SHABI BARAT.....AN INNOVATION The month of Sha’ban is the - TopicsExpress

SHABI BARAT.....AN INNOVATION The month of Sha’ban is the eighth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. The fifteenth night of this month is known as Laylatul Bara’ah or Laylatun Nisfe min Sha’ban in the Arab world. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, etc., it is known as Shab-e-barat. Some people believe that in Surah al-Dukhan (44:3-4) there is a reference to this night as Allah says, “We sent it (the Qur’an) down during a blessed night. We are truly warners. In that night is made distinct every affair of wisdom” But the night referred to here cannot be a Sha’ban night, because it is said here clearly that the Qur’an was revealed in this night. We know from the Surah al-Qadr (97) that the Qur’an was revealed in the night of Qadr and we also know from the Qur’an (Al-Baqarah 2:185) that the Qur’an was revealed in the month of Ramadan, so it is obvious that the night of the revelation of the Qur’an was in Ramadan, not Sha’ban, and that it was Laylatul Qadr not Shab-e-barat (or the Sha’ban night). Some people also say that in the 2nd year of Hijrah, the direction of Qiblah was changed from Jerusalem to Ka’bah (Makkah) on the 15th day of Sha’ban. This report is also not confirmed by authentic Ahadith.According to most of the scholars of Tafsir, the Qur’an has not mentioned anything about the Sha’ban night. There are some Ahadith that speak about the Middle of Sha’ban and its night. However, the scholars of Hadith say that most of the Ahadith concerning this night are not sound. They are weak (da’if) according to the criteria of the Muhaddithin. Imam al-Mundhiri (died in 656 A. H.) in his famous book Al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib (vol. 2, pp. 116-120) has reported fourteen Ahadith on the subject of this night. The following points can be summarized from those Ahadith: