Night of Destiny - Final

THE NIGHT OF AL-QADR
Fazlur Rehman Shaikh

Abstract
The whole Muslim world remains searching for the night of al-Qadr in the month of
Ramadan year after year while the authentic hadith points its location to the longest
night of the year. In it the Prophet found this blessed night, in it he received his first
revelation and in it the Qur’an descended from the highest Heaven in its entirety.
Keywords
Al-Qadr, Aphelion, Banu Salamah, Intercalation, I‘tikaf, Preserved Tablet
The Qur’an says that it was sent down in the month of Ramadan (2:185) in the
blessed night (44:3) of al-Qadr and this night was better than a thousand months (97:1-3).
To seek this night initially the Prophet sat in I‘tikaf for the first ten nights of Ramadan
when Gabriel came and informed him that the night he was looking for was ahead of him.
Therefore he continued sitting for it in the middle ten nights. Gabriel appeared again to
tell him that it was still ahead of him. So he continued the same with his companions till
the end of the month.1
While commenting upon verse 2:185, Ibn Kathir stated that the Prophet was asked
about what could be the meaning of descent of the Qur’an in Ramadan, and that too in
the night of al-Qadr while the revelation spread over a period of years. Thereupon the
Prophet said that the Qur’an in its entirety had been sent down to the first Heaven in the
month of Ramadan in the night of Destiny.2 Elaborating on this Jalaluddin al-Suyuti says
that the Qur’an is said to have been extant in the highest Heaven from eternity, written
on Lawh Mahfuj (the Preserved Tablet) near the throne of God, and from thence to have
been sent down to the lowest Heaven in the month of Ramadan in the night of al-Qadr and
stored up there in the Temple of Majesty from whence it was revealed to Muhammad in
smaller or larger portions in the course of twenty to twenty-five years (Itqan).3
This makes it clear that the descent of the Qur’an from the Preserved Tablet and
its first delivery to the Prophet were on different dates. The night he was searching for
must be the very anniversary of the night when the Qur’an was transferred to the lowest
Heaven. When it was revealed that this night was better than a thousand months he felt
the eagerness to locate it and sat in I’tikaf.
1. LOCATING THE NIGHT

