Surah Al-Qadr (Laylatul Qadr)

2. Honor and Nobility

The second meaning of Qadr is actually منزل or شرف - nobility, honor. This is the night of great honor. Why? And you can think of it like this: The most honorable of the angels, Jibreel, came in this night and he came with the most honorable book of Allah, the Quran, and he gave it to the most honorable messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم and the most honored of nights. So it's a combination of all these honors and glories that come together in Laylatul Qadr. So it's actually almost like the first ayah إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ is almost describing one of the things that makes this night so noble and so honorable.

So far I've given you decree and I've given you honor.

3. Power

Another meaning of Qadr or قدر is actually power - it's power. So this is a night in which we should have complete faith in the power of Allah to change things, to change our fate, to change our behavior, to empower us to do things, because Allah has endowed this night with unusual strength and unusual power. It's a manifestation of Allah's miracles in this night. After all, the greatest miracle ever given to humanity, the Quran, was given in this night - the most powerful word of Allah. So then we should have more belief in miraculous answerings of duas in this night than any other night.

4. Congestion (Alternative View)

And then a rare opinion that I also found that was interesting is the word قدر also means congestion or when something is constrained, and that's the meaning we saw in Surah Al-Fajr وَأَمَّا إِذَا مَا ابْتَلَاهُ فَقَدَرَ عَلَيْهِ رزقة )Quran 89:16) - When a believer or a human being his rizq has been limited and congested, and instead of قدر, قبض was used, right?

So some say that actually so many angels descend in this night - and there's a hadith about how there are more angels than the grains of sand on the earth on this night that descend - and that actually suggests that there are angels that otherwise don't descend on the earth. I mean, the world has angels, Allah does send angels, but He sends more angels tonight that are actually meant for the skies but only come to the earth for this night. And He floods this world so much that it actually gets congested. There's no room for any evil left in this world. It's completely flooded and filled with angels.

The Night as Eid of the Quran

So now, these four implications that I've given you - of course the most commonly iterated one in light of Surah Al-Dukhan is that this is the night of decree, that this is the night that decisions are going to be made for the rest of the year. And now the greatest decision of Allah for humanity, which was the coming of the final revelation, is also part of that night.

Verse 2: The Great Question

What could give you any clue what the night of power, the night of decree, the night of calculation, what could it be? What could give you any clue? This is Allah's way of saying I'm about to tell you the main things you need to know about Laylatul Qadr, the core concepts that you need to internalize for you to value this night and not lose sight of, so you never become someone who doesn't take advantage of it.

Wisdom in Not Knowing the Exact Night

Before I go on, I mean I started by saying we don't know which night it is, and I do want to mention a couple of interesting bits of wisdom that have been talked about, like especially by Imam Razi and others, about why he thinks Allah didn't let us know. Like there's even a narration in which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم remembered it and he was made to forget it, right?

And he says actually he compares it to another incident in the Prophet's life صلى الله عليه وسلم which somebody was sleeping and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told Ali رضي الله عنه to wake him up to pray. And so Ali rushed and woke him up to pray and then Ali said "usually you,يا رسول الله you rush to do things like this yourself. Why did you tell me to do it? Like I've always seen you when you see any opportunity to do good, instead of telling someone else to do it, you do it yourself. And I'm curious why you made me do that?"

And he said "well actually because if I did it and he got lazy and he didn't listen or he shooed me off, that would have been an act of disbelief, right? If he shooed you off and didn't respond, then he's just being lazy. But with me, if he's defying me, then that's a pretty big deal."

With that mentality in mind, if we knew لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ is tonight and we dismissed it, that would be a huge crime. After an entire surah has been revealed to the believer about how big a deal it is, and then the believer kind of "eh, not in the mood today." If he did that or she did that, that would be a major, major crime. Because as grand as something is, it is equally as grand its violation. It's actually a mercy of Allah that he didn't open that door, that he didn't just say "this is the night, problem solved." And this was actually in our favor.

