“And what makes you know what the Night of Honour is?

“And what makes you know what the Night of Honour is?" 3. “The Night of Honour is better than a thousand months.” 4. “The Angels and the Spirit descend therein by their Lord's leave for every affair.” 5. “Peace! It is till the rising of the dawn.” The Night When the Qur'an Was Revealed...

It is completely evident, in the verses of Qur'an, that the Holy Qur'an was revealed in Ramadan: "Ramadan is the (month) in which was sent down the Qur'an..." [^4] and apparently, it seems that the whole Qur'an was descended in this month.

But, the first verse of Surah Qadr says: "Surely We sent it (the Qur'an) down on the Night of Honour.” The word 'Qur'an' is not clearly mentioned in this verse, but it is certain that the objective pronoun existing in the verse refers to the Qur'an and its seeming ambiguity is for stating its importance.

The phrase "Surely We sent it" is another sense to show the importance of this great heavenly Book of which Allah has attributed its descent to Himself especially with the plural pronoun, 'We', which proves its greatness. The descent of the Qur'an on the Night of Honour (Qadr), the very night on which the fates of men are decided, is another reason to show the importance of this great Divine Book in the destiny of men in this world.

With the combination of the senses of this verse and the above said verse from Surah Baqarah, it is concluded that the Night of Honour (Qadr) is in Ramadan. It is not clearly understood, from the Qur'an, which night of the nights of this month is the Night of Honour and has been left a mystery. But, there are many ideas about it in the narrations which will be dealt with later in this present Surah.

Here, a question arises regarding the history and the content of the Holy Qur'an in connection with the events in the life of the holy Prophet (S) which evidently denote that this heavenly Book was sent down gradually and during the entire period of 23 years, then, how does this coincide with the above verse which says: "Surely We sent it (the Qur'an) down on the Night of Honour", and in Ramadan?

The reply to this question as many scholars have said is to say that the Qur'an has two kinds of revelation: One kind is that the whole Qur'an came down, at once, in one night to the holy heart of the Prophet (S) or to Bait-ul-Ma'mur, or from the 'preserved tablet' to the lowest heaven of this world.