Although there are several ahadith in our traditional works on the night of al-Qadr,
only the four discussed below are truly helpful in locating it.
1 Bukhari, Hadith No. 813; The hadith did not mention the year, but it could be only in peaceful years when
the Prophet was free from tensions of warfare and other crises that he could devote one whole month in
total devotion and worship. The tenth year of Hijrah was one such year and so we can reasonably feel that
this was in that year.
2 Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Vol 3, p 33
3 F A Klein: The Religion of Islam, p 9
1). The Prophet informed his companions that it was a night (after which) the Sun rises
like a shield without rays until it has risen high.4
The orbit of the earth being elliptical, it is farthest from the Sun when it is in the
aphelion of its orbit. Every year it reaches this point on December 22 and in the morning
the Sun rises with very feeble light. Therefore the night of December 21-22 must be the
very night of al-Qadr according to this prophetic indication. This hadith alone is sufficient
to establish the date of al-Qadr. But nobody takes it seriously as they think that this is a
post-event sign and therefore cannot be of any help in locating it in advance.
2). The people of Banu Salamah sent a young man to the Prophet to enquire about the
night of al-Qadr. The man prayed the Maghrib prayer in the mosque with the Prophet and
thereafter waited near his door. The Prophet allowed him to enter his house. After the
meal, the Prophet asked him if he had something to ask. The man said that he was sent by
the people of Banu Salamah to ask him about the night of al-Qadr. The Prophet asked:
“What night is this?” “The twenty-second,” the man replied. Thereupon the Prophet said:
“It is this night.” Then he returned towards the mosque and said: “Or the next one.”5
Now the calendar of that time reveals that Ramadan of 10 HH6 commenced by the
sunset of November 30, 631 CE,7 and the twenty-second of the month fell exactly on
December 21-22, establishing beyond all doubt that the longest night8 of the year is truly
the night of al-Qadr.
These two ahadith reinforce each other.
3) Of this very night Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri narrated: Allah's Messenger used to practise
I'tikaf in the middle ten days of Ramadan; once he stayed in I'tikaf till the night of the
twenty-first and it was the night in the morning of which he used to come out of his
I'tikaf. The Prophet said, "Whoever was in I'tikaf with me should stay in I'tikaf for the last
ten days, for I was informed of the Night but I have been caused to forget it. (In the
dream) I saw myself prostrating in mud and water in the morning of that night. So, look
for it in the last ten nights ...." It rained that night and the roof of the mosque dribbled as
it was made of leaf stalks of date-palms. I saw with my own eyes the marks of mud and
water on the forehead of the Prophet, i.e., in the morning of the twenty-first.9
Mark the concluding words i.e., in the morning of the twenty-first identifying the
night of the rain as the twenty-first. The contradiction is obvious. When the Prophet had
spoken to them in the morning of the twenty-first the following night could only be the
night of the twenty-second and none else, for in the Muslim reckoning a new day
commences from sunset and the night precedes the day. It therefore transpires that these
words had been added by some subsequent narrators and not attributable to Abu Sa‘id
Khudri himself. The Prophet truly came out to them in the morning of the twenty-first to
4 Tirmidhi, Hadith No. 793; Abu Dawud, Hadith No. 1378; and Muslim, Hadith No. 1785
5 Abu Dawud, Hadith No. 1379
6 HH stands for the intercalary Hijrah calendar whose epochal date was April 18, 622 CE. This is not to be
confused with the faulty Hijrah calendar (AH) that the Europeans devised in the 17th century with an epochal
date of July 16, 622 CE without considering the three intercalary months that actually intervened in the
Madinan decade.
7 F R Shaikh: The Lost Calendar and the Prophetic Events, p 391
8 Of course, the shortest night in the southern hemisphere
9 Bukhari, Hadith No. 2027
tell his companions to continue the I‘tikaf with him and then it rained in the night of the
twenty-second.
Now the calendar discloses that Ramadan 22, 10 HH corresponded to December 21-
22, 631 CE.
4). In another year the Prophet wanted to sit in I‘tikaf; so he ordered for pitching a
tent for him. When it was pitched, in emulation his wives (‘A’ishah, Hafsah and Zaynab)
also got their tents pitched. On seeing it he deferred the I‘tikaf until the first ten days of
Shawwal and sat for it in its remaining twenty days.10
We know that in 8 HH the Prophet remained continuously absent from Madinah
from Ramadan to Dhu al-Qa‘dah being engaged in various campaigns such as recapture of
Makkah, Ghazwah Hunayn and Ghazwah al-Taif. So this could not be in 8 HH.
Now if we consider the year to be 9 HH, we see that the Prophet started the I‘tikaf
by Shawwal 11, 9 HH, and the very first night of the I‘tikaf fell on December 21-22, 630
CE, the longest night of the year, for Shawwal of that year commenced by the sunset of
December 11, 630 CE.11 This proves that this was truly an event of 9 HH.
Note: The ahadith discussed here are reproduced at the end this article as Appendix 2 for
reference of the reader.
Thus in his search for the night of al-Qadr the Prophet got the same twice - once in
Shawwal in 9 HH (630 CE) and the other in Ramadan in 10 HH (631 CE).
These discussions have successfully landed us on the date of the glorious night of
al-Qadr and have forever relieved us from its tiresome search in the month of Ramadan
year after year. We remained searching for it in Ramadan thinking that it was an affair
chained to the month of Ramadan while it was an affair tied to the aphelion of the orbit of
the earth and therefore linked to the longest night.
Let us now discuss at some length about the actual night of descent of the Book in
its entirety from the Preserved Tablet to the first Heaven to throw some more light in our
understanding.
2. DESCENT OF THE QUR’AN FROM THE PRESERVED TABLET

When the divine revelation discloses that the Qur’an was sent down in the blessed
night of al-Qadr in the month of Ramadan, it is talking of the Book’s descent from the
Preserved Tablet to the first Heaven. Ordinary prudence tells us that this must be only
after the birth of the Prophet (570 CE) but before its first delivery to him (609 CE). Can we
then locate this blessed night?
From the beginning of 10 HH (April 631 CE) the lunar months had arrived at their
true positions as effects of intercalation had by then vanished. So the Prophet declared in
the occasion of his Farewell Pilgrimage (March 632 CE) that the months had come back to
their natural positions.12 So we know for sure that Ramadan in 10 HH was in its natural
position. Regressing from this point and going beyond 609 CE, when the Prophet received
his first revelation, we may now endeavor to find out position of the true Ramadans
10 Abu Dawud, Hadith No. 2464

