Laylat al-Qadr (لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْر, “the Night of Decree”) is a night of prayer before it is anything else. The Qurʾān describes its worth, and the Prophet ﷺ attached his clearest promise for the night to one act: standing in prayer through it. This page explains what that prayer is, how the Prophet ﷺ prayed at night as his Companions described it, how the night prayer of Ramadan relates to it, and how a believer can fill one night with prayer, recitation, remembrance and supplication, step by step.
لَيۡلَةُ ٱلۡقَدۡرِ خَيۡرٞ مِّنۡ أَلۡفِ شَهۡرٖ ٣
The meaning of the verse and the rest of the chapter are treated on the page on Sūrat al-Qadr. The concern of this page is practical: what a believer does with the hours between sunset and dawn.
Standing the night out of faith and hope of reward
مَنْ قَامَ لَيْلَةَ الْقَدْرِ إِيمَانًا وَاحْتِسَابًا غُفِرَ لَهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِهِ
The same promise appears in a second collection, joined there to the promise for fasting Ramadan.2 Two conditions qualify it. The first is īmān (إِيمَان, “faith”): the prayer is made by someone who believes in what Allah has said about the night. The second is iḥtisāb (اِحْتِسَاب, “seeking the reward from Allah”): the worshipper prays for that reward alone, with no thought of being seen or praised. The word the Prophet ﷺ used for the act itself is qāma, “he stood,” and standing in this usage means standing in prayer.
A parallel promise covers the whole month: whoever stands in prayer through the nights of Ramadan out of faith and in hope of reward is forgiven his previous sins.3 A believer who prays every night of the month therefore meets both promises, and does not need to know which night was the Night of Decree to receive the reward of standing on it. The page on when Laylat al-Qadr falls explains why the night is hidden among the last ten.
Qiyām al-layl and tarāwīḥ
Qiyām al-layl (قِيَامُ اللَّيْل, “standing the night”) is the general name for voluntary prayer offered after the ʿIshāʾ (night) prayer and before dawn. When it is offered after sleep it is often called tahajjud (تَهَجُّد, “the vigil after sleep”). In Ramadan the night prayer offered in congregation after ʿIshāʾ is known as tarāwīḥ (تَرَاوِيح, “rests”), a name usually explained by the pauses that worshippers took between each set of units.
The congregational form has its roots in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. One Ramadan he prayed at night in the mosque, and more people joined him on each of the following nights, until the mosque could not hold them. He did not come out to them on the fourth night until the dawn prayer, and after it he explained that he had feared the night prayer would be made obligatory on them and that they would be unable to keep it.4 In another report, Abū Dharr described how he led them in prayer on some of the last nights of the month, and on one of those nights he said:
إِنَّهُ مَنْ قَامَ مَعَ الإِمَامِ حَتَّى يَنْصَرِفَ كُتِبَ لَهُ قِيَامُ لَيْلَةٍ
Abū Dharr had asked the Prophet ﷺ to lead them through the rest of the night, and this was his answer. Its lesson for the last ten nights is direct. A believer who prays tarāwīḥ with the congregation and stays until the imam ends the prayer is credited with the prayer of a whole night, and may still add his own prayer later, alone, in the last part of the night.
Later, during the caliphate of ʿUmar, the people were gathered behind a single reciter, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb. ʿUmar praised the arrangement and added that the prayer offered in the part of the night they slept through, its last part, was better still.6
How the Prophet ﷺ prayed at night
The Companions who prayed with the Prophet ﷺ or lived in his household left exact descriptions of his night prayer. They describe two things above all: how many units he prayed, and how long each one lasted. A rakʿah (رَكْعَة, “unit of prayer”) consists of standing and recitation, a bow and two prostrations.