May Allah عز وجل make us of those who humbly seek this night and find it.

Verse 3: Better Than a Thousand Months

The night of power or the night of decree is better than a thousand months. It's better than a thousand months. And this thousand months - some have looked at it literally as thousand months and calculated it: 83 years and 4 months. And this is how good it is. So if you prayed today, if you prayed Fajr, then you should take a vacation for 83 years and 4 months. It's not like that. Let's just get that out of the way. That's not what this means.

The other thing you should know is that Allah عز وجل when he mentions time like a thousand, like a thousand years السنة he adds sometimes مِمَّا تَعْدُّونَ - from what you can count. In other words, I would almost imply here it's better than a thousand months that you can imagine. And a thousand months is basically a lifetime - 80 some years is basically an average person's lifetime. So Allah's way of saying this is: in your estimation, this night is better than an entire lifetime. Find this night and you found an entire good life for yourselves.

سبحان الله ! Here we were thinking about the decisions that are going to go from this year to the next year, and Allah عز وجل says yes, even though those decisions are there, this night is so noble and so grand and so powerful, this can set the course of the rest of your life. It can actually change everything about your life.

لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ - it's not just that every prayer you make counts a thousand - like you prayed for a thousand months and that's true, every dhikr you do counts like you did it for a thousand months. It's not just that - that would be amazing enough - but the larger implication here is this is better than an entire lifetime. لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ so we have to like genuinely seek this night in order to transform ourselves and have hope in the rest of our lives becoming completely blessed by Allah Azza wa Jal.

So this is the first value he gave. By the way, qadr in Arabic also means value, so it's a night of value. And so لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ is the first answer to the question: what is the value? If it's the night of value, what is its value? Well its value is more than a thousand months.

By the way, remember the word "more" - خَيْرٌ مِّنْ - it's better than. He didn't say how much better than. Is it a thousand times better than a thousand months? Is it a million times better than a thousand months? He didn't qualify. He just said it's better than a thousand months, which means a thousand months is just what we can imagine, but this is far beyond that too. Because if it was, you know لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ مِثْلٌ أَلْفِ شَهر a thousand months, that would have been something. This is better than a thousand months.

Verse 4: The Descent of Angels

That angels descend along with ar-ruh, the spirit - what the Bible calls the Holy Spirit, what Quran calls ar- ruh, which means Jibreel عليه السلام himself. So all the angels descend and also Jibreel عليه السلام - special guest in the house! Actually the original star of revelation, the original - you know, of all the angels, the one that brought the Quran to begin with - himself celebrates the anniversary of the night of the Quran by coming down again himself.

Let's think about what we're talking about here. And he's مُطَاعٍ ثُمَّ أَمِينِ )Quran (81:21) - the Quran describes him as someone of having a huge following. Not only him, his original team that used to come with the legion of the Quran, all of them are now descending into these heavens and into the earth. This is the same Jibreel عليه السلام who brought the book to Musa عليه السلامto Isa عليه السلام who - you know أَيَّدْنَاهُ بِرُوحِ الْقُدْسِ )Quran (287) - the one who gave it to Rasulullah عليه السلام. And he's in our company this night and all of his, you know, all of his followers and then all the other angels.

So Allah says, you know, angels - you can think of them like different departments. The first heaven has its angels, the second has its angels, the third has its angels, angels stationed for different tasks, right? Allah will describe sometimes angels that guard us, other times angels that have the job of writing what we do, other times he'll describe angels that just go around the arsh and only do istighfar. There are angels doing different things. And tonight all the angels have been taken off task and just sent down.

Even the angel Jibreel عليه السلام from عِندَ سِدْرَةِ الْمُنتَهَى )Quran 3:14 right? By سدْرَة الْمُنتَهَى where his maqam is, you know, where he's ameen - from there he descends and he's come down for this night.

And so he says in that night all of them descend بإِذْنِ رَبِّهم - by leave from their master. This is an important thing to understand - angels have their own work to do, they have their own tasks, and Allah has given them freedom from whatever tasks they do now to come do this, to come descend here. That's why بإذن رَبِّهم is important.

