Night of Power
By Abu Eesa Niamatullah | 2026-01-10T12:45:07.574774+00:00 | Topic: Ramadan
Night of Power - Laylatul Qadr
Shaykh Abu Eesa Niamatullah
Opening and Introduction
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. This reminder is going to focus on three parties. Number one, us. Number two, the angels. And number three, Allah, our Lord. And to help us understand the relationship in this special night, at this special time between these three parties, we need to use one of the greatest gifts that Allah has given us in the Quran, and that is the Surah of Qadr.
The Opening Verse of Surah Al-Qadr
And Allah says:
And this ayah is extraordinary. Because in just this one single ayah, Allah shows us His Majesty, the Majesty of the Quran, and the Majesty of the Night of Qadr itself, just in this single ayah. Allah refers to Himself immediately, (إِنَّا), in the plural.
Allah is one, but He refers to Himself in the Royal, Majestic We. (أَنْزَلْنَاهُ) - We have sent, We have sent this Book, We have sent it down from high above. Allah establishes to Himself His Exaltedness and His Highness from above the seven heavens, above His throne, (جَلَّ وَعَلَا) in a manner which befits His Majesty.
The Majesty of the Quran
And He sent it, and He doesn't even have to say the Quran. And this is, as the ulema said, a Majesty of the Quran. That it can only be something so amazing. And just referred to in a dameer as it. We have just sent it down. Because it is with us all the time. It is the single most important thing that we have. That's what we have sent down. Think about it.
Doesn't want to give us the clear name. And this is the way, as the ulema said, in balagha, in rhetoric, in eloquence, in Arabic eloquence, to establish and to emphasize the importance of something.
The Three Meanings of Qadr
And Laylatul Qadr, Allah gave this night a very interesting name. He called it Laylatul Qadr. And He mentions this word three times in this surah. Here, Second time, Three times it's mentioned.
And it's appropriate that there are three key meanings to the meaning of Qadr itself:
First Meaning: Divine Decree
The first, as Ibn Abbas (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) said is that it is from the literal meaning of Qadr. i.e. the decree. i.e. what's going to happen. And this has all been written in the lawh al-mahfuz, the preserved tablet. But on this night, Laylatul Qadr, Allah reveals to the angels that decree the Qadr, those who control the winds and control the weather and control life and give death and take the soul, the entire year's actions and decrees are given out to them in this night. And this is why it's called Laylatul Qadr.
Second Meaning: Restriction
And the second meaning for Qadr is that it comes from the meaning to restrict. And Qadr means in Arabic to restrict, to make something dayiq, to constrict something. And you know why? That's because there are so many angels present on this night, that there is no space for them. That's why Allah says (تَنَزَّلُ الْمَلائِكَةُ) - From the original Arabic word of tatanazzal, with the taa being taken out. i.e. not that the angels just come down, and we'll come to that. Not that the angels just come down to visit us, but they have to come and leave immediately because the next group are waiting to come and visit us and give salam and go back. But this will come.
Third Meaning: Glory and Honor
And then the final meaning, which is the most supreme meaning, is that it is of glory and power and izzah. And that's what Qadr means. When I say in Arabic, Qadartuhu, or he is Azeemul Qadr, then we mean by that that he is a great person, a great man. And why not? Because in this night Allah has said, We have sent down this book, Wallahu Qadr. It's an Azeem book. And it came down upon the tongue of someone. Ala lisani malikin. The Qadr. It came down on the tongue of a mighty, mighty angel. Jibreel (عليه السلام). And it came down to a Ummah, Wallahu Qadr. This nation Allah has blessed and made the greatest nation to walk this earth. So this is why it is called Laylatul Qadr. The glorious, the majestic, the amazing night. The night of power.
Allah's Personal Address to His Creation
Allah then says in the next ayah, After setting the scene, and this is always the way of Allah in the Quran, The first ayat always just set the scene. Get the people thinking. Wake up the souls to who is addressing them. That it is their Lord (عز وجل) that is addressing them. So amazing, so transcendent, so high. But yet so personal and so close. Wanting to show to us His love at all times, every time.