مَا كَانَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَزِيدُ فِي رَمَضَانَ وَلاَ فِي غَيْرِهِ عَلَى إِحْدَى عَشْرَةَ رَكْعَةً، يُصَلِّي أَرْبَعًا فَلاَ تَسَلْ عَنْ حُسْنِهِنَّ وَطُولِهِنَّ
ʿĀʾishah gave this answer to Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who had asked specifically about Ramadan, and she replied that Ramadan did not change the number. What she stressed was the quality and the length of the units, which she declined even to describe. Ibn ʿAbbās reported that the Prophet’s night prayer was thirteen units.8
Asked by a man about the night prayer, the Prophet ﷺ described its form: صَلاَةُ اللَّيْلِ مَثْنَى مَثْنَى, “the night prayer is two and two,” and when a worshipper fears the approach of dawn he prays a single unit, which makes what he has prayed odd in number.9 That closing prayer is the witr (وِتْر, “the odd-numbered prayer”). The instruction gives a form, pairs of units closed by an odd unit, and names no total. Abū Hurayrah also reported his advice to begin the night prayer with two light units,10 and ʿĀʾishah reported that he began his own night prayer in that way.11
The scholars of the early generations prayed tarāwīḥ with different totals. Al-Tirmidhī, after recording the report of Abū Dharr, noted that some held to forty-one units including the witr, the view of the people of Madinah and their practice there, while most followed twenty, as reported from ʿUmar, ʿAlī and other Companions. He named Sufyān al-Thawrī, Ibn al-Mubārak and al-Shāfiʿī among those who held to twenty, and recorded al-Shāfiʿī’s remark that this was how he found the people of Makkah praying. He added that Aḥmad said several forms had been reported and did not decide between them.12 A worshipper who prays eleven units with long recitation follows the number in ʿĀʾishah’s description, and a worshipper who prays twenty with his congregation follows a practice the early scholars recorded. Both are standing the night.
The length of the recitation
يَقْرَأُ مُتَرَسِّلاً إِذَا مَرَّ بِآيَةٍ فِيهَا تَسْبِيحٌ سَبَّحَ وَإِذَا مَرَّ بِسُؤَالٍ سَأَلَ وَإِذَا مَرَّ بِتَعَوُّذٍ تَعَوَّذَ
Ḥudhayfah prayed with the Prophet ﷺ one night and expected him to bow after a hundred verses. He recited Sūrat al-Baqarah, then Sūrat al-Nisāʾ, then Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, in a single unit, and his bowing and prostration were each close in length to his standing. Another Companion, ʿAbdullāh, recalled praying behind him one night until he was tempted to sit down and leave him standing alone.14 Al-Mughīrah reported that he would stand in prayer until his feet or his shins swelled, and that when he was asked about it he said: “Should I not be a grateful servant?”15
Few people can recite three long chapters in one unit, and the reports do not ask them to. What they show is the direction of effort: the Prophet ﷺ lengthened his prayer, recited with understanding, and turned the verses into conversation with his Lord. A believer who knows only short chapters can follow the same pattern by reciting slowly, pausing on verses of mercy to ask and on verses of warning to seek refuge, and lengthening the bow and the prostration.
| Report | What it records | Narrator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of units | No more than eleven, in Ramadan or outside it: four, four, then three | ʿĀʾishah | al-Bukhārī, no. 1147; Muslim, no. 738a |
| Number of units | Thirteen units at night | Ibn ʿAbbās | al-Bukhārī, no. 1138 |
| Form | Two units at a time; one unit to close when dawn is near | Ibn ʿUmar | al-Bukhārī, no. 990 |
| Opening | Begin the night prayer with two light units | Abū Hurayrah; ʿĀʾishah | Muslim, nos. 768 and 767 |
| Length of recitation | Al-Baqarah, al-Nisāʾ and Āl ʿImrān in one unit, recited at a measured pace | Ḥudhayfah | Muslim, no. 772 |
| Length of standing | He stood until his feet swelled | Al-Mughīrah | al-Bukhārī, no. 1130 |
| In congregation | Praying with the imam until he finishes counts as a whole night | Abū Dharr | al-Tirmidhī, no. 806 |
The last third of the night
The Prophet ﷺ taught that Allah descends every night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains, and asks who will call on Him, that He may answer; who will ask of Him, that He may give; and who will seek His forgiveness, that He may forgive.16 He also said that there is an hour in every night in which a Muslim who asks Allah for any good of this world or the next is given it.17
The Qurʾān praises believers who sleep little of the night and seek forgiveness before dawn:
كَانُواْ قَلِيلٗا مِّنَ ٱلَّيۡلِ مَا يَهۡجَعُونَ ١٧ وَبِٱلۡأَسۡحَارِ هُمۡ يَسۡتَغۡفِرُونَ ١٨
For the last ten nights, the practical consequence is to keep the final part of each night for the longest prayer and the most attentive supplication. Its start depends on the times of sunset and dawn where you live, and the Night Planner calculates it for your city on each of the ten nights.