Then he says مِّن كُلِّ أَمْرٍ - by Allah's permission they come with every kind of command, every kind of issue. And that means that if it's a health issue, a personal issue, a family issue, a war issue, a spiritual issue, an emotional issue, a physical issue, a financial issue - it doesn't matter what kind of issue - Allah عليه السلام has decreed that they come to solve all kinds of issues and help people with all kinds of issues, declaring the قدر of Allah, declaring the decree of Allah in this night for those who seek it.

So the angels are just all around us, hovering around us. They flooded our space and they're ready to تَنَزَّلُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ فِيهَا بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِم مِّن كُلِّ أَمْرٍ This is ! سبحان الله .give what Allah has written for us

Verse 5: Peace Until Dawn

Now we quickly get to the last ayah, and you know as we get to this ayah, Allah عز وجل will now give us another meaning of قدر. قدر also means limit - قَدْ جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدْرًا )Quran 65:3) - Allah has put a limit on everything.

So if you notice, the first answer was about the value of Laylatul Qadr, the second answer was about the decree of Laylatul Qadr, and the third answer - the third ayah on the subject - is about the limit of Laylatul Qadr. And the limit meaning how long does it last - that's another meaning of قدر

So beautifully, I don't even have to describe the organizational structure of this surah to you. Every one of its ayat after the question إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ are telling you something unique about قدر. Each one of them a unique item about قدر - once again about its value (better than a thousand months), one of them about its decree (because that's the meaning of قدر too), and one of them about its limit.

And the one about its limit to me is the most fascinating one:

I'll start with what makes it most unique. مَطْلَعِ meaning the rise of Fajr - not the early early break of Fajr, the rise of Fajr. Sun's already coming out, the sky's already turned. In other words, Allah made this night He's so merciful and so grand and so giving in this night that instead of the - you know how our fast ends when it's still dark, it's still kind of dark and it's just the second Fajr comes in? But not لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ. لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ continues until you start seeing light itself. He extended it and He extended its value until مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ . So its limit is unlike any other night. He still counts the early morning part of this Fajr as part of the night. That's a unique gift of لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ that Allah عز وجل enhanced its duration for us.

Of course He used the word سلام هي. Anyone who are even a little bit familiar with Arabic - the normal sentence structure is هي سلام - it's the مبتدأ and the سلام هي خبر. But He reversed that sequence and He said سلام هي. And what this does is actually He creates a kind of اختصاص - this night, there's no peace

like this night. Like there's no night that has the kind of peace this night has. That's (سَلَامٌ هِيَ - peace like) no other in it, peace like no other in it.

Fun Interpretations About the 27th Night

It's a tangent - I'll come back to سلام - but I should mention it because there's some interesting fun interpretations that have been found among our Salaf that others have completely dismissed as silly, but I thought they're adorable so I'll share them with you.

So you have, you know, some people hold the view that the (لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ) is the 27th, right? So they literally counted (إِنَّا) first word, (أَنزَلْنَاهُ) second word, third word... So when you get to (هِيَ) that's the word number 27. So they said "this is it" because it's "it," you know. So that's the 27th night. That's one way that some people have derived that it's the 27th night.

The other, which is really cool and some say is also attributed to Ibn Abbas - I'm not so sure - is the words (لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ) made up of 9 letters, that's a 9 letter combination of words, and that's mentioned 3 times: (إِنَّا) (أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ) - 9 times 3, 27. There you go, 27th night, this is done deal, right?

So others said this is silly, this has nothing to do with anything, but I thought I should mention it as I got to (هِيَ) because you know, I remember "this is it," you know.

The Meaning of Salam (Peace)

So now what - let's understand the word سلام because that's actually a very heavy word in this entire surah. I mean there are 2 words that in a sense dominate this surah - 2 or 3 words. It's, you know, there's قدر there's خير - you see a key word in every ayah. The first couple of ayat is قدر. The second key word is خير. The third key word is أمر. And then the final word is سلام, you know?

