Sūrat al-Qadr (سُورَةُ الْقَدْر, “the Chapter of Decree”) gives the Night of Decree its name and its most concise description. In five short verses it answers the questions a reader brings to the night: what happened on it, how great it is, who descends in it, and how long it lasts. It is the ninety-seventh chapter in the order of the Muṣḥaf and is classed among the chapters revealed in Makkah.1
This page presents the Arabic text in the Madinah Muṣḥaf script, a transliteration and an English rendering, followed by an explanation of each verse drawn from the Qurʾān itself and from authentic hadith.
The full text
إِنَّآ أَنزَلۡنَٰهُ فِي لَيۡلَةِ ٱلۡقَدۡرِ ١ وَمَآ أَدۡرَىٰكَ مَا لَيۡلَةُ ٱلۡقَدۡرِ ٢ لَيۡلَةُ ٱلۡقَدۡرِ خَيۡرٞ مِّنۡ أَلۡفِ شَهۡرٖ ٣ تَنَزَّلُ ٱلۡمَلَٰٓئِكَةُ وَٱلرُّوحُ فِيهَا بِإِذۡنِ رَبِّهِم مِّن كُلِّ أَمۡرٖ ٤ سَلَٰمٌ هِيَ حَتَّىٰ مَطۡلَعِ ٱلۡفَجۡرِ ٥
| Verse | Transliteration | English rendering |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Innā anzalnāhu fī laylati l-qadr | We sent it down on the Night of Decree. |
| 2 | Wa-mā adrāka mā laylatu l-qadr | And what will make you know what the Night of Decree is? |
| 3 | Laylatu l-qadri khayrun min alfi shahr | The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months. |
| 4 | Tanazzalu l-malāʾikatu wa-r-rūḥu fīhā bi-idhni rabbihim min kulli amr | The angels and the Spirit descend in it, by the permission of their Lord, with every matter. |
| 5 | Salāmun hiya ḥattā maṭlaʿi l-fajr | Peace it is, until the rising of the dawn. |
Verse 1: the night of revelation
The chapter opens with the pronoun “it” and never names what was sent down. The Qurʾān uses this economy when the referent is beyond doubt: the only thing sent down on this night is the Qurʾān itself. Two other passages confirm the reading and fix the night in time. One names the month:
شَهۡرُ رَمَضَانَ ٱلَّذِيٓ أُنزِلَ فِيهِ ٱلۡقُرۡءَانُ هُدٗى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَٰتٖ مِّنَ ٱلۡهُدَىٰ وَٱلۡفُرۡقَانِۚ فَمَن شَهِدَ مِنكُمُ ٱلشَّهۡرَ فَلۡيَصُمۡهُۖ وَمَن كَانَ مَرِيضًا أَوۡ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٖ فَعِدَّةٞ مِّنۡ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَۗ يُرِيدُ ٱللَّهُ بِكُمُ ٱلۡيُسۡرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ ٱلۡعُسۡرَ وَلِتُكۡمِلُواْ ٱلۡعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُواْ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا هَدَىٰكُمۡ وَلَعَلَّكُمۡ تَشۡكُرُونَ ١٨٥
Another names the night in different words and adds what happens on it:
إِنَّآ أَنزَلۡنَٰهُ فِي لَيۡلَةٖ مُّبَٰرَكَةٍۚ إِنَّا كُنَّا مُنذِرِينَ ٣ فِيهَا يُفۡرَقُ كُلُّ أَمۡرٍ حَكِيمٍ ٤ أَمۡرٗا مِّنۡ عِندِنَآۚ إِنَّا كُنَّا مُرۡسِلِينَ ٥
Read together, these verses establish that the Qurʾān was sent down in Ramadan, on a single blessed night, and that this night is the Night of Decree. The first words to reach the Prophet ﷺ were the opening of Sūrat al-ʿAlaq, delivered in the cave of Ḥirāʾ, as ʿĀʾishah related in the report of how revelation began.3
ٱقۡرَأۡ بِٱسۡمِ رَبِّكَ ٱلَّذِي خَلَقَ ١
Verse 2: a question that magnifies
Wa-mā adrāka, “and what will make you know,” is a formula the Qurʾān uses when a matter exceeds ordinary reckoning. It halts the listener, so that the answer in the next verse lands with its full weight. The repetition of the full phrase laylat al-qadr, where a pronoun would have served, serves the same end: the name itself is dwelt upon.
