Hello there, my young scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marx, and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today we're going to be doing all about The Night of Power or Laylat al-Qadr, which is a special night within the month of Ramadan for Muslims. And it's a very special night connected to when the Qur'an was first revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

And for many Muslims, this one night is better than a 1,000 months.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of this lesson today, you'll be able to explain what The Night of Power is, and how it's celebrated by Muslims today.

So let's start with our key terms, deeds, the actions that somebody does that can be good or bad.

NIght of Power, known as Laylat al-Qadr.

The night that the first revelation of the Qur'an came to the Prophet Mohammed in the cave of Hira.

Ramadan, the month in which the Qur'an was first revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

The month when muslims take part in an obligatory fast.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today will have two sections, The Night of Power and celebrating The Night of Power.

So let's start with our first section, The Night of Power.

What is the best day of the year for you? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

What is the best day? Well, you might have said your birthday, a festival day with gifts or the first day of the holidays.

Maybe these would be the best day for you.

But for Muslims, The Night of Power is seen as a very important day, and the Qur'an even says that this day is better than a 1,000 months.

So what is The Night of Power? The Night of Power is during the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan, and it's celebrated in different ways.

The first revelations of the Qur'an were revealed to the Prophet Mohammed and what's now celebrated as The Night of Power or Laylat al-Qadr.

The Prophet Mohammed was reflecting in the cave of Hira during the month of Ramadan as he didn't want to take part in the idolatry and polytheism that the others were doing at the Kaba.

Jibril, the angel appeared to him and told him to recite, and after protesting twice that he couldn't read.

The Prophet Mohammed recited what is now known as Surah 96, The Clot.

This marked the beginning of the revelations of the Qu'ran, which continued for 23 years.

This is celebrated by many Muslims during the last 10 days of Ramadan.

In remembrance of that event.

Muslims may attend the mosque to worship, pray and read the Qu'ran.

Some Muslims believe that prayers and worship offered on this night are more special than other months.

As it says in the Qu'ran in Surah 97,3, the night of decree or power is better than a 1,000 months.

Some Muslims may celebrate The Night of Power by, attending the mosque each night, reading sections of the Qur'an, praying extra prayers, donating extra money to charity.

So all of these are deeds that are seen as good generally, but if on The Night of Power it's better than a 1,000 months and it has this special significance than perhaps these deeds could be built up even more and even greater rewards could be given for doing these actions on The Night of Power.

Let's do a quick check.

The Night of Power is the first night of Ramadan.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

That is false, isn't it? But why? Well, it's false because the exact Night of Power is not known, but it's believed to be one of the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan, not the first night of Ramadan.

So let's look to source of authority to understand this a little bit more then.

And so the ultimate source of authority in Islam is the Qur'an.

And Surah 96, which was the first revelation of the Qu'ran to the Prophet Muhammad in the cave of Hira, goes like this.

"Read in the name of your Lord who created.

Created man from a clot.

Read and your Lord is the most gracious.

He who taught by the pen taught man what he never knew." Now it comes from the original Arabic and that word read, iqra in Arabic sometimes is translated as recite, which is why the Qur'an is often recited and said out loud or it could be translated as reed.

So here we've got it as translated as read.

So what is important about this passage in the Qu'ran? What word is linked to reciting the Qu'ran and what does this passage tell Muslims about God? So pause the video and have a reread of this passage.

Remember, this is the first revelation of the Qu'ran to the Prophet Muhammad on The Night of Power.

And here are your three questions.

Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done, what we've got here, read and created and generous.

The word read and Arabic is iqra which is related to the word Qu'ran and related to reciting.

This was the first revelation of the Qu'ran to the Prophet Mohammed, and it reminds Muslims about the nature of Allah as generous and a creator.

So that could link to the ideas about God being the creator.

And remember that qadr is linked to power and God's will and God being omnipotent or all powerful.

And then we've got the passage in Surah 97 about why this night is particularly important and it says, "The night of decree or power is better than a 1,000 months." So this idea of this being a very, very special night.

What does it Muslims about The Night of Power? Pause the video and have a reread and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done, we've got this idea that it's better than a 1,000 months.

It's seen as particularly special and important.

It's better than a 1,000 months.

Well Laura's asking Tareeq now who's an Imam at a Mosque, how they celebrate The Night of Power at his mosque.