And all of them have something to do with قدر at the end of the day, you know - the قدر of course, betterment, and then the commandment of Allah or the decree of Allah, and finally peace.

Actually سلام tells you everything that happens in this night - none of it is for destruction, none of it is for punishment, none of it is for, you know, death. It's all for giving people peace, security, safety, calm etc.

The word سلام the way it's used in the Quran is important to note. It's one of the names of Allah - (السَّلَامُ) (الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَيْمِنُ) (Quran 59:23) - so سلام is one of the names of Allah. Also, Jannah is the place of peace, the place of سلام, so it's a name of Allah, it's the name for heaven itself - (دَارُ السَّلَامِ) Quran 6:127).

Also, by the way, when something is terribly unsafe like fire and you want it to - all its dangers should be removed - like Ibrahim (عليه السلام)'s case when he was thrown in the fire: (كُونِي بَرْدًا وَسَلَامًا) (Quran 21:69) - become cold and become peace itself, become peace.

Now the remarkable language subtlety inside this ayah - not only سلام first and هي second in the sequence, but there's something else that's really beautiful here that should be observed. And that is that the word سلام - what's called in Arabic - it's a مصدر, it's an infinitive. And that would be the English equivalent of "peace." No, a night is not peace - a night is peaceful, right? A night is actually technically not peace itself, it's peaceful. Allah didn't say the night is peaceful - he said the night is peace itself. As if, as if to say not only is this night peaceful, but actually if you can take advantage of this night, then you have found what? Peace itself for the rest of your life. You found ultimate peace. As if there's no such thing as - you haven't experienced what peace means if you haven't found this night. That's the kind of مبالغة statement that's being made about (سَلَامٌ هِيَ حَتَّى مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ)

And similarly, this سلام can also be considered a commandment here. Like, you know, in English we say for example "silence!" as opposed to saying "be silent." "Be silent" is a command, but a teacher can also say "silence!" or a judge can say "order!" right? It doesn't say "become orderly," it just says "order." So sometimes a noun is used to issue a command.

That meaning actually suggests (سَلامٌ هِيَ حَتَّى مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ) - you better be at peace. No fighting, no arguing, no nothing in this night. I've sent angels down, I've sent my قدر down, this is the most valuable night. This night you better be in complete submission before Allah. You better be at peace with Allah. سلام - it's the opposite of war. You better not be thorny with anybody else. You better not be snippy with anybody else. You better be good with Allah and good to humanity - be at peace and submission this night. It's like a suggestion at the end or a commandment at the end: until Fajr comes, just drop every other conflict, drop every other tension, let it all go, just be at peace (سَلَامٌ هِيَ حَتَّى مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ)

And then others have extracted from it: how will you know that it's Laylatul Qadr? You'll feel a special kind of peace in this night that you don't feel otherwise. When you stand in prayer, you'll feel a kind of tranquility, you'll want to stay in the prayer that otherwise you've never felt before. It's an unusual spiritual experience to feel the kind of calm that Allah gives a believer in this night, in Laylatul Qadr. And so these are the things we look for in Laylatul Qadr.

Signs and Characteristics of Laylatul Qadr

I'll just read at the end what I was going to read to you in the beginning - just some things to look for that are found in Hadith literature about seeking the night and what its value is.

So of course (فِيهَا يُفْرَقُ كُلُّ أَمْرٍ حَكِيمٍ) (Quran 44:4) - our limits, maybe the time of our departure before Allah, all of our provisions, all of that is decreed in this night. That's one of its blessings.