Recitation, remembrance, supplication, charity and seclusion
Prayer is the centre of the night, and other acts fill the hours around it. Each has its own basis in the sources.
Recitation of the Qurʾān
The Qurʾān was sent down on this night, and the Prophet ﷺ spent the nights of Ramadan with it. Ibn ʿAbbās reported that the angel Jibrīl met him every night of Ramadan and studied the Qurʾān with him.18 The Qurʾān joins standing at night to recitation in its command to the Prophet ﷺ:
قُمِ ٱلَّيۡلَ إِلَّا قَلِيلٗا ٢ نِّصۡفَهُۥٓ أَوِ ٱنقُصۡ مِنۡهُ قَلِيلًا ٣ أَوۡ زِدۡ عَلَيۡهِ وَرَتِّلِ ٱلۡقُرۡءَانَ تَرۡتِيلًا ٤
Tartīl (تَرْتِيل, “measured recitation”) means reciting slowly and distinctly, giving each word its due. Recitation may be done within the prayer or outside it, from memory or from a copy of the Qurʾān. A believer who has memorised little can recite from a copy outside the prayer, and reflect on the meaning with a translation at hand.
Remembrance and supplication
Dhikr (ذِكْر, “remembrance”) covers the glorification, praise and declaration of Allah’s oneness that a believer can say at any time, standing, sitting or lying down. Istighfār (اِسْتِغْفَار, “seeking forgiveness”) belongs especially to the hours before dawn, as the verse above shows. Duʿāʾ (دُعَاء, “supplication”) is the believer’s own request, in any language, and the Prophet ﷺ taught one supplication for this night in particular. Its text, meaning and sources are set out on the page on the Laylat al-Qadr duʿāʾ.
Charity
Ibn ʿAbbās reported that the Prophet ﷺ was the most generous of people, and most generous of all in Ramadan, more generous with good than a released wind.19 Many believers give ṣadaqah (صَدَقَة, “voluntary charity”) on each of the last ten nights, so that one gift falls on the Night of Decree whichever night it proves to be. The practice follows from the virtue of the night; this page cites no report that prescribes it.
Seclusion in the mosque
The Prophet ﷺ spent the last ten nights of Ramadan in iʿtikāf (اعْتِكَاف, “seclusion in the mosque for worship”) every year until he died, and his wives continued the practice after him.20 Iʿtikāf gathers all the acts on this page into one place and removes the distractions of ordinary life. Its practice and the ways to take part in it are explained on the page on the last ten nights and iʿtikāf.
A step-by-step plan for one night
The reports describe the Prophet’s effort without prescribing a timetable. The plan below is a suggestion that a working adult can repeat on each of the last ten nights. Adjust it to your prayer times, your health and your duties, and keep it steady: the Prophet ﷺ said that the deeds most beloved to Allah are those done consistently, even if they are small.21
- Before sunset. Write a short list of what you will ask for, and choose the chapters you will recite. Look up the start of the last third of the night for your city in the Night Planner.
- At sunset. Break the fast lightly, so that heaviness does not take the night from you. Pray Maghrib.
- After ʿIshāʾ. Pray tarāwīḥ with the congregation and stay until the imam finishes, or pray at home in pairs of units if you cannot attend. If you plan to rise later, you may leave the witr until the end of your night prayer.
- Rest. Sleep for part of the middle of the night, so that you are alert for its last part.
- The last third. Rise, make your ablution, and open with two light units. Then pray in pairs of units, lengthening the recitation, the bow and the prostration as far as you are able. Close with the witr.
- Supplication. In the prostrations and after the prayer, ask for what is on your list, and repeat the supplication taught for the night.
- Recitation and remembrance. Between periods of prayer, recite from the Qurʾān with reflection, and spend time in remembrance and seeking forgiveness.
- Charity. Give something, however small, before the night ends.
