LAILAT-UL-BARAT means night of barat or fate of mankind. Shab-e-Barat is celebrated in the Muslim world on the 15th Shaban every year — two weeks ahead of the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. People in Bangladesh will celebrate it tonight with night-long vigils, prayers and religious festivities seeking salvation of the soul from sin and a happy, righteous life for the family and eternal peace for the dead. Shab-e-Barat also commemorates the entry of Prophet Muhammad (Sm) into the city of Mecca giving the day a special significance to the Muslims all over the world. It is also known in some other vocabularies in many Islamic nations. In Muslim religious belief, the night is treated as ‘the night of records’, ‘the night of assignment’ and ‘the night of deliverance’. Broadly, it means Allah determines the fate of every individuals in this fateful night and all Muslims – young and old, man and woman make every endeavour to please Allah and get His divine blessings on this occasion through devotion and prayer. They pray for bountiful means of livelihood out of poverty throughout the year and plenty of success in all fronts. As per religious sayings, on this night Allah keeps the Doors of Mercy and Forgiveness open and wait to hear people begging for forgiveness of Him for misdeeds and asking for fortune for individuals, families and the nation as a whole. But, there is some special “Not Dos” for this night. One who creates disunity among two Muslims, for example and the person who unjustly takes away the right and property of another Muslim (or person) and has not yet rectified himself, would not get Allah’s mercy on this night. Moreover as the practice goes on, distributing food and money by the rich to the poor does not itself free the wealthy from their responsibility to the needy. It must be the occasion for self-rectification and realisation to bring change in the society to give the right share of the national wealth and income to the poor. It is our fervent hope that people of all walks of life and particularly our leaderships will try to adhere to the ideals of Shab-e-Barat on this auspicious night to end disunity, poverty and deprivation of the disadvantaged. Specially, the celebration of Shab-e-Barat this time when people are enslaved and killed by fellow countrymen, Allah’s forgiveness of our sin is all the more important. People hope that our leaders would bring peace and harmony in the country by removing misgivings. Let us preach tolerance and take vow to end exploitation of the poor when we would seek bountiful heavenly blessings on this occasion.