11 F R Shaikh: The Lost Calendar and the Prophetic Events. p 391
12 Bukhari. Hadith No. 4406
according to the divine reckoning in the nearest possible vicinity to locate the probable
year of descent of the Qur’an from the Preserved Tablet.
If we number the lunar months serially from November 14, 9 BC, when the Arabs
had adopted the intercalary calendar, the serial number of the month, wherein the
Prophet got the anniversary of the night in December 631 CE, turns out to be 7905. This is
a Ramadan in the divine reckoning as well as in the human reckoning for the positions of
the two had coincided after effects of intercalation had vanished from the beginning of 10
HH. So if 7905 is a Ramadan in the divine reckoning, month numbers 7893, 7881, 7869 …
etc. will also be Ramadans in the divine reckoning, for in such a serial we will get a
Ramadan at the interval of every 12 lunar months.
Although there were altogether fifty such Ramadans from the beginning of the
intercalary era to the end of 609 CE as shown in Appendix 1, between 570 CE and 609 CE
there were only three probable occasions when the longest night could fall during those
Ramadans as shown below:
Month No. Conjunction (UT) Start of Ramadan Lunar date corresponding to
Date Hour (by the sunset of) the longest night of the year
7485 Dec 14, 597 CE 17:02 Dec 16, 597 CE 6 Ramadan 28 AF (Dec 21-22, 597 CE)
7497 Dec 4, 598 CE 7:47 Dec 5, 598 CE 17 Ramadan 29 AF (Dec 21-22, 598 CE)
7509 Nov 23, 599 CE 17:20 Nov 25, 599 CE 27 Ramadan 30 AF (Dec 21-22, 599 CE)
Note: AF stands for Aamul Fil era that started by April 22 570 CE.
Of the three possible dates shown in the last column of the table, the third one i.e.
December 21-22, 599 CE (which corresponded to 27 Ramadan 30 AF) is nearest to its first
delivery to the Prophet that took place on December 21-22, 609 CE. This is in the month of
Ramadan and in the blessed night of al-Qadr and must therefore be the very night when
the Qur’an descended in its entirety from the Preserved Tablet to the first Heaven.
Incidentally we see that the long night has an immense value in the divine scheme
of things. The Qur’an tells us to spend this night in adoration of God. It says “Remember
your Lord’s name morning and evening. And at night prostrate yourself before Him, and
extol His limitless glory throughout the long night” (76:25-26). Why this night in
preference to every other night of the year? This is a night of revolution of divine mercy
upon this community. Elsewhere we read in the Qur’an “And you were not expecting that
the Book would be conveyed to you, but [it is] a mercy from your Lord” (28:86) and
“Allah has revealed to you the Book and wisdom and has taught you that which you did
not know. And ever has the favor of Allah upon you been great” (4:113).Now that this
valuable night hidden from us for centuries has ultimately been unveiled, can there be a
greater occasion of joy and jubilation?
Appendix 1
Probable dates of descent of the Qur’an from the Preserved Tablet
Month Conjunction (UT) Conjunction (Makkan Sunset Commencement Lunar date