And you think about that. Think about the great people in our world. The people of importance and power. They feel ashamed to show us too much love. Because it is a sign of weakness. To show emotion is a sign of weakness. But for Allah, it is a sign of strength. When He turns to us and He says, I have forgiven you. And He says to you, I have given you this. And He says to you that I love you and turn to me. And I
will keep on pardoning you. It is because Allah loves to forgive and pardon. Allah is the one of power who is not ashamed of this.
The Question of Knowledge
So this initial ayah, despite His majesty, despite His greatness, has got us in our mind that we are now about to be told something. Because we do not know about what Laylatul Qadr is yet. Which is why Allah says:
And how will you know what the night of power is? And Adaraka in the Arabic language, it means to make you know. And you can say Adaraka in this way, or you can say Adaraka and you can say Yudriku. And both are used in the Quran.
The Wisdom in Different Forms of Questioning
And Imam Sufyan Al-Thawri (رحمه الله) he made a beautiful point. He said, and this is the fa'idah of studying the Quran. He said that Allah many times in the Quran, says وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ - What will make you know what Laylatul Qadr is? وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْقَارِعَة - What will make you know what Al-Qari'ah is? وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْحَاقَّةُ - What will make you know what Al-Haqqah is? When he uses the word Adaraka, then it means that the next ayah is going to tell you what it is. Because of its importance and its impact upon your life right now.
But Yudriku means the exact same thing. Yudriku means the exact same thing. And Allah says in the Quran:
- And what do you know? Maybe the hour is close. Maybe the hour is close.
And Allah says:
- And how do you know? Maybe he will be someone who will purify himself.
Talking about the one that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) turned away from. He wasn't sure. He didn't know what was going to happen to this person. He didn't think that this person had the greater benefit to deal with and to concentrate on. And he turned to someone else in Surah Abasa. He frowned and turned away from this person. Allah says, I want to make you know that this person will become pure.
The Wisdom in Uncertainty
And in these two ayahs, what's the common link? We have not been told in the next ayah when the sa'ah is going to be. When the hour is going to be. And we are not told how pure the hearts of the people are.
That's the difference. (يُدْريك) gives us that doubt. And that doubt puts some caution on our actions. And that's why the Muslim is always unsure about the certainty of whether he's going to die or not tomorrow. And that's why it keeps him busy thinking and reflecting and seeking forgiveness from Allah.
And that's why He didn't tell us. He doesn't want us to know. And likewise, if we knew the states of the hearts of the people, then we become arrogant and we pass judgment. And we become the people of kibr and the people of kufr. And we start making people of the jannah and start making people of the naar. So Allah took this knowledge away from us as well.
And so we never knew the states of the people. And this is a lesson for those people who try to make it that they know the states of the people. Judging that this person is a very good person. Which is rare. Majority of us, we only think that he's the worst this and he's bad that and he's this and he's that. And people just don't fear Allah. And there's a lesson just in this. Just in this word of adaraka. Just in this second verse of laylatul qadr.
The Answer: Better Than a Thousand Months
But then Allah answers it for us:
There you go. This night of power is better than a thousand months. And it's good news in this statement. Because it's not a thousand months of our ibadah. Because if it was a thousand months of our ibadah, we'd still be in trouble. Because one month of our ibadah, one year of our ibadah is like nothing.
Our Poor Understanding of Worship
You look at our definition of ibadah, and you look at the system of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and the companions of what they understood as ibadah. Really. I mean take a topical issue. Tarawih. Tarawih with the Muslims. We love to sit there and we argue. Should we pray 8 rakah? Should we pray 20 rakah? Should we pray 36 rakah? Should we pray 41 as they used to do in Medina? They differ and they argue and they split and they don't speak to each other.
But they all agree on one thing. It's got to be done in one hour. Huh? It doesn't matter how many rakah it is, but it has to be done in one hour. They come to amazing agreement like this. I don't know how. As long as it's done quickly, I don't care. Right? But I hate your guts if you do 8 or 20. But as long as you do it quick. Subhan Allah.
This is our mentality. And the prophetic mentality is the exact opposite. We don't care about the rakah. 8 or 10 or 50 or 100. But we want to pray the whole night. They never used to pray except a third of the night. The average is half the night. The majority of the kibar sahaba.
