Ramadan is the state of consciousness in which the boundless generosity of Essence displays Itself openly. For an entire month, Ramadan generates a crystal clear reflection of Paradise upon the mirror of the earthly plane. In this mirror of space and time shines precisely the same Light of Allah that floods the seven heavenly planes and that surges within the Divine Heart. Ramadan opens the gates of Paradise. Allah fully manifests Paradise during the Night of Power, and the month of Ramadan is all Night of Power—a single diamond of Divine Peace and Power turning slowly, sunset by sunset, each of its twenty-nine brilliant facets a mystical night, during which unique blessings descend into the entire universe from the Most High Who is the Most Near. The central core of the month, the precise Night of Power, extends timelessly in earthly time from sunset to dawn. This mystical night, containing the golden midnight sunrise of Essence, actually dissolves and resolves galaxies and subtle heavenly worlds into pure Paradise. Paradise is not a physical, mental, or spiritual location within creation, but the very Heart of the Creator. Thus Ramadan reveals in daily experience—whether to advanced mystics or to beginners in the way of Islam—the inconceivable identity of the primal Essence, the Divine Attributes, the eternal souls, and the pristine creation. This supreme identity, or indivisible unity, is prior to and beyond the mystic union of the soul with its Lord, prior to and beyond Divinity and humanity, Creator and creation—for these dynamic polarities are simply the play of Divine Energies. The Night of Power is the perfect Peace in which all dynamics disappear. O Night of Power, please manifest continually as the very nature of Reality, as the very nature of infinite Generosity, as the very nature of the fully evolved Muhammadan humanity. Atom from the Sun of Knowledge / Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi