Every page of this guide rests on two kinds of evidence: the Qurʾān and the hadith, the recorded sayings and practice of the Prophet ﷺ. This page gathers both in one place. It lists each hadith on Laylat al-Qadr (لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْر, “the Night of Decree”) that the guide relies on, states where it can be found, and explains how each one was checked before it was cited.
The page serves two kinds of reader. A believer preparing for the last ten nights can see at a glance what the Prophet ﷺ said about the night and how strongly each report is attested. A reader who wants to test the guide can follow every link to the source and compare the wording for himself. Where the sources differ on a grading or a translation, the difference is stated openly.
The Qurʾānic sources
The Qurʾān is the first source on the night. A whole chapter carries its name and describes it in five verses: the Qurʾān was sent down on it, it is better than a thousand months, the angels and the Spirit descend in it, and it is peace until dawn. The page on Sūrat al-Qadr explains each verse in turn.
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
A second passage describes the same night in different words. It calls the night blessed and adds that every wise matter is made distinct in it, which is the sense of “decree” that the name carries. Read with the verse that places the sending down of the Qurʾān in the month of Ramadan, it fixes the night within that month.
إِنَّآ أَنزَلۡنَٰهُ فِي لَيۡلَةٖ مُّبَٰرَكَةٍۚ إِنَّا كُنَّا مُنذِرِينَ ٣ فِيهَا يُفۡرَقُ كُلُّ أَمۡرٍ حَكِيمٍ ٤
| Passage | What it establishes | Treated in this guide |
|---|---|---|
| 97:1 | The Qurʾān was sent down on the Night of Decree | Sūrat al-Qadr |
| 97:3 | The night is better than a thousand months | What Is Laylat al-Qadr? |
| 97:4–5 | Angels and the Spirit descend; peace until dawn | Sūrat al-Qadr |
| 44:3–4 | A blessed night in which every wise matter is made distinct | Sūrat al-Qadr |
The main narrations
The table lists the narrations already cited across this guide. Each row gives a short paraphrase, the Companion who narrated it, the collection and number, the grading, and a link to the report on sunnah.com. The reports in the collections of al-Bukhārī and Muslim carry no separate grading on that site, because both compilers admitted only narrations they judged sound; they are marked “ṣaḥīḥ (collection)”. For the other collections the grading is the one the source displays, with the scholar or edition that issued it.
| Report (paraphrase) | Narrator | Collection and number | Grading | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whoever stands in prayer on the Night of Decree out of faith and in hope of reward is forgiven his previous sins. | Abū Hurayrah | al-Bukhārī, no. 352 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:35 |
| Seek the Night of Decree in the odd nights of the last ten of Ramadan. | ʿĀʾishah | al-Bukhārī, no. 20173 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:2017 |
| The Prophet ﷺ stayed in the mosque in the last ten nights and told his Companions to seek the night in them. | ʿĀʾishah | al-Bukhārī, no. 20204 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:2020 |
| He was shown the night, made to forget its date, and saw himself prostrating in water and mud; rain fell and the mud was on his forehead at dawn. | Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī | al-Bukhārī, no. 20165 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:2016 |
| He came out to name the night, found two men quarrelling, and said the knowledge had been taken up, which might be better for them; seek it on the ninth, the seventh and the fifth. | ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit | al-Bukhārī, no. 20236 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:2023 |
| When the last ten began, he tightened his waist-wrapper, gave life to his night and woke his family. | ʿĀʾishah | al-Bukhārī, no. 20247 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:2024 |
| He kept iʿtikāf in the last ten every year until he died, and his wives kept it after him. | ʿĀʾishah | al-Bukhārī, no. 20268 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:2026 |
| Ubayy swore that the night is in Ramadan, before the morning of the 27th, and that its sign is a sun rising white without rays. | Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, through Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh | Muslim, no. 762a9 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/muslim:762a |
| Rain fell on the 23rd night, and the trace of water and clay was on his forehead and nose after the prayer. | ʿAbdullāh ibn Unays | Muslim, no. 116810 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/muslim:1168 |
| Which of you remembers when the moon rose like half of a plate? | Abū Hurayrah | Muslim, no. 117011 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/muslim:1170 |
| He exerted himself in the last ten nights more than at any other time. | ʿĀʾishah | Muslim, no. 117512 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/muslim:1175 |
| Laylat al-Qadr is the twenty-seventh night. | Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān | Abū Dāwūd, no. 138613 | Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Albānī) | sunnah.com/abudawud:1386 |
| If she came upon the night, she should say: “O Allah, You are Pardoning and You love to pardon, so pardon me.” | ʿĀʾishah | Ibn Mājah, no. 385014 | Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Albānī; Dār al-Salām) | sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3850 |
| The same supplication, taught when she asked what to say if she knew which night it was; the text on sunnah.com adds the word “Generous” (karīm). | ʿĀʾishah | al-Tirmidhī, no. 351315 | Ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ (al-Tirmidhī); ṣaḥīḥ (al-Albānī; Dār al-Salām) | sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3513 |
One narration stands at the head of the list because it states the reward plainly. Its wording ties the forgiveness to the act of standing in prayer and to the intention behind it, and it sets no condition of knowing which night it was:
مَنْ يَقُمْ لَيْلَةَ الْقَدْرِ إِيمَانًا وَاحْتِسَابًا غُفِرَ لَهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِهِ
The reports on the date are best read together, as the page on when Laylat al-Qadr falls does. The reports on the sun, the moon and the rain are set out with their limits on the page on the signs of the night, and the two wordings of the supplication are compared on the duʿāʾ page.
Further narrations
The guide also draws on other authentic narrations that are well known in the literature on the night. Several of them are parallel versions of reports in the first table, transmitted through a different chain and preserved in a different collection. Parallel chains matter because a report that reaches the compilers by more than one route is harder to dismiss as the error of a single transmitter.
| Report (paraphrase) | Narrator | Collection and number | Grading | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whoever fasts Ramadan out of faith and in hope of reward is forgiven his previous sins, and whoever stands on the Night of Decree in the same way is forgiven his previous sins. | Abū Hurayrah | al-Bukhārī, no. 201417 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:2014 |
| The same promise for fasting Ramadan and standing on the Night of Decree, through another chain. | Abū Hurayrah | Muslim, no. 760a18 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/muslim:760a |
| Companions saw the night in dreams in the last seven; the Prophet ﷺ said their dreams agreed, so whoever seeks it should seek it in the last seven. | Ibn ʿUmar | al-Bukhārī, no. 201519 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:2015 |
| Seek it in the last ten of Ramadan, when nine remain, when seven remain, when five remain. | Ibn ʿAbbās | al-Bukhārī, no. 202120 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/bukhari:2021 |
| He was shown the night, one of his household woke him, and he was made to forget it; seek it in the remaining ten. | Abū Hurayrah | Muslim, no. 116621 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/muslim:1166 |
| When the ten began, he kept the night alive, woke his family, strove hard and tightened his waist-wrapper. | ʿĀʾishah | Muslim, no. 117422 | Ṣaḥīḥ (collection) | sunnah.com/muslim:1174 |
| Asked how he knew the night was the 27th, Ubayy cited the sign the Prophet ﷺ gave: the sun rises the next morning without rays. | Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, through Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh | al-Tirmidhī, no. 79323 | Ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ (al-Tirmidhī); ṣaḥīḥ (al-Albānī; Dār al-Salām) | sunnah.com/tirmidhi:793 |
| Ramadan, a blessed month, has come to you; in it Allah has a night better than a thousand months, and whoever is deprived of its good has been deprived. | Abū Hurayrah | al-Nasāʾī, no. 210624 | Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Albānī) | sunnah.com/nasai:2106 |
| This month has come to you, and in it is a night better than a thousand months; whoever is deprived of it is deprived of all good, and none is deprived of its good except one truly deprived. | Anas ibn Mālik | Ibn Mājah, no. 164425 | Ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ (al-Albānī); ḍaʿīf (Dār al-Salām) | sunnah.com/ibnmajah:1644 |
Two features of these reports deserve care. The first is counting. The report of ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit says only “the ninth, the seventh and the fifth”, and the English translation supplies the 29th, 27th and 25th. The report of Ibn ʿAbbās counts the same numbers as nights that remain, so the figures can be read from the end of the month. This guide gives the wording as it stands and leaves the counting to the page on the date.
The second is translation. The English rendering of Muslim no. 1166 on sunnah.com says “the last week”, while the Arabic says “the remaining ten”. The paraphrase above follows the Arabic. Where an English translation and its Arabic original diverge, the guide follows the Arabic and records the difference in a note.
Two more narrations appear in the guide on related subjects. ʿĀʾishah’s account of how revelation began, in the cave of Ḥirāʾ, supports the explanation of the first verse of Sūrat al-Qadr.26 Abū Hurayrah’s report that Allah descends to the lowest heaven in the last third of every night underlies the night planner.27 Neither names the Night of Decree, so neither appears in the tables.
How this guide checks its sources
Each hadith passes through the same steps before it is cited. The collection and number are looked up on sunnah.com, which shows the report with its chapter, its reference and, for most collections, a grading. The Arabic text is then read in the printed edition of the same collection on shamela.ws, the Comprehensive Library (al-Maktabah al-Shāmilah), and compared with the paraphrase the guide intends to use. A report counts as checked only when the two sources agree on the number and the substance.
Two status words record the result. VERIFIED means that the collection, number, wording and grading were matched in live sources on the date shown in the note. NOT_FOUND means that the guide could not match the report at a stated number in the sources it uses. NOT_FOUND describes the state of the guide’s search. It passes no judgement on the report, which may be preserved in a collection the guide has not yet been able to check.
Gradings describe the strength of a report’s chain of transmission, the isnād (إِسْنَاد, “support”), and the soundness of its text, the matn (مَتْن, “text”). Hadith scholars use three main grades, and this guide cites only reports in the first two.28
| Term | Arabic | Meaning | Use in this guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ṣaḥīḥ | صَحِيح | Sound: an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of irregularity and hidden defects | Cited |
| Ḥasan | حَسَن | Good: as ṣaḥīḥ, with a narrator whose precision is slightly lower; acceptable as evidence | Cited |
| Ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ | حَسَنٌ صَحِيح | A combined verdict used by al-Tirmidhī for reports he judged sound | Cited, with his wording |
| Ḍaʿīf | ضَعِيف | Weak: a break in the chain or a narrator whose reliability falls short | Held back |
A grading always belongs to someone. For the collections of al-Bukhārī and Muslim the grading is the judgement of the compiler, accepted by later scholarship. For the other collections this guide names the scholar or the edition that issued the grade, such as al-Albānī or the Dār al-Salām edition, and shows both when they differ. Numbering also depends on the edition. Muslim’s collection is cited in the numbering most widely used today, in which a letter after the number marks one of several chains grouped together, so 762a is the first chain under number 762. Other printings number the same reports differently.
Qurʾānic text follows a stricter rule. It is never typed or recalled from memory. Each verse is fetched from Quran.com in the script of the King Fahd Complex, known as KFGQPC Hafs, and copied exactly as returned. It is then set in the matching typeface and in no other, so that Qurʾānic text and hadith always look different on the page.
Reports this guide holds back
Many statements about Laylat al-Qadr circulate in articles, sermons and messages without a source that can be checked. The table names the most common of them, as they are reported, and gives the reason each one is held back. Holding a report back is a statement about evidence the guide has been able to examine. It does not declare the report false, and any report here will move to the tables above once it has been verified.
| Reported statement | Reason held back | Status |
|---|---|---|
| It is reported that the night is mild, neither hot nor cold, and that the sun rises weak and reddish the next morning. | The collections cited for it are not among those this guide can check, so the wording and grading could not be matched. | NOT_FOUND |
| It is reported that sea water tastes fresh on the night. | The account is attributed to a later observer, not to the Prophet ﷺ, and its source could not be checked. | NOT_FOUND |
| It is reported that the angels on earth that night outnumber the pebbles. | No matching report was found at a stated number in the collections this guide checks. | NOT_FOUND |
| It is reported that dogs do not bark and no shooting stars are seen on the night. | No chain for these statements was found in the collections this guide checks. | NOT_FOUND |
| It is reported that a prayer with a fixed number of units and set chapters, said on this night, carries a particular reward. | No chain for such a prayer was found in the collections this guide checks. The night prayer the authentic reports describe needs no special form. | NOT_FOUND |
The authentic reports already cover what a believer needs for the night: where to seek it, how the Prophet ﷺ spent it, what to say in it, and what reward is promised for it. The guide’s pages on prayer and worship and on the last ten nights are built on those reports alone.
Printed editions
The online texts used on this page reproduce printed editions, and the notes name them. The al-Bukhārī texts follow the Arabic and English edition whose numbering sunnah.com uses.29 The Muslim texts follow the numbering of Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī.30 The Abū Dāwūd text carries the grading of al-Albānī.31 The al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah texts carry the gradings of al-Albānī.32 The Qurʾānic text is that of the Madinah Muṣḥaf in the reading of Ḥafṣ.33 Collation against the physical volumes is still to be done.34
Common questions
Why does a hadith have different numbers on different websites?
Collections have been printed in several editions, and some count each chain separately while others group parallel chains under one number. This guide gives the number used on sunnah.com and links to the page, so the report can be found whichever edition a reader owns.
Can a weak hadith be used for encouragement?
Scholars have discussed this question at length and do not all answer it the same way. This guide takes the cautious course and cites only reports graded ṣaḥīḥ or ḥasan, because the authentic material on the night is already ample.
How can I report an error?
Each note gives the link and the date of the check. If a link no longer matches, or a grading has changed, the contact page reaches the editor. Corrections are made on the page and recorded with a new date.
Image credits
The photographs and manuscript images in this guide come from Wikimedia Commons and are public domain or under a free licence. Each is listed with its author, its licence and its source page.
- Qurʾānic text in the KFGQPC Hafs orthography from the Quran.com API (api.quran.com, field text_qpc_hafs), verses 97:1–5 and 44:3–4, checked 26 October 2026. Translations on this page are the editor’s own and match those on the Sūrat al-Qadr page. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 35. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:35. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2017. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2017. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2020. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2020. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2016. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2016. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2023. The Arabic reads “the ninth, the seventh and the fifth”; the figures 29th, 27th and 25th are supplied by the English translation. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2023. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2024. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2024. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2026. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2026. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 762a, the first chain under no. 762 in the ʿAbd al-Bāqī edition. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:762a. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 1168. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:1168. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 1170. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:1170. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 1175. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:1175. ↩︎
- Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 1386, graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/abudawud:1386. ↩︎
- Sunan Ibn Mājah, no. 3850, graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī and by Dār al-Salām. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3850. ↩︎
- Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, no. 3513; al-Tirmidhī’s own verdict, ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ, follows the hadith, and it is graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī and by Dār al-Salām. The text on sunnah.com reads innaka ʿafuwwun karīmun tuḥibbu l-ʿafwa fa-ʿfu ʿannī; the Shākir edition on shamela.ws reads it without karīm. VERIFIED on sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3513 and on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 35, Arabic wording of the Prophet’s words without the chain. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:35. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2014, the first hadith of the book on the virtue of the Night of Decree. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2014. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 760a, the first chain under no. 760 in the ʿAbd al-Bāqī edition. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:760a. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2015. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2015. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2021. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2021. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 1166, where the Arabic reads al-ʿashr al-ghawābir, “the remaining ten”; the English translation on sunnah.com was recorded as rendering it “the last week”. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:1166. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 1174. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:1174. ↩︎
- Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, no. 793; al-Tirmidhī’s own verdict, ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ, follows the hadith in the Arabic text, and it is graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī and by Dār al-Salām. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/tirmidhi:793. ↩︎
- Sunan al-Nasāʾī, no. 2106 (Abū Ghuddah numbering), graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026, with al-Albānī’s grading in Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan al-Nasāʾī, no. 1992; also at sunnah.com/nasai:2106. ↩︎
- Sunan Ibn Mājah, no. 1644. Graded ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī; the note of al-Būṣīrī printed with it says that the narrator ʿImrān al-Qaṭṭān is disputed (mukhtalaf fīh) and that the rest of the chain is trustworthy. Graded ḍaʿīf by Dār al-Salām on sunnah.com. VERIFIED on sunnah.com/ibnmajah:1644 and on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026. Listed with al-Albānī’s grading, which this guide follows where gradings differ. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 3. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:3. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1145. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:1145. ↩︎
- The grading terms and their order follow the standard definitions of hadith criticism. Gradings on this page are those printed by the editions named in the notes; this guide issues no gradings of its own. ↩︎
- Printed edition behind the al-Bukhārī texts: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Arabic with English translation by Muhammad Muhsin Khan (Riyadh: Darussalam), whose numbering sunnah.com follows. ↩︎
- Printed edition behind the Muslim texts: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim in the numbering of Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, with the English translation of ʿAbdul Ḥamīd Ṣiddīqī; the letters after a number (762a) mark the parallel chains grouped under it. ↩︎
- Edition behind the Abū Dāwūd text: Sunan Abī Dāwūd in the edition of Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd (shamela.ws/book/1726), which carries the gradings of Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī; sunnah.com reproduces the same gradings. ↩︎
- Editions behind the al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah texts: Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī in the edition of Aḥmad Shākir and his continuators (shamela.ws/book/1435) and Sunan Ibn Mājah in the edition of Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī (shamela.ws/book/1198), both carrying the gradings of al-Albānī. ↩︎
- Printed edition behind the Qurʾānic text: the Madinah Muṣḥaf in the reading of Ḥafṣ from ʿĀṣim, printed by the King Fahd Glorious Qurʾān Printing Complex, whose digital text and typeface Quran.com supplies. ↩︎
- The editions above are those reproduced by the online sources this guide checks. They have not yet been collated against the physical volumes; a reader who finds a difference is asked to report it through the contact page. ↩︎