Verse 3: better than a thousand months
A thousand months is a little more than eighty-three years, longer than most human lives. The verse declares the night better than that entire span, which sets a floor for its worth and states no ceiling.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Months | 1,000 |
| Years | 83 years and 4 months |
| Nights, approximately | 29,530 (1,000 lunar months of about 29.53 days) |
| Share of a 70-year life | More than the whole of it |
The Prophet ﷺ tied the meaning of this virtue for believers to worship on the night. Whoever stands in prayer on the Night of Decree out of faith and in hope of reward is forgiven his previous sins.4
Verse 4: the angels and the Spirit
The verb tanazzalu describes a descent that continues, arrival after arrival, through the night. The angels come down “by the permission of their Lord,” so the descent is itself an act of obedience, and they come “with every matter,” which joins this verse to the description in Sūrat al-Dukhān of a night in which every wise matter is made distinct.
The Spirit (al-rūḥ) is named separately from the angels, a mark of distinction. The Qurʾān identifies the bearer of revelation by this title elsewhere, calling him “the Trustworthy Spirit,” and names him Jibrīl in another verse that describes the same task:
نَزَلَ بِهِ ٱلرُّوحُ ٱلۡأَمِينُ ١٩٣
قُلۡ مَن كَانَ عَدُوّٗا لِّـجِبۡرِيلَ فَإِنَّهُۥ نَزَّلَهُۥ عَلَىٰ قَلۡبِكَ بِإِذۡنِ ٱللَّهِ مُصَدِّقٗا لِّمَا بَيۡنَ يَدَيۡهِ وَهُدٗى وَبُشۡرَىٰ لِلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ ٩٧
The chain of cross-references is short and clear. The Spirit brought the Qurʾān down; Jibrīl brought the Qurʾān down; the Spirit descends on the Night of Decree. The Qurʾān thus explains itself, and the reader needs no outside speculation to identify the Spirit of this verse.
Verse 5: peace until the dawn
The last verse describes the whole night in one word, salām, peace, and gives it a boundary: the rising of the dawn. That boundary has a direct consequence. The night runs from sunset to the start of the dawn prayer time, and every part of it shares in its virtue, so a believer who cannot stay awake through all of it still gains by the hours he spends in worship.
What “qadr” means
The word qadr carries more than one sense in Arabic, and the verses support two of them directly.
| Sense | Meaning | Support in the Qurʾān |
|---|---|---|
| Decree, measure | The night on which matters are apportioned and made distinct | Sūrat al-Dukhān 44:4: “In it every wise matter is made distinct.” |
| Rank, honour | The night of great standing and worth | Sūrat al-Qadr 97:2–3: the night is magnified and declared better than a thousand months. |
The two senses do not compete. A night on which the decrees of the year are made distinct is, by that very fact, a night of exceptional honour, and the English renderings “Night of Decree” and “Night of Power” each capture one side of the same word.
Learning and reciting the chapter
At five verses, Sūrat al-Qadr is among the easiest chapters to memorise, and learning it before the last ten nights lets a believer recite it in voluntary prayers with understanding. Memorise it with a teacher or a trusted recording, one verse at a time, and review the meaning of each verse as it is learned.
| Day | Task |
|---|---|
| 1 | Listen to the full chapter several times; read the translation. |
| 2 | Memorise verses 1 and 2. |
| 3 | Memorise verse 3; review verses 1 to 3 together. |
| 4 | Memorise verse 4, the longest; recite it slowly. |
| 5 | Memorise verse 5; recite the whole chapter from memory. |
| 6–7 | Recite it in voluntary prayer; have a teacher check pronunciation. |
Common questions
Is there a special reward for reciting Sūrat al-Qadr on the night?
The authentic reports cited in this guide attach no specific reward to reciting this chapter on the night. Its recitation belongs to the general merit of reciting the Qurʾān, and the night’s particular promise attaches to standing in prayer with faith.
Why does this page use a different script for the verses?
Qurʾānic text on this site is always set in the Madinah Muṣḥaf script, copied from a verified digital edition, so that it is never confused with hadith or other Arabic, which appear in a different typeface.
- Chapter data from the Quran.com API (api.quran.com/api/v4/chapters/97), checked 25 September 2026: revelation place Makkah, revelation order 25, five verses. ↩︎
- Qurʾānic text in the KFGQPC Hafs orthography from the Quran.com API (text_qpc_hafs), checked 25 September 2026. Translations on this page are the editor’s own. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 3. VERIFIED on sunnah.com/bukhari:3, 25 September 2026. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 35. VERIFIED on sunnah.com/bukhari:35, 25 September 2026. ↩︎