Abdurrahman ibn Abi Bakr said about my father. That when he used to stand with us, he would make his family stand with him. We would start in the early part of the night. And we would think that would we have enough time to eat suhur? You think about that.
The True Standard of Excellence
So you, here straight away, there's a fa'idah. This 1,000 months, because it's going to get better. Good news. This 1,000 months is not 1,000 months of our ibadah. Even better news. It's not even 1,000 months of their ibadah.
Because the reason this ayah was revealed, according to the imams. Is that the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was told about a man from Bani Israel. Who for 83 years, 1,000 months. Spent the entire night for those 83 years in salah. The whole night. 83 years. And during the daytime he'd been in jihad all day. And the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was shocked. He was shocked. That's something we can't do. And Allah, when he saw this. He gave him this night of Laylatul Qadr. I'll give you this person's ibadah in one night for my ummah. This is the main reason of the revelation of this ayah.
And Imam Malik ibn Anas (رحمه الله) narrates. That the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was shown the ages of mankind - أَعْمَارُ النَّاسِ And he looked at them and he realized that. His nation, the average age had been decreased. So he turned. And Allah saw the fear in his eyes. What was the fear? He said that my nation will not be given enough time to do enough good deeds to get to jannah. Because our life span has been decreased. And the other nations had more time. They had more length of time span to get those things done. So Allah gave him Laylatul Qadr. A lifetime of ibadah in one night. And this is us.
Our Poor Standards
And if we stick a fiver in the box in Jummah. We think that we've got a place next to Abu Bakr. Reserved. This is the mentality of the masakin. Us. And the mentality of those who understand the reality of this life. Who understand the reality of the Adhab of Allah. And who understand more importantly. The Rahmah of Allah.
This is all to be taken just from this single ayah. That it is خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ A thousand months of the highest quality of ibadah.
The Blessing of the Night
And Allah did not say days of ibadah. He mentions the nights. And Allah has blessed the night. And we should recognize that. Allah says:
- Glorified be he who took his slave at night from Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-Aqsa. The area of which he blessed completely. The night time.
وَمِنَ اللَّيْلِ فَتَهَجَّدْ بِهِ نَافِلَةً لَّكَ (Quran 17:79) - And pray a little bit of this night. Rise.
وَكَانُوا قَلِيلًا مِّنَ اللَّيْلِ مَا يَهْجَعُونَ (Quran 51:17) - And little at night would they sleep. The rest of the night is in prayer.
قُمِ اللَّيْلَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا (Quran 73:2) - Stand the night in prayer. Except a little bit.
The night has been mu'adham for the people of Iman. The awliya. The people who are close to Allah. They know this is the time. This is the time when no one can see me. Where I don't make my rakah look very nice. So everyone else can think, Oh, he's very good. Where I can come to the masjid and pray two after two after two. Because I know there's loads of people there watching. And they're thinking, this guy really is great. No.
In the night, not only is everyone else not there. Not only is no one can praise you and give you encouragement. Not even your family. You're by yourself. We'll see now if you've got what it takes. We'll now see if you can step up to the mark. That's why the night has been praised so much. And this is the night that Allah chooses to send down his qadr. His angels. And his Quran.
The Wisdom in Hiding the Exact Night
But we were not told. Allah says, What will you know about what Laylatul Qadr is? But he did not then tell us, But he did not tell us when. Why he tells us what it is but does not tell us when. And this is ar-rahmah for us. How many people can understand in Allah's wisdom? By actually not giving us specific information, he is favoring us.
And he has done that with many things. For example, the dua of istijabah on the day of Jummah. There's an hour. I call it the happy hour. Because it's the real happy hour. The hour in which the dua is accepted. But none of the scholars have reached consensus about when this hour is. They don't know. Most of them say it's the last hour before Maghrib. But none can say with certainty. Why? So that the slave does not leave every single thing to that last hour. And he spends the entire day in dua and salawat to the Habib al-Mustafa.
He keeps his mind open. We have not been told about whether Allah is happy with our actions. Because if we knew that we did an action and Allah was happy with it, we become content. And to become content with yourself in ibadah, is from the most greatest dangers that the nations before fell into.