- Before dawn. Eat the suḥūr (سَحُور, “pre-dawn meal”), seek forgiveness in the hours before dawn, and pray Fajr when its time enters.
| Time | Main act | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| After ʿIshāʾ | Tarāwīḥ in congregation until the imam finishes | Report of Abū Dharr |
| Middle of the night | Sleep | Suggestion for endurance; ʿUmar preferred the later prayer |
| Last third | Long night prayer in pairs, closed with witr | Reports of ʿĀʾishah, Ibn ʿUmar and Ḥudhayfah |
| Throughout | Supplication, remembrance and recitation | The descent in the last third; the hour of answer |
| Before dawn | Seeking forgiveness, pre-dawn meal, Fajr | Sūrat al-Dhāriyāt 51:18 |
A woman who is not praying because of menstruation or the bleeding after childbirth keeps the night through supplication, remembrance and seeking forgiveness, which do not depend on ritual purity. A believer who is ill or elderly gives the night to worship in the ways open to him, and the reward of the night is not limited to those who can stand for long.
What has no authentic basis
Some calendars, leaflets and messages describe a special “Laylat al-Qadr prayer” with a form of its own: a fixed number of units, particular chapters to be recited a set number of times after al-Fātiḥah, and a particular reward promised for it. The authentic reports cited on this page contain no such prayer. In them the Prophet ﷺ encouraged standing on the Night of Decree, and the standing he practised and described was the night prayer he offered throughout the year, in pairs of units closed with the witr.
Reports that set out such fixed prayers for individual nights of Ramadan circulate widely. This guide has not found them in the authenticated collections and does not reproduce them. A believer loses nothing by setting them aside. Every unit of night prayer offered on the night, with faith and in hope of reward, falls under the promise of forgiveness, and its form is already known from the practice of the Prophet ﷺ.
Three points follow. A believer may intend his night prayer in the hope that it coincides with the Night of Decree, since that hope is the iḥtisāb the hadith names. He may pray as many units as he is able, in pairs, since the instruction for the night prayer names no total. And he may supplicate in his own words for anything lawful. What the sources do not support is treating one invented form as the obligatory or uniquely rewarded prayer of the night.
Common questions
How many rakʿahs should I pray on Laylat al-Qadr?
No number is fixed for the night. The Prophet’s own night prayer was eleven units in ʿĀʾishah’s report and thirteen in that of Ibn ʿAbbās, and the early scholars prayed tarāwīḥ with twenty and with more. Pray in pairs, as many as you can offer with attention, and close with the witr.
Is praying tarāwīḥ enough?
Staying with the imam until he finishes is credited as the prayer of a whole night. Many believers also rise in the last third to pray alone, to supplicate and to seek forgiveness at the hour the Prophet ﷺ singled out.
Must I pray all night?
When the last ten nights began, the Prophet ﷺ gave life to his nights in worship, and that is the fullest form.22 A believer who cannot do the same should give the night what he can sustain, and guard its last third above all.
Should I pray at home or in the mosque?
Either is open to the believer. The Prophet ﷺ led the night prayer in the mosque on some nights of Ramadan, and after his death the people continued for a time to pray it on their own until ʿUmar gathered them behind one reciter. Many believers pray tarāwīḥ in the mosque and the prayer of the last third at home.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1901. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:1901. ↩︎
- 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. 2009. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2009. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2012. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2012. ↩︎
- Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, no. 806; al-Tirmidhī’s own verdict, ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ, follows the hadith in the Arabic text, and it is graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/tirmidhi:806. The same report is in Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 1375, graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/abudawud:1375. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2010. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2010. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1147. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:1147. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 738a, the first chain under no. 738 in the ʿAbd al-Bāqī edition. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:738a. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1138. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:1138. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 990. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:990. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 768. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:768. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 767. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:767. ↩︎
- Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, comment after no. 806, in the Arabic text. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/tirmidhi:806. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 772. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:772. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1135. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:1135. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1130. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:1130. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1145. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:1145. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 757a, the first chain under no. 757 in the ʿAbd al-Bāqī edition. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/muslim:757a. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 6. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:6. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 6. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:6. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2026. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2026. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 6464. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:6464. ↩︎
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 2024. VERIFIED on shamela.ws, 26 October 2026; also at sunnah.com/bukhari:2024. ↩︎