure energy, an energy spent in wholesome deeds (‘Amal Saalih) which you spend throughout your life without rebellion, after which you proceed to separate yourself (in isolation with Allah) from food (except what is essential of it), and from all pre-occupations and random thoughts (in your night of solitude), during which you recite (tilawa) the Qur’an, meaning you read it and act upon it, i.e., you make your actions “follow” (talaa) your recitation, as Allah said: “then if We recite it, then follow its recitation” (Q75:18).
You continue throughout the year steadfastly in this Qur’anic purity, until your organs and limbs are made pure and limpid, and your words, actions, and states are purified from any filth and uncleanness. During your isolation (khalwa) and retreat from food and pre-occupations, serve your spirit some of its only food, which is dhikr-Allah (concentrated consciousness of Allah). It does not matter whether that be in the form of Salat, or sitting facing towards Him (Most High) with your heart and tongue, or in recitation of HIS Words…until your spirit is strengthened (from this nourishment) and rises and rises, until the connection to its Lord is made complete in that auspicious night, and you become one who knows Allah by direct experience. For the spirit goes wherever the mind wanders in thought, and this is from the understandings contained in the statement of Rasul Allah (salla allahu alayhi wa sallam) when he said: “the slave does not get from his Salat except that portion of it in which he was conscious of Allah” (Tirmidhi).
Your spirit ascends on the Buraq of what you recite from the Words of Allah, on the day when your action-based imaan is completed, so that you abide by its commands and call other to its teachings. “To Him ascends the good word, and the righteous deed He elevates” (Q35:10). You continue in this ascension until you arrive at the station of direct witnessing, so that you yourself become a witness, and you are ALIVE, struggling against whatever else is in your heart besides Allah, and crushing the idols of forbidden desires, in you and in the people. “O man, indeed you are struggling diligently to your Lord, until you meet Him.” (Q84:6).
The lights in Laylatul Qadr do not come through the walls of your house, but rather radiate from your Qur’anic actions and salawat, penetrating unhampered through all walls and barriers, so that the ayat return to their Revealor, i.e., ascends with your spirit, so that it becomes like the Buraq with which the Prophet ascended to Allah. Your spirit becomes the medium of connection between Allah Most High and your body, which you have made pure and whole (Saalih) with your righteous actions according to that Quran…a comprehensive action, sincere for His Countenance. And there remains no obstacle in (your act) that would prevent any connection from occuring. It is as if your body, through it acting according to the Quran, became another Quran, and that in this process the Quran became two Qur’ans (i.e., the revealed Quran, and you, who have acted according to it until you became like its mirror), so that the Qur’an became “doubled” or “doubly repeated” (mathaani).
At this point, you find that you have become (with your body) of the same genus as the Lordly Word, in other words, that you have become a Qur’anic Lordly word, or “Rabbaani” (see Q3:79), prepared to perfect the connection (sila) to Allah, i.e., prepared to receive the Salat of Allah on you, so that He for example manifests Himself to you with His Name Mujeeb (Responder) or Shaafi (Healer), so that you be healed from what ails you, and you heal the people from what ails them, or He could manifest Himself to you with His Name Ghaniy (Wealthy), so that you be freed from poverty. Or He could manifest Himself to you with more than one Name of His (Most High), so that the effects and mercies of those Divine Names flow from your hands.
Each one takes from the grants of his Lord according to the amount of his sincere action for his Lord, “He makes the water to descend from the sky, so that it fills the valleys according to their volume” (Q13:17). These are some of the Salawat of Allah upon us, “He is the One Who sends Salawat upon you, as do His angels, to take you from the darknesses to the Light, and He is to the believers Merciful” (Q33:43), “and the grants of your Lord are never exhausted.” (Q17:20).
“Most Indeed I am Allah, No god but Me, so adore Me and establish the Salat for My remembrance. The Hour is certainly coming, and i am hiding it, so that every soul be rewarded according to how much it strived (for Me).” (Q20:14-15). This Hour doesnt necessarily only mean the Hour of Judgement, but could also mean the Hour of the special Divine Response. And it could mean Laylatul Qadr, which comes in secret, as the Prophet explained it, and not with drums and horns and lights. Instead, you have to light your way to it with your wholesome deeds, and frequent abundant invocation (dhikr) and Salawat until you arrive to it, or it arrives to you, for your Salat to Allah meets Allah’s Salat to you, in the manner described in Sura 54: “So We opened the skies with an immense outpouring of water, and cracked open the earth with springs of gushing water, so that the two met in a manner decreed.” (Q54:11-12).
For Allah is a Light which surrounds the whole universe and what is in it, and your actions are a light which are formed in your spirit and your being, and which are increased in power every time you increase your righteous action, until it becomes so strong that it penetrates the confines of your corporeal dense body with its subtleness, and the two lights meet: the branch meets its root, and the exiled returns home, in Laylatul Qadr. You become one who has arrived and connected (Wasil), meaning someone whose actions are watered from that Primal Spring, as was the case with Sayyidina Khidr, when Allah described him as being someone “whom We have given Mercy from Ourself, and taught him knowledge directly from Our Presence.” (Q18:65).
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It was an eloquent and moving essay and even though i translated it a number of years ago, i still feel the echo of its effects in me. May Allah grant us the realization of these realities.
i’ll be posting more from this essay as the days go by leading up to Laylat ul-Qadr.
Salamat for now 