And we've not been told whether our repentance has been accepted or not. We've been told how to do it. But not whether it's been accepted or not. So we continue in repentance. And we've not been told when we're going to die. So we can prepare. And so that we don't know it's going to be in three weeks time, so we prepare for it in two weeks time. This is the system of Allah.
Our Misguided Approach
And likewise he hides the exact night of Laylatul Qadr. The 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th. We don't know. But we masakin, again, we put all of our eggs in one basket and say 27 and that's it. We have this great confidence. It can only be this night and that's it. And you know what? If it's not this night, well, I did 27th anyway.
look at how he approaches it. He says, well, you know what? I'm going to go for all 10. I'm going to isolate myself from my family, and from business, and from the people outside, and, and, and. And I'm going to stay in this masjid. And I'm not going to do anything else except every single second of this day and night of 10 days, I'm going to seek Laylatul Qadr. And this is what the abd is being told to do.
The Mercy in Hiding the Night
And Allah, as Imam al-Razi said a beautiful statement. He said, it's almost as if Allah is saying to the people, I did not tell you when Laylatul Qadr is because I do not want you to fall into sin. Because, what's this mean? Because the one who out of his desires and out of his weakness of his iman, misses the night in which he knows is Laylatul Qadr intentionally, then he has greatly sinned. He has affronted Allah عز وجل in the most severe way. Whereas the one who misses it, out of shahwah and desires, but didn't know that it is Laylatul Qadr, he has sinned, but not as an affront to Allah.
A Prophetic Example of Mercy
And an example of this is a beautiful narration. It is weak, but it is an interesting narration. Where the
walked into the masjid of Ali رضي الله عنه and they saw a man sleeping for the time for salah. So he said to Ali رضي الله عنه he said, Wake this man and make him do wudu. Ali said, so he woke up this man, he went back to the
He said, Ya Rasulullah, you are the most eager of us to good deeds. Why did you go and tell me to do that?
So the
said, and you just think about this statement. The
said If I had told him, and he had refused, and just think about that, you're asleep, and you're woken up, and you know, all of us have hit the alarm clock, when it's early fajr time in the summer, when it goes off, and you're thinking what's going on, and smack. Or something even worse if it's her, and she's trying to wake you up. And you're not there, you don't know what's going on.
This is what happens. In the grogginess, in the anger, there's no control. You don't know what happened. They tell you the next morning you said this, you did that. Me? I didn't say that, I didn't do that. So the
recognizing this, he says that, if I wake him up, and he refuses, (فَقَدْ كَفَرَ) - He has then made kufr. And if he refuses you, then it's a sin, but it's not a major one. This is the rahmah of
upon his nation. So think then the rahmah of Allah upon his nation. By not telling us so that we don't turn away from him intentionally. This is the same principle.
The Beauty of Understanding
Look at the beauty of the ulama. Look at the difference between us when we read the Quran, and we get bored within five minutes. And the ulama. And you know, just to go back to the issue of the way we like to hurry up with the prayer, and hurry up with the ibadah and whatever.
In a way, it's understandable. Shameful but understandable. Because we don't understand what's going on. We can't understand the language, we can't think about it. And you know, how long can a person, when he's saying things, he has no idea what it means. It's all just words in a foreign language. And he knows, right, I have to be still for this. I have to give respect. But I have no idea what's being said.
In fairness, how long do you expect him to stand for? To ask him to stand for more than one hour in such a scenario is asking a huge thing. But then is this our fault? Is this the fault of the imam who's trying to make it longer or shorter? Or should the people start to study? Start to get closer to Allah? Start to learn about the one who loves us so much?
Because in every other field of life, when we recognize there's a benefit for us, then we want to that benefit. We want to study the benefit. We hear a business plan, then we go and make the research. We go and get the funding. We go and find the partners. We start to study the laws and the conditions, and what's going to make it, break it, and so on.
So this is make and break for us, our salah. Our relationship with Allah is our make or break. So we must take the onus upon ourselves to try and understand what's going on. What is Allah saying to us? What is going on? What is this message? We are the ones who are responsible. We should take that upon ourselves.