And Tareeq says, "The last 10 nights of Ramadan are very special at the mosque as not only have Muslims been fasting for the first 20 days, but we also believe that there are greater rewards from doing good actions on The Night of Power.

Many members of the community make an extra effort to come and pray, worship and read the Qur'an at the mosque on those final nights, and it makes the buildup to I'd ul-Fitr even more special for us together." Why do more people attend Tareeq's mosques during the last 10 nights of Ramadan? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Because remember during those last 10 nights is when it's believed The Night of Power occurred.

Let's do a quick check.

Here's an image of Muslims celebrating The Night of Power.

Can you give me one way that Muslims may celebrate The Night of Power? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment You could have said attending the mosque each of those evenings, which is why in Tareeq's Mosque there was more people attending on those nights, well done.

Time for a practise task to see what we've learnt.

You're going to use the quote as a prompt.

So this quote from the source of authority being the Qu'ran, and you're going to explain why Muslims may complete extra prayers, worship and readings of the Qu'ran on The Night of Power.

And the quote is, "The night of decree or power is better than a 1,000 months." So you're going to write an explanation as to why muslims might do these extra things on that night.

You're going to write a paragraph explaining this, pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done really good work there.

So I asked you to use the quote as a prompt to explain why Muslims may complete extra prayers, worship and readings of the Qur'an on The Night of Power.

And the quote is, "The night of decree, power, is better than a 1,000 months." Remember that was from Surah 97.

So you might have said The Night of Power was when Muhammad received the first revelations of the Qur'an in the cave of Hira.

The Qur'an states this night is better than a 1,000 months.

And so many Muslims believe there are greater rewards from completing good actions like reading the Qur'an, praying, worshipping , and donating money on this month.

As the exact night is not known, some Muslims do these actions on all 10 of the final nights of the month of Ramadan, well done.

So onto our second section then, celebrating The Night of Power.

So there are different ways that Muslims may celebrate The Night of Power.

We know that within religions we have a diversity of ways that people practise things.

So some Muslims will attend the mosque and others might stay at home.

So some people might still do those additional prayers and additional readings, but not necessarily go to the mosque to do them, but do it at home.

The Prophet Muhammad said for example, that women shouldn't be prevented from worshipping at the mosque.

So women can come to the mosque, but some may choose to stay at home and worship at home on The Night of Power.

And those deeds still gain the same amount of rewards.

So if you remember we said if the Night of Power is better than a 1,000 months, some Muslims believe then that deeds they do on that night will have greater rewards for them, for their book of deeds for the day of judgement.

And Muslim traditions state that that can be in the mosque or it can be at home, and many women could choose to stay and worship at home if they want to rather than going to the mosque for the celebration of The Night of Power.

So let's see what Jamila does for The Night of Power then.

Jun asks her, "How do you celebrate The Night of Power as a Sunni Muslim, Jamila?" And Jamila says, "I celebrate the Night of Power on the 27th night of Ramadan.

Before I had children I could attend the mosque for the celebration, staying up all night praying and listening to the Qur'an.

Now that I have two small children, I stay at home and complete the prayers in the sitting room.

This means I can focus more fully on Allah without worrying about who can babysit the children whilst I'm gone." So for Jamila, she has seen the benefit of going to the mosque and being with others, but for now it works for her to be able to complete these prayers and readings at home where she's near her children without having to worry about who's looking after them for that night.

So for Jamila, while she's been to the mosque to celebrate The Night of Power in the past, now she finds she can focus much more on God if she's doing this at home and she knows where her children are and she's near to them.

And that shows such dedication, doesn't it? To stay up all night praying and reading and listening to the Qu'ran on that evening.

Let's do a quick check.

Women can choose to attend the mosque for night of Power celebrations.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well, that is true, isn't it? But why? Because women can choose to attend the mosque or complete prayers of worship at home.

Either way, their deeds will be rewarded.

So we know that The Night of Power happened in the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan, but there is a diversity as to which night Muslims may believe it exactly happened on.

In Sunni Islam, we just saw that Jamila celebrates it on the 27th night of Ramadan.

And within Sunni traditions it tends to be people celebrate it on the 27th night.

Sometimes Muslims celebrates it for all 10, in case it could be any of those 10.

But within Shia Islam, the final 10 nights of Ramadan hold another special significance.

