Laylat al-Qadr in New York City is the night of March 26-27, 2025. The Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar so the date changes every year.
As the holiest night in Islam, it is believed that what you do this night can change your future. That’s true. What you do today, defines your tomorrow. The books you read today can affect your life for years to come.
Some Muslims spend the night in the mosque or with family. Some celebrate in stillness alone, in “I’tikaf,” because it is mostly in stillness that we can experience the presence of the divine, regardless of your name for God. Stillness is a wonderful practice of self-healing. Modern life, especially in New York City, brings the opposite. We need to stop sometimes.
What is Laylat al-Qadr?
The Muslim festival commemorates the night when the Qur’an began to be revealed to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. The historic event took place on one of the last ten nights of Ramadan in 610. Nobody is certain which night it was, so many Muslims celebrate for the last ten nights, in consideration that Allah wants people to be faithful every day.
The revelations continued for many years, but this was the beginning. Laylat al-Qadr celebrates the beginning of Islam. If a Christian reference helps you understand, Laylat al-Qadr has the same importance for Muslims as Easter does for Christians. It’s the beginning of faith.
The Festival is celebrated on different nights by Sunni and Shia muslims. We want to respect everyone. We follow the date of the New York City holiday.
Laylat al-Qadr Inspires Reading
It’s believed that what you do on the Night of Power has more spiritual significance than anything you do on any other day or night. Because this night is so powerful, many people stay up all night. Many Muslims spend the night reading the Quran. Encouraging reading is a wonderful thing.
Why Does New York Latin Culture Magazine Cover Islam?
Islam isn’t Latin. If anything the Islamic and Latin worlds are competitors in West Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe.
Yet we mixed together in Islamic Spain. We are not even taught about it in the United States, but Islamic Spain was one of the pinnacles of humanity in its time, the third great European civilization.
The civilization of Islamic Spain was equal in breadth and significance to the Romans and the Renaissance. Muslims brought the knowledge of West Asia and South Asia to Europe. Many technological advances were made and Jewish poets writing in Arabic for Spanish sultans recovered classical European knowledge from the great Islamic libraries. The Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution wouldn’t have happened the way they did without the advancements of Islamic Spain.
Furthermore, Arab merchants ran the African coastal trade, first between East Africa and India, and then around most of the African coast. So Islam is one of the great religions of Africa.
The TransAtlantic Slave Trade (1500s – 1800s) brought West African Muslims to the Caribbean and the Americas. For example, Dutty Boukman, one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) was called “Boukman” because he was a man of the book. He was a Muslim imam (priest).
There are relatively few Muslims in Latin America, but there are some. Many internalize their faith to avoid harassment. Islam is also one of the faiths you will encounter in New York City. So we write a little about Islam to understand it ourselves, and to try and increase mutual understanding and tolerance. We are all human.
Laylat al-Qadr Mubarak”
“Blessed Laylat al-Qadr” in Arabic