Friday sermon: the night Angels will descend on Earth

Laylat Al Qadr is said to be better than a thousand nights

The final 10 days of Ramadan are the holiest and most honoured by God, the sermon will tell worshippers on Friday.

But the holiest night of these is Laylat Al Qadr – the Night of Destiny – when the Quran is believed to have been revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

Worshippers will be told to increase their acts of faith throughout the final 10 days of the holy month to reap the rewards of Laylat Al Qadr.

“Laylat Al Qadr is better than a thousand months,” the Quran says.

On this night, acts of goodness and night prayers are better than those carried out over 83 years.

It is believed that, on that night, angels will descend en masse bearing mercy, blessings and peace. “Indeed the Angels on that night in terms of number on the Earth will be greater than grains of gravel,” the Quran says.

The sermon will tell worshippers to seize the opportunity and spend that evening in prayer and other acts of faith to gain the blessings of God.

They are advised to supplicate to God saying: “Oh Allah, You are the most forgiving and You love to forgive so forgive me.”

The Prophet Mohammed said those who recite this supplication will have their sins forgiven and their good deeds magnified.

The exact day of Laylat Al Qadr is not known but the Prophet Mohammed said it falls in the last 10 nights of the holy month, on an odd-­numbered night.

The Islamic scholars in Madinah among the Tabaeen – the first generation after the Prophet Mohammed – said praying isha and fajr at a mosque is particularly important on Laylat Al Qadr.

“Whoever attends isha in congregation, then it is like they have stood half the night. Whoever prays isha and fajr in congregation, then he has spent the entire night standing in prayer,” they said.