Imam Ali passed away on the 21st night of Ramadan.

So he actually passed away during the month of Ramadan on the 21st night.

And Imam Ali is particularly important within Shia Islam.

He's important in Sunni Islam too, but because of that belief in the imamate.

And here we've got his burial site in Iraq, that's Imam Ali's burial site shrine in Iraq.

So she and Muslims traditionally hold the view that The Night of Power happened on the 21st, 23rd or 25th night of Ramadan.

So for Shia Muslims, they believe it could be the Imam Ali even passed away on The Night of Power by passing away on the 21st night of Ramadan, but it could be the 23rd or the 25th as well.

Why is Imam Ali especially important within Shia Islam? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well you can link this to the belief in the emanate within Shia Islam in that there are people from the Prophet's, bloodline and family who God chose to be the leaders and the guides of Islam after the Prophet Mohammed passes away with Imam Ali being the first of those as the Prophet Mohammad's cousin and son-in-law and father to the Prophet Mohammed's grandsons, Hassan and Hussein.

So he's very specially important within Shia Islam for those reasons.

So Izzy's asking Hassan, who's a Shia Muslim, how he celebrates The Night of Power, and Hassan says, "I celebrate The Night of Power by attending the mosque on three nights, including the 21st.

When I remember the death of Imam Ali." He told us to seize the opportunity of praying on The Night of Power.

And he's a reminder to me of the justice of Allah who gave us guidance for following the religion of Islam.

Working after praying all night is tough, but it's worth it for the deeds that I've done." So thank you, Hassan.

Let's do another check.

On which three of the following days do Shia Muslims usually celebrate The Night of Power? We've got the 21st night of Ramadan, 23rd night of Ramadan, 25th night of Ramadan, and 27th night of Ramadan.

Which three of these does Shia Muslims usually celebrate The Night of Power? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, it was the 21st, 23rd and 25th.

27th night of Ramadan is usually when Sunni Muslims will celebrate The Night of Power.

Some Muslims use The Night of Power to focus through prayer and meditation on the nature of Allah.

And we had that from Jamila earlier where she said when she prayed on The Night of Power, she liked to be able to focus on Allah and not worry about who was looking after the kids when she was gone.

And within Islam, this idea of remembering Allah and focusing on Allah is very, very important.

And connects to a lot of practises to do with prayer and worship.

And a particular focus on the nature of Allah, who Allah is and the different qualities that Allah has, as part of Allah's nature is called remembrance of Allah and it's often practised by Sufi Muslims, which is another branch of Islam.

And this comes from a source of authority in the Qu'ran where it says in Surah 13, "Surely it's in the remembrance of God that hearts find comfort." So in remembering who God is and thinking about God and reflecting upon God's nature can be a great comfort to human hearts.

And this has really influenced and inspired many Sufi Muslims in this act that they have of remembrance.

How could this quote connect to that then? Pause the video and reread the quote and think about what remembrance of Allah is, and we can see what you've come up with in a moment.

Well done, while remembrance can involve meditating on the 99 names of Allah, repetition of phrases such as God is great.

And repetition of phrases from Surah 97, "The Power." So we have here this remembrance of important things about God and who God is and what God has done.

And these things can be a great comfort to the human heart according to Surah 13 in the Qu'ran.

And Layla's an example of a Sufi Muslim.

So Jun is asking her, "How do you celebrate the Night of Power as a Sufi Muslim, Layla?" And Layla says, "I celebrate The Night of Power through the remembrance of Allah.

This is when I focus my mind on Allah and train my mind not to think about my own wants and desires.

The Night of Power is when the Prophet Mohammed's heart was open to the revelations of the Qu'ran.

So I pray that on this night, my heart too will be open to the will of Allah in my life." Thank you, Layla.

So Izzy and Jun are discussing now how there's a diversity in how Muslims celebrate The Night of Power.

And we've already seen this with there being a diversity as to how Jamila, Hassan, and Layla all celebrate The Night of Power.

Izzy says, "I thought all Muslims would celebrate the Night of Power in the same way and on the same night, I didn't realise there could be this diversity." And Jun says, "I think the diversity shows that different Muslims can worship Allah on the Night of Power in a way that best suits their tradition and their situation." Why is there often a diversity in how religious people perform religious practises then? So not even just thinking about The Night of Power or within Islam, sometimes we have this diversity in how practises happen.

