Across the country today one of the most auspicious of Muslim festivals is being celebrated with a whole night of offering special prayers and reciting of the Quran, religious fervour and rituals and ‘Dua’ for ‘divine blessings’. Tonight is the auspicious 15th night of Shabaan, also called “Shab-e-Baraat”, that the Prophet Muhammad taught his disciples to be the beginning of a New year in the spiritual realm, when the affairs of human beings are arranged in the Divine Presence and it is believed that the destinies of all men are written for the coming year taking into account their past deeds.
On this exalted night, the Muslims pray and seek forgiveness for sins of the past 12 months and visit the graves of their relatives and offer flowers, light lamps at/on the graves and seek God’s blessings for the departed souls of their forefathers.
On this intervening night of 24th/25th June, the major and minor Dargahs of Delhi are the best places to feel and experience the unique celebrations of the night of Shab-E-Baraat. The Dargahs of Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki in Mehrauli, Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya and Dargah-e-Matka Peer in central Delhi and Khwaja Chirag-e-Dehlvi near Malviya Nagar even have their streets being illuminated with lights and candles.
Flowers, incense sticks, oil-lamps(Diyas) are offered at the graves of the deceased family members and Sufi Saints. Many unmarked graves and graves of long-forgotten people are also cleaned and flowers and oil lamps are offered by the community of people living nearby, as a mark of respect to the long-departed souls.
One of the holiest and most significant nights of the Islamic calendar, next only to Lailatul Qadir (27th night of Ramadaan) in auspiciousness, the night of “Shab-e-Baraat” is observed 15 days before the start of the holy month of Ramadaan/Ramazaan. The night is known as Laylatul Bara’ah or Lay-latun Nisf-eMin Shaban in the rest of the Arab world, while the Indian sub-continent we popularly know its as the night of “Shab-e-Baraat”.
There are displays of colorful fireworks and lighting at the Dargahs and sweets like halwa-paratha, sweet-rice pulao and other mithais are distributed as part of acts of charity performed for the poor and needy.
