The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1365 page)

see
FESTIVALS AND FASTS
.

 
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(Arab., ‘night of power’). One of the later nights—generally thought to be the 27th—of the month of
Rama
n
. It is the title of s
ra 97 of the
Qur’
n
, which describes this night as ‘better than a thousand months’, since during it the
angels
(mal
’ika)
descend to earth; it is ‘peace until the rising of the dawn’. Many Muslims like to spend this night in prayer and retreat (
‘Itik
f
) in a
mosque
.

 
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Layman/person
:

see
LAITY
.

 
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(Heb.,
amez
). Raising agent forbidden to Jews during the season of
Passover
—hence this is sometimes called the festival of unleavened bread. Leaven must necessarily come from the preceding year's harvest, but the festival looks forward, in absolute trust in God, to the new year. The search for leaven (
bedikat
amez
) is based on the injunction in Exodus 12. 15 ff., to ‘eliminate leaven from your houses’.
In the New Testament, leaven is a likeness of the potential for growth in the kingdom (Matthew 13. 33); but equally it is an illustration of the speed with which evil and corruption spread (1 Corinthians 5. 8; Luke 12. 1). Leavened vs. unleavened bread for the
eucharist
became a matter of dispute between the E. and the W. Churches: see
AZYMITES
.