Of course angels descend. What do they descend with? They descend with everything good, with everything blessed, with all of Allah's mercy and His forgiveness. And by the way, like I was saying before, it perhaps suggests that the angels that descended this night are only meant for this night - they don't descend any other time. And especially that is true of Jibreel (عليه السلام)

Then just some ways to tell if this is the night, and again there may be geographical restrictions here:

(Bukhari)

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says in this narration: - I was made to see Laylatul Qadr and then I was made to forget it, and it's in the last ten nights.

also - (كَأَنَّ فِيهَا قَمَرًا يَفْطَحُ كَوَاكِتِهَا) - It's a calm night, not too hot, not too cold. (وَهِيَ تَلِقَةٌ بَلِجَةٌ لَا حَرَّ وَلَا بَرْدٌ) brilliant, or you know, it overshadows its stars. And shaitan doesn't come out (حَتَّى يَخْرُجَ فَجْرًا) - meaning no evil comes out in it, people don't erupt in it until the fajr comes. Like we say (سَلَامٌ هِيَ حَتَّى مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ) it's peace until the morning time, until fajr time or until dawn of fajr.

That actually means people are unusually at peace in this night. Even when you go to taraweeh and stuff, nobody's annoyed and nobody's pushing and shoving or kids are in the circus outside - like everything's a little more calm than usual. There's something going on, you know?

Then he says - some say that the breeze is soft. This is Rawa Ibn Khusaymah - (تُصْبِحُ الشَّمْسُ يَوْمَهَا ضَعِيفًا) (حَمْرَاءَ لا حَرَّ وَلَا بَرْدٌ لَيْلَةٌ تَلِقَةٌ) - the sun is kind of red as the sun rises, it's got a reddish tone to it, and it's weak. It's not an intense sun when it rises.

(قَدْ يُرِي اللَّهُ الْإِنسَانَ اللَّيْلَةَ فِي الْمَنَامِ) - It could be that Allah shows a believer what night it is in their sleep, as happened with several companions.

Ibn Khuzaymah) - the angels on this night exceed the number of pebbles or even small grains of sand on the earth.

And so these are just a few signs.

The Great Hadith About Laylatul Qadr

Finally, I want to share with you the hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) about Laylatul Qadr. He says:

(Bukhari 35)

Whoever can stand in the night of Laylatul Qadr - meaning pray - so the best thing you can do in Laylatul Qadr as the night starts is pray نوافل نوافل نوافل. And the best thing you can do is when you're in sajda, just make duas, just cry to Allah and make duas.

But then Allah didn't just say pray, or the Prophet didn't just say pray - he gave certain qualities to that prayer. So let me explain those qualities to you.

(إِيمَانًا) - whoever prayed before Allah out of faith, meaning it's not just faithfully - they were driven, they were completely convinced that this prayer is going to be the best thing that's happened to me. They have this confidence and this reliance on Allah in these prayers like no other. That's one.

Then (وَاحْتِسَابًا) - (احْتِسَابًا) means someone who takes full stock of themselves. I'm aware of my sins, I'm aware of my flaws, I'm aware of what I've done, I'm aware of what I'm ashamed of before Allah, and I'm coming before Allah standing in prayer ashamed and humiliated and completely convinced that Allah will forgive me and bless me and will let my sins pass. So I'm coming before Allah humiliated, in tears, in full account of myself - like a confessional prayer. This is a confessional prayer - (احْتِسَابًا)

If you can pull that off (غْفِرَ لَهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِهِ) - whatever took place of any kind of embarrassing sins such a person had done has all been guaranteed to be forgiven. All of it is guaranteed to be forgiven if we can stand before Allah in that kind of prayer tonight.

That kind of prayer is harder to do together. That kind of prayer is much easier to do when you're by yourself. This is the time - this is one of those nights where if you're lazy by yourself, of course come to the masjid, join the jama'a and do that. But this is the night where you just wanna just be you and Allah in tears. That's what it needs to be. Stand before Allah, recite the Quran, make your duas before Allah, and become of those that are fortunate enough to have found this layla and found forgiveness of Allah in it.

We're fortunate also that our nights are not very long anymore. There's not that much time. Get some rest, pray. Get some rest, pray again. Get some rest, pray again. But do that in these nights.

Closing Prayer

May Allah Azza wa Jal help all of us find Laylatul Qadr.