Islam > Glossary > Laylat al-Qadr
Discover the meaning of the term Laylat al-Qadr (لَيْلَة الْقدر) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 4 min readThe best of the year’s nights and most noble: Allah especially granted it to this honoured community, and it remains till the Day of Resurrection, contrary to the Rafidites. It is a night of the year’s full cycle in which the walker is given a special unveiling by which he knows his worth and rank with his Beloved: it is the beginning of the walker’s arrival at the eye of union. On its exact fixing there is divergence, as with the first prayer; Allah hid it from strangers’ eyes. The problem lies in His word: « the Night of Decree is better than a thousand months ».
The best of the year’s nights and most noble: Allah granted it to this honoured community, and it remains till the Day of Resurrection, contrary to the Rafidites; a night of the year’s full cycle in which the walker receives a special unveiling by which he knows his worth and rank with his Beloved, the start of arrival at the eye of union; on its fixing, divergence as with the first prayer, and Allah hid it from strangers’ eyes; the problem lies in His word: « the Night of Decree is better than a thousand months ».
A night in which the walker receives a special unveiling by which he knows his worth and rank with his Beloved: the time of the walker’s first arrival at the eye of union and the station of the perfected in knowledge.
It is a night wherein the walker receives a special unveiling by which he knows his worth and rank with his Beloved: the moment of first arrival at the eye of union and the station of the perfected, said as-Sayyid. It is better than a thousand months: « peace it is, till the rise of dawn ». It occurs once a year, and none knows when it falls.
The night wherein the noble Quran was sent down, of the month of Ramadan; in the glorious Book: « We sent it down in a Night of Decree » (al-Qadr 1). Al-qidr: the cooking pot, feminine, plural qidour. Al-qadar: the measure of a thing and the states fixed for it; in the mighty Revelation: « We created everything by a measure » (al-Qamar 49). The appointed time of a thing, or the place assigned it; in the glorious Book: « He sends down water from the sky: valleys flow by their measure » (ar-Ra’d 17), by the capacity of the place. The decree by which Allah judges His servants. In the creed of the people of truth: Allah fixed things from eternity, and His knowledge knew they would come to pass at times known to Him, with specified attributes: they occur as He fixed them. Qada and qadar are distinguished among scholars: qada is the universal, all-embracing judgement from eternity; qadar is its detail. Al-Qoudata: power, in al-Jourjani’s word: the attribute whereby the living can act and abstain by will, an attribute acting on the strength of will.