Qadr nights in Tikrit’s number.16 concentration camp;

Spirituality as a Mechanism of Resistance

Written by Hassan Beheshtipour
Translated by Kianoush Borzouei

2026-3-19

Qadr nights in Tikrit’s number.16 concentration camp was not just a religious ritual, rather it functioned as one of the most important mechanisms of identity protection, rehabilitation of spirit and inner resistance of POWs. In a situation that access to Quran, Mafatih and even conducting communal rituals was strictly limited and prohibited, this limit itself was altering the meaning of Qadr night for us.

These nights were not normal nights anymore, they were not solely hour-hand of linger anymore, they were “thermometer of faith”. The same “Qadr night” which I had heard in my childhood in mosque that decides our next year destiny by the compassionate and merciful lord, was then being understood with my whole soul: measuring ones’ inner ambition within bereavement.

Before the imprisonment, in the mind of many of us “Qadr” was a night to destine the next year and a chance for personal prayer and worshiping but in the camp, it altered to a benchmark for evaluating resistance. Qadr night became a practical test, in the hard and intolerable time of imprisonment in which they didn’t give us Quran and we wasn’t allowed to access usual prayers, executing Qadr night had an exceptional meaning for us. Qadr night was coming to ask: “How much is your bond with your motherland? To what extent is your tolerance for those Islamic beliefs you brag about? How much is your patience against torture and insult?”

Iraqi guards inquired our behavior with an especial sensitivity through Ramadan. Fasting, prayer or gatherings for worshiping would face with severe punishments. In such a situation, each and every servitude extended from a personal level and defined as a silent resistance. Praying, even hushed and silent was a kind of identity declaration.

For POWs, more than “the night of already written fate”, Qadr night in incarceration was “the night of conscious purification”. In the absence of book and text, memorized verses of the Quran-especially Qadr and first verses of Dokhan-would become a shared and mental treasure. This religious shared memory played a great role in protecting and deepening the spiritual consistency of the captives. Each prayer and invocation of God had a bilateral function: it was both peaceful and empowering for the determination to bear the situation.

In this kind of a night in such a camp, that illusion of “experientialism” and “self-control” which was shining like a gold in my mind as a twenty-seven years old person, would be measured at Qadr night. It was a ruthless mirror that was saying: “you’re not gold, you’re a raw ore which should be prepared in the fire of prison so that impurities such as “egotism” and “selfishness” be detached from you.”

From a mental angle, imprisonment is somehow a gradual erosion of “self”. Humiliation, remoteness from family, physical pressure and restrictions of communication leads a person to collapse. in that context, Qadr nights of Ramadan turned into a “self-reconstruction workshop”. In the mirror of hardships, man saw his/her limitations and realized that to what extent did his/her idea of faith strength or character maturing need a review. Being captivated would unveil hidden layers of selfishness and inner weakness and Qadr night would bring about a possibility for redefining persona.

Indeed, Qadr night in there was not just the night of “already written fate”. It was a night of “making fate”. Reading each prayer, each verse of “Enna anzalnah” Surah, each invocation of God on our lips was a drill of light being used to dig a tunnel moving toward releasing human from spirit of lasciviousness. Verses of Quran-especially Qadr surah and the fist verses of Dokhan surah-were not some texts on a paper. They were the fuel to igniting faith. A fuel that would give motive and heat for resistance to our impatient souls in such a hard situation. In the depth of Qadr night, “angels and soul” would lower Gods’ blessing in order to alter fate by our prayers.

From a religious prospect, it could be said that spiritual rituals in the camp had a consistency creating function. Although the prayers would be done personally, but the awareness that others are also simultaneously praying produced a silent unity. This unity reinforced social capital inside the camp and increased communal tolerance.

At the same time, reading Hafez poems which some of the POWs hummed would happen to be a bridge between cultural tradition and contemporary experience.

From the first second of times morning till the end of the night of eternity

Kindness and friendship were on the same promise and bond

What would happen if the shade of the loved one (God) fall on the lover?

We were in need of him, he was eager to us

The bond between Quranic texts and Hafez poetries was calming for our preparation and our ability to reach spiritual Resistance. This bond, strengthen the relationship among our religious-cultural roots.

To sum up, Qadr nights in imprisonment was a “workshop of maturity” for us. In that workshop we would put our souls on the scale of spirituality and would realize that how light is the scale at our side. Then we increased the weight of our souls’ scale with harder austerity, more patience and more appeal to “oh you the merciful! Forgive us”.

Perhaps this is the meaning of “Qadr night”: a night in which human sees its’ real “value (Qadr)” and volume in the mirror of Gods’ test and then in that same night, by choice and effort, intervenes in its’ own fate. concentration camp was that mirror. And without being aware, among the hardest nights of our lives, we were living the concrete Quranic description of “Qadr night”. A night in which with a ballpoint on a tablet of light, on an indisputable determination-with whispering tears and a faith that was being mastered in imprisonment-, fate was being written. This was our “value (Qadr)”. This was the real “volume” of our resistance.

Eventually, Qadr nights of imprisonment were an experience of “destining fate right in the middle of fate”. We weren’t capable of changing exogenous conditions but we could decide our relation with those conditions. In this definition, Qadr night was a moment for recapturing humans’ power exactly in the lack of power. The concentration camp became a mirror that showed us our “real volume” and maybe this was the truth of Qadr night for us: finding out our volume in the hard test and making an effort to extending it. As Hafez tell:

Do not blame me if I had wined in Qadr night

The lover came euphorique and a cup was on the ledge