The Descent of Angels
And then the next ayah, Allahu Akbar:
As I said before, it's been called Laylatul Qadr because it's night of restriction, because the Mala'ikah, they are here. (سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ يَا مَلَائِكَةَ) - Because they are here now. They are here now. And you know what? They come and they give Salam. And they leave immediately.
Allah, they visit his Baitul Ma'mur, 70,000 come, and then they leave, never to come back again. And then 70,000 more come, and they give Tahmid and Tasbeeh, and then they leave, and they don't come back again. Just think of that number every single day.
The Overwhelming Number of Angels
And I was in the carpark the other day, and I was walking, I don't know why I was looking at my feet, and I saw these stones. There must be hundreds and thousands of stones, just in this little few square meters here. And I read Abu Huraira رضي الله عنه said, in the tafsir of this ayah, that on the night of Laylatul Qadr, the Mala'ikah are more than all the stones in the world. Can you think about that? It shakes the mind.
And why? (بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ) - With the permission of their Lord. These angels are coming, and they're actually asking Allah for permission. Which means, they want to come here. They want to come down here to us, and they turn to Allah, and they ask for permission. Allah gives them permission, go.
Why Angels Love to Come
Why? Because the angels love ibadah. Because the angels love those who love Allah. The angels love those who turn to Allah. The angels love the sinners. The sinners who stop and turn to Allah. So they come. They come to give us encouragement. They come to give us hope. They come to help us. This is their system. This is their way from the beginning. It always has been.
The Story of Harut and Marut
And they've taken this upon themselves. Do you know how they've taken it upon themselves? Because they turned to Allah, when Allah created Adam, and put Adam in the world, and made mankind for the world. What did the angels say? They were shocked. They turned to Allah:
- What's going on? They couldn't understand. You're going to put in this world, a people who will cause corruption and shed blood, and we come and praise you, and we sanctify you.
- I know what you don't.
And in a very interesting narration, it is called the Qissah of Zuhra. And there's many narrations, and a lot of them are weak, but in the most authentic one, it is authentic to Ka'b al-Ahbar, as a story of the Israelites. That the angels, when they said this to Allah, Allah turned to them, and said, choose two of the best of you. So they chose Harut and Marut. And they were sent down to the earth, and they were given the desires of mankind.
And it was not long, when Allah sent them Zuhra. And Zuhra was the most beautiful woman of mankind at that time. And Zuhra is Venus. And they used to say that she was as beautiful in comparison to the rest of creation, like Venus is to the rest of the stars. And she was sent to send fitnah upon them, to do zina, to drink alcohol, and everything. And the heavens were covered. The angels were not given the opportunity to see this. And then Allah revealed the heavens. And the angels were shocked to see what the two had fallen into.
And they turned to Allah. And that's when they said:
- Subhanaka ya Allah. We have nothing. We know nothing except what you tell us.
It was then they realized that of the qadr that we are, and that we can be. And that's why the scholars in the very furious debate about who is better, the mala'ikah or the human beings. And the answer is the human beings because of what they can be. Because of their maqam in the end. Because Allah has given them that choice to accept or reject. So, the angels recognized that.
Angels' Prayers for Believers
So then they, in recognition of that
Allah tells us in the Quran that they are the ones who come and they seek forgiveness for us. For the people who believe:
Look at this, look at the dua. Look at the angels how they're on our side. They're praying for us, they're making dua for us. Oh Allah. Rabbana wasi'ta kulla shay'in rahmatan wa ilma. The one you embrace everything, your mercy and your knowledge embraces everything. Forgive those who repent and follow your way. And protect them and save them from the torment of the fire.
Think about this. Not just making istighfar for us, but asking Allah to enter us into His paradise. What did we do to deserve that? What did we do to deserve that? But they're here now. Because this is halaqatul ilm. This is halaqatul dhikr where Allah's name is mentioned. This is where they love to be. This is where Allah loves the people to be.
Angels Reporting to Allah
The angels go back to Allah. In the normal circles of knowledge. In the normal study circles. In the normal Quran circles. They go back to Allah. And they say so and so was making tasbeeh and tahmid, and saying la ilaha illallah, and studying and so on. And Allah says, what