No. Time) (Makkan of Ramadan corresponding
Time) (Sunset) to Dec 21-22
Date Hour Date Hour
237 Dec 13, 11 CE 13:12 Dec 13, 11 CE 15:50 17:22 Dec 14, 11 CE Ramadan 8
657 Nov 27, 45 CE 08:02 Nov 27, 45 CE 10:40 17:19 Nov 28, 45 CE Ramadan 24
2253 Dec 11, 174 CE 23:18 Dec 12,174 CE 01:56 17:22 Dec 13,174 CE Ramadan 9
5085 Nov 30, 403 CE 11:31 Nov 30, 403 CE 14:09 17:19 Dec 1, 403 CE Ramadan 21
Month Conjunction (UT) Conjunction (Makkan Sunset Commencement Lunar date
No. Time) (Makkan of Ramadan corresponding
Time) (Sunset) to Dec 21-22
Date Hour Date Hour
5889 Nov 30, 468 CE 20:37 Nov 30, 468 CE 23:15 17:19 Dec 2, 468 CE Ramadan 20
Appendix 2
EXTRACTS OF AHADITH DISCUSSED IN THIS STUDY
TIRMIDHI VOL 2 (Darussalam publication)
793. Zirr said: "I said to Ubayy bin Ka'b: 'O Abu Al-Mundhir! How do you know that it is the night of the twenty-
seventh?' He said: 'Rather, the Messenger of Allah informed us that it is a night (after which) the sun rises
without rays, so we counted and we remembered it. By Allah! Ibn Mas'ud learned that it is in Ramadan and
that it is the night of the twenty-seventh, but he did not want to inform you lest you would depend on it."
ABU DAWUD VOL 2 (Darussalam publication)
1378. It was reported from 'Asim from Zirr, who said: "I asked Ubayy bin Ka'b: 'Inform us of Laylat al-Qadr (the
Night of Decree), for our companion was asked about it, and he said: "Whoever stands the whole year will
catch it!" He replied: 'May Allah have mercy on Abu 'Abdur Rahman, for by Allah he knows that it is in
Ramadan. Musaddad (one of the narrators) added: '"but he disliked that they should rely on it, or he liked that
they not rely on it" - then they (the narrators) were in accord (in the rest of the narration): "By Allah! Indeed it
is in Ramadan, on the twenty-seventh night' - and he didn't say: 'If Allah wills.' I asked him: 'O Abu Al-Mundhir!
How do you know this?' He replied: 'By the sign that the Messenger of Allah has told us about it." I ('Asim) said
to Zirr: "What sign?" He said: "The sun rises on the day after it like a shield, having no rays until it has risen."
1379. Muhammad bin Muslim Az-Zuhri reported from Damrah bin 'Abdullah bin Unays, from his father, who
said: "I was once sitting in the gathering of Banu Salamah, and I was the youngest of them. They said, on the
morning of the twenty-first day of Ramadan: 'Who among us will ask the Messenger of Allah concerning the
Night of Decree?' So I left, and prayed the Maghrib prayer with the Messenger of Allah. I then stood by the door
to his house. He passed by me and said: 'Enter,' so I entered. He was brought his dinner, but saw that I was not
eating, due to its small quantity. When he had finished, he said: 'Hand me my sandals,' and he stood up, so I
stood up with him. He said: 'It is as if you have some matter (that you wish to discuss).' I said: 'Yes! A group of
people from Banu Salamah sent me to ask you concerning the Night of Decree.' He said: 'What night is this?' I
said: 'The twenty-second.' He replied: 'It is this night,' then he returned and said: 'or the next one," meaning
the twenty-third.
ABU DAWUD VOL 3 (Darussalam publication)
2464. … ‘A’ishah … said: … On one occasion, he [the Prophet] wanted to observe I'tikaf during the last ten of
Ramadan … He ordered his tent to be pitched and it was pitched. When I saw that, I also ordered for my tent
to be pitched, and it was pitched … And other wives of the Prophet ordered it to be pitched and it was
pitched. After he prayed Fajr, he saw the tents and said: ‘What is this? Is it righteousness that you seek?’ …
Then he ordered his tent to be taken down, and his wives ordered their tents to be taken down, and he
delayed his I'tikaf until the first ten days … ‘of Shawwal.’ … “He observed I'tikaf for twenty in Shawwal."
MUSLIM VOL 2 (Darussalam publication)
1785. It was narrated that Zirr said: "I heard Ubayy bin Ka'b say - when it was said to him that 'Abdullah bin
Mas'ud was saying that whoever prays Qiyam for a year will attain Laylat al-Qadr: 'By Allah, besides Whom
there is none worthy of worship! It is in Ramadan' - and he swore with no reservation - 'and by Allah, I know
which night it is! It is the night which the Messenger of Allah commanded us to spend in prayer; it is the night
of the twenty-seventh, and its sign is that the sun rises that day bright with no rays."
BUKHARI VOL 3 (Darussalam publication)
2027. Narrated Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri: Allah's Messenger used to practise I'tikaf in the middle ten days of
Ramadan; once he stayed in I'tikaf till the night of the twenty-first and it was the night in the morning of
which he used to come out of his I'tikaf. The Prophet said, "Whoever was in I'tikaf with me should stay in
I'tikaf for the last ten days, for I was informed of the Night but I have been caused to forget it. (In the dream)
I saw myself prostrating in mud and water in the morning of that night. So, look for it in the last ten nights and
in the odd ones of them." It rained that night and the roof of the mosque dribbled as it was made of leaf stalks
of date-palms. I saw with my own eyes the marks of mud and water on the forehead of the Prophet, i.e., in
the morning of the twenty-first.

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THE NIGHT OF AL-QADR

Fazlur Rehman Shaikh

1. LOCATING THE NIGHT

2. DESCENT OF THE QUR’AN FROM THE PRESERVED TABLET

10 Abu Dawud, Hadith No. 2464

Month No. Conjunction (UT) Start of Ramadan Lunar date corresponding to

Probable dates of descent of the Qur’an from the Preserved Tablet

Month Conjunction (UT) Conjunction (Makkan Sunset Commencement Lunar date

EXTRACTS OF AHADITH DISCUSSED IN THIS STUDY

TIRMIDHI VOL 2 (Darussalam publication)

ABU DAWUD VOL 2 (Darussalam publication)

ABU DAWUD VOL 3 (Darussalam publication)

MUSLIM VOL 2 (Darussalam publication)

BUKHARI VOL 3 (Darussalam publication)

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