Why do we have that diversity? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

While we can see here that not only are different traditions developed with different ideas around different religious practises, but also people's situations can be different and they can connect in different ways to their religion and their religious practises.

Let's do a quick check, which Muslim character who we've met in the lesson, said they also remember the death of Ali during The Night of Power.

Was it Jamila who was a Sunni Muslim? Hassan, a Shia Muslim or Layla as Sufi Muslim? Which one was it? Pause the video and a have ago and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, it was Hassan as a Shia Muslim.

'Cause if you remember, Ali is Imam Ali within Shia Islam.

Well done.

So let's complete a practise task to see what we've learnt then.

This practise task has got two parts to it and we're going to do part one now.

For each character in the table write how they celebrate The Night of Power and why they celebrate it in this way.

We've got Jamila, who is a Sunni Muslim, Hassan who's a Shia Muslim, and Layla, who's a Sufi Muslim.

For each one you're going to say how they celebrate The Night of Power, and then why they celebrate The Night of Power in this way.

So pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you're done in a moment.

Well done, some great thinking there.

So I asked you for each character that we've met so far in this lesson to say how they celebrate The Night of Power and why they celebrate it in this way.

And you could have said, Jamila, who's a Sunni Muslim, she celebrates The Night of Power by praying and worshipping at home.

Why she do this? Because deeds performed at home are also rewarded and she was doing it at home because she was at home with the young children.

She didn't want to worry about who was gonna look after them for The Night of Power.

Hassan, who's a Shia Muslim.

He celebrated The Night of Power by praying all night on the 21st night of Ramadan, remembering Imam Ali as well as The Night of Power when the Prophet Mohammed received the first revelations of the Qu'ran.

Why did he do this? Because the Imam Ali passed away on the 21st night of Ramadan and Imam Ali is particularly important within Shia Islam with that belief in the imamate.

And Layla, who's Sui Muslim.

She celebrated The Night of Power by performing remembrance of Allah, which is where she remembered Allah's nature, 99 names of Allah, repeating certain passages of the Qur'an such as Surah 97.

Why did she do this? Because the Qur'an encourages this as a deed, the remembrance of Allah, and also said that that's where the human heart could find comfort, well done.

So for part two of our practise tasks then, here is a full evaluation question.

You're going to write a paragraph in support of this statement, and the statement is, The Night of Power is the most important celebration for Muslims." And you are going to evaluate the statement and give Muslim teachings and reasoned arguments to support this statement.

If you were doing a full answer for this, you would also give reasoned arguments to support a different point of view and reach a justified conclusion.

But we are just doing one paragraph in support of this statement.

And you might like to use the sentence stems on the next slide.

Remembering the question is, The Night of Power is the most important celebration for Muslims. The sentence stems you might like to use for the paragraph in support, The Night of Power is the most important celebration for Muslims. Some Muslims would agree The Night of Power is the most important celebration for Muslims because, on this night many Muslims choose to.

This is because in the Qur'an it says, "Therefore their deeds are." And this is more important than other celebrations because.

So write a paragraph in support of the statement, pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done some great thinking there.

So I asked you to write one paragraph in support of the statement.

The Night of Power is the most important celebration for Muslims. And you might have said, Some Muslim would agree that The Night of Power is the most important celebration for Muslims because this was the night that Prophet Mohammed first received the revelations of the Qu'ran.

On this night, many Muslims choose to complete deeds such as prayers, reading the Qu'ran and donating to charity.

This is because in the Qu'ran it says, "The Night of Power is better than a 1,000 months." Therefore, their deeds are going to gain greater rewards.

This makes The Night of Power more important than other celebrations, as other celebrations aren't worth a 1,000 months like this one is.

And I wonder what you could say if you are writing the paragraph against this statement and what you would conclude.

Well done.

So let's summarise everything we've learned today then.

The Night of Power.

The Night of Power is when the Prophet Muhammad first received the revelation of the Qu'ran in the cave of Hira.

The exact night is not known, but it's celebrated during the last 10 nights of Ramadan.

The Qu'ran states this night is worth a 1,000 months, and so Muslims may complete extra deeds on this night as a celebration.

And there is some diversity between how groups of Muslims may celebrate The Night of Power.

So well done for your hard work today.

And I hope to see you again soon.

Bye-bye.