Kadar night — Dutch/Atjehnese Kadar-nacht, Arabic Laylat al-Qadr (ليلة القدر), “the Night of Power” or “the Night of Decree” — is the night in the last third of Ramadan on which, according to Islamic tradition, the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. The night is named in Prof. Dr. Kernkamp’s chapter De invloed van den Islam in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946) in his account of the Ramadan cycle in the Indies. Kernkamp’s specific Atjeh-relevant observation is that, where Java prefers the 21st night of Ramadan as the Kadar-nacht, Atjeh prefers the 27th.
Kernkamp’s account
Kernkamp’s wording: “The last five odd nights (21–29) are considered very holy; one of them is the Kadar-night, in which the Quran would have descended from Heaven, of which even now creation is still under the impression. One should pass them in vigil with pious works. On Java the notables then give so-called maleman’s, evening meals, to a large number of invited guests. There, preference is for the 21st of the month; in Atjeh, however, for the 27th. In ‘the’ night, there is rejoicing of the masses and especially the youth shows itself active with fireworks. Now and then one gets the impression that Carnival has here been shifted into the Fast itself. In less civilised regions one knows an illumination in the Kadar-night at least of the graves, where also diverse ceremonies are performed.”
The Atjeh 27th-night preference
The Atjeh preference for the 27th night (rather than the 21st) as Kadar-nacht is, in Kernkamp’s account, one of the distinctive features of Atjeh Ramadan practice. The preference is for the night of 27 Ramadan — the night on which, in Atjehnese tradition, the Quran is held to have been revealed; the Javanese preference for the 21st reflects a different traditional calculation. The choice between the two nights has practical consequences for the timing of the maleman (evening meals), the illumination of graves, the fireworks of the youth, and the other rituals that mark the Kadar-nacht.
Context in the Ramadan cycle
The Kadar-nacht is the high-point of the second half of Ramadan, following the mid-Ramadan *ratib* (the Atjeh mid-month recitation of praises of Allah, described as “extraordinarily loud” and giving rise to “all sorts of excesses”) and preceding the *pitrah* distribution at the end of the month. The Kadar-nacht’s association with the descent of the Quran from Heaven places it within the wider Indonesian complex of “the grave as the gateway to the afterlife” that Kernkamp describes elsewhere in the chapter: the illumination of graves on the Kadar-nacht in “less civilised regions” reflects the same complex of beliefs about the continuing contact between the living and the dead that underlies the Atjeh *kanduri* tradition.
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, the Kadar-nacht is significant as one of the distinctive features of Atjeh Ramadan practice: the preference for the 27th (rather than the 21st) night marks the Atjeh tradition as a variant of the wider Indonesian Ramadan pattern, in which the same ritual calendar is observed but with different local emphases. The same preference also places the Atjeh case within the wider Islamic world, where the dispute over whether the Kadar-nacht falls on the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th or 29th of Ramadan is an old one — resolved in Atjeh, as in much of the Muslim world, in favour of the 27th.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- invloed van den Islam — influence of Islam
- Meunasah — village prayer-house
- ratib — sequence of pious formulas praising Allah
- kanduri — religious feast-meal
- pitrah — fast-breaking alms
- Kadar-nacht — Night of Power
- maleman — evening meal
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Java — Java
- Prof. Dr. — Professor Doctor
- Dr. — Doctor
Sources
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
See Also
- Ratib in Atjeh
- Pitrah
- Djakat
- Meunasah
- Mesigit
- Kanduri
- Friday prohibitions
- Acheh
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- W. J. A. Kernkamp
- Malam dua ploh tujoh
- Malam beureu’at
- Ramadhan
- Puasa
- Meudaroh
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), p. 90 (chapter De invloed van den Islam door Prof. Dr. W. J. A. Kernkamp).