JULY 27
Nightly Preparation
for a Mighty Task
The chapter of the Quran entitled “Al-Muzzammil” (The Mantled One) commences with these verses:
“You who are wrapped up in your mantle, keep vigil all night, save for a few hours: half the night, or a little less or a little more: and with measured tone recite the Quran. We are about to lay a weighty message upon you. It is in the hours of the night that impressions are strongest and words most certain; in the day-time you are hard-pressed with work. Remember the name of your Lord and dedicate yourself to Him utterly.” (73:1-8)
From these verses it is clear that God requires His servants to be so devoted to divine service that they rise at night in order to perform their duties to the Lord. To forsake one’s sleep and spend the night hours in pursuit of a cause indicates the highest level of dedication; it shows that one has associated oneself utterly with the object of one’s dedication, and will soon be in a position to represent it in the world.
This applies to worldly pursuits also. Almost all the individuals who have reached great heights in any field have been those who were willing to stay awake at nights in order to gain proficiency in it.
The case of Severiano Ballesteros, the Spanish golfer, provides apt illustration of this point. Ballesteros is not indisputably one of the two greatest golfers in the world and has won millions of dollars in numerous victories in tournaments on both sides of the Atlantic. There was a time, however, when he was just a poor caddy at Pedereda in Spain. He once told Frank Keating of the Guardian newspaper how he used to get up at night to hit a 100 or so balls “at the moon.” He could not see them—“but I can tell how good and straight I hit them by the feel in hands and the sand.”
To become a true Muslim is to become a personification of Islam in the eyes of the world; it is to become so associated with Islam that one is fit to carry its message to far corners of the globe. This requires intense preparation, which must be conducted in a spirit keen enough to fuel one for work through the night hours. Success does not come in mundane fields without such dedication. How, then, can it come in the field of divine service, for there is no task more difficult, and more strewn with obstacles—both within and without—than that of carrying the flame of true faith in God before the world.
