The last ten nights of Ramadan: 5 things to know

“We sent it down on the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr). And what will make you know what the Night of Power is? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.”^[2] A thousand months is a little over eighty-three years, and the commentators take the figure as a measure of the night’s worth: worship offered on it outweighs a lifetime of ordinary nights.

The Quran says that the month of Ramadan is the month in which it was sent down, and says in another place that it was sent down on a blessed night. The commentators join the two verses and place the night in Ramadan.^[3] They differ on what the descent means. Some hold that the whole Quran came down to the lowest heaven on this night and was then revealed in portions over twenty-odd years. Others hold that the night marks the first revelation to Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The same chapter adds that the angels and the Spirit descend on the night by their Lord’s permission with every decree, and that it is peace until the rise of dawn.^[4]

The Prophet said: “Seek the Night of Power in the last ten nights of Ramadan, in the odd nights.”^[5] The odd nights are the twenty-first, twenty-third, twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh and twenty-ninth. A further report says the Prophet came out one day to tell his Companions the date, but two men were quarrelling, and the knowledge was taken away. He added that this might be better for them, and told them to look for it on the ninth, seventh and fifth nights from the end.^[6]

The twenty-seventh is the night many choose. Ubayy ibn Kaʿb swore that it was the twenty-seventh, and a large number of Muslims have followed his judgement.^[7] The jurists and commentators did not settle on one night, and some held that it moves from year to year.

The scholars say the exact night is hidden so that people strive on all of them. A person who knew the date would pray on one night and rest on the other nine.

Aisha said that when the last ten nights began, the Prophet “tightened his waist-wrapper, kept awake at night and woke his family.”^[8] Tightening the waist-wrapper is an idiom for readiness and exertion. Commentators on the report take it to mean that he gave the nights his full effort.

Another report from Aisha says that he exerted himself in worship during the last ten as he did not at other times.^[9] Ibn Abbas described him as the most generous of people, and most generous of all in Ramadan.

The detail that he woke his family shows that the nights were shared. Those near him were not left to sleep while he prayed. Scholars draw from the report that a household should be woken for night prayer in these ten nights.

Aisha asked what she should say if she found it. He told her: “Allāhumma innaka ʿafuwwun tuḥibbu al-ʿafwa, fa-ʿfu ʿannī“: O God, You are pardoning, You love to pardon, so pardon me.^[10] The report is in the collections of al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, and al-Tirmidhi calls it sound.

The prayer is short, which is the point. It is a request for forgiveness, since a person who has been forgiven has the best of the night. The Arabic word ʿafw means to efface, so the request is that the record itself be wiped clean, and a person asks it of God because God loves to give it.

It is notable who asks. Aisha was the wife of the Prophet and among the most learned of the Companions, and she asked what to say if she found the night. The answer given to her is a plea for pardon, and it applies equally to every Muslim who stands in prayer on these nights.

Iʿtikāf is staying in the mosque for the last ten days, leaving only for need. Aisha said that the Prophet kept it until God took him, and his wives kept it afterward.^[11] A report in Sahih al-Bukhari adds that in the year he died he stayed for twenty days. The Quran refers to the practice when it speaks of those who are in retreat in the mosques.^[12] A person does it for devotion: prayer, Quran and remembrance.

It is a sunnah, a recommended practice, and not an obligation. The jurists differ on the shortest valid period. Some of them accept a night or a few hours, while others require at least a day. Those who cannot do it for health or work can still give the nights as much worship as they can.