…on this Night, the Prophet was not merely told to “Read: In the Name of your Lord”, but rather, he was already engaged in the spiritual practice of invocation (dhikru’llāh) – alluded to in the first revelation of the Qur’ān which properly reads: “Recite the Name of your Lord” (iqrā’ bi-smi rabbika).
On the Night of Power, the Prophet Muḥammad underwent a spiritual and mystical experience. The celestial power which granted him this experience is called the Holy Spirit which – as Sūrah al-Qadr states – descended in the Night of Power:
إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَـٰهُ فِى لَيْلَةِ ٱلْقَدْرِ – “Verily, We sent it/him down in the Night of Power.”
تَنَزَّلُ ٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةُ وَٱلرُّوحُ فِيهَا بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِم مِّن كُلِّ أَمْرٍۢ – “The Angels and the Spirit descend in it by the permission of their Lord for every affair.”
The Qur’ān was not merely dictated to the Prophet in the form of Arabic sounds and letters. Rather, it was infused and inspired into the Prophet’s heart and soul as an immaterial and formless Holy Spirit which is itself beyond sounds, letters, and language. Sayyidnā Nasir-i Khusraw is very critical of those who presume that the Muḥammad merely heard the Qur’an in Arabic from the Angel Gabriel and then repeated it. For Nāsir and other Ismā‘īlī Muslim theosophers, the Angel Gabriel is the imaginal rank (ḥadd al-khayāl) of the Holy Spirit that inspires the soul of the Prophet as opposed to his physical ears.
More here: https://www.ismailignosis.com/p/night-of-power-how-the-quran-was-revealed-in-human-language
IsmailiGnosis: Recommended Readings for Nawruz and Laylat al-Qadr
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