Surah 97 of 114 · Makkah
سُورَةُ القَدۡرِ
Al-Qadr The Power, Fate
5 verses · revealed in Makkah
The context
Al-Qadr is held by most scholars to be Makkan, though some said Madinan, and it descended to magnify a night the world could not see. Ibn Abbas explained in sound reports that the Quran was sent down in one descent to the lowest heaven on Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Decree, and from there came to the Prophet ﷺ in portions across twenty three years, beginning in Hira. So this surah is the Quran telling the story of its own arrival: We sent it down in the Night of Decree.
In the life of the Prophet ﷺ and his community the surah turned one night of Ramadan into the axis of the year. He ﷺ would seek Laylat al-Qadr in the last ten nights, retreating in i’tikaf, seclusion in the mosque, tightening his waist-wrapper, waking his family, and he promised that whoever stands that night in faith and hope of reward is forgiven his past sins. An empire of devotion, millions awake before dawn every Ramadan, still runs on these five verses.
The name
The surah is named for Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Decree, which it names three times in five verses. Qadr carries two meanings the scholars loved together: decree, because the year’s appointments are handed down in it, and worth, because one such night outweighs a thousand months.
How it moves
- 1-1The sending downAllah Himself announces the event in the royal We: truly We sent it down in the Night of Decree, the Book and the night ennobling each other.
- 2-3Worth beyond countingThe rhetorical drumbeat, what will make you grasp what that night is, then the exchange rate of heaven: better than a thousand months.
- 4-5Angels until the dawnThe angels and the Ruh, the Spirit Jibril, descend with every decree by their Lord’s leave, and the night is peace itself until the rising of dawn.
The themes
The Quran honors its night
The night is great because of what descended in it. Value in this surah flows from revelation, a quiet argument that nothing dignifies time like the presence of Allah’s word.
One night, a thousand months
More than eighty three years of worship in a single night: the surah breaks the tyranny of short lifespans and gives small communities a way to outweigh centuries.
A crowded, descending sky
Tanazzalu al-mala’ikatu war-ruh: the night is not empty quiet but heavy traffic, angels descending with every affair that the coming year will carry.
Peace until dawn
Salamun hiya: the night’s very substance is peace, safety written over the worshippers until the light rises, a taste of the greeting of Paradise.
The heart of it
Al-Qadr recited slowly rearranges a person’s mathematics. We count value in years and output; the surah counts it in nearness and descent, and calmly informs us that one night can outweigh a thousand months, which is to say that a life is not measured by its length but by its moments of contact with Allah. For the reciter this is almost unbearable hope: whatever has been wasted, a single night remains capable of outweighing it. The image of the sky opening, angels and the Spirit coming down rank on rank with the decrees of the year, turns the last ten nights of Ramadan from a custom into a countdown.
And the surah ends on the word the heart was thirsty for without knowing it: salam, peace, stretched until dawn. Whoever has stood one true Laylat al-Qadr knows the verse is not a metaphor. There is a stillness in that night that feels less like silence and more like a greeting.
Verses worth knowing
On reciting it
No sound hadith assigns a special reward to reciting this surah a set number of times; such reports are not authentic. The established virtue belongs to the night it names: whoever stands Laylat al-Qadr in faith and hope of reward is forgiven his past sins.
Scholars differfor the night itself, Bukhari 1901; no sound recitation-report
Read beside it
On the shelf
Surahs it travels with