What is Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Power)?

The night the Quran was first sent down, "better than a thousand months", sought in the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan.

Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power, is the night in Ramadan on which the Quran was first sent down. The Quran calls it "better than a thousand months", and Muslims spend it in prayer, recitation and supplication. Its exact date is not fixed: it is sought in the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan.

A whole surah is devoted to it: "We sent it [the Quran] down on the Night of Power. What will make you know what the Night of Power is? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit come down during it, by their Lord's permission, with every command. It is peace until the break of dawn" (Quran 97:1-5). Elsewhere it is called "a blessed night" (Quran 44:3).

When is it?

The Prophet said: "Search for the Night of Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan" (Sahih al-Bukhari 2017), that is, the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th and 29th nights. Many Muslims give special attention to the 27th, but the narrations do not fix one night, and the uncertainty is widely understood as an encouragement to strive through all of them.

What to do on it

• Pray at night. "Whoever establishes prayer on the night of Qadr out of sincere faith and hoping for reward, all his previous sins will be forgiven" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1901).
• Make this supplication, which the Prophet taught 'A'ishah for this night: Allahumma innaka 'afuwwun tuhibbul-'afwa fa'fu 'anni, "O Allah, You are pardoning and love to pardon, so pardon me" (Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3513).
• Read and reflect on the Quran, the book whose revelation the night commemorates.