# Singling Out the 27th Night for Worship? | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #12

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Pause and Reflect
**Published:** 2026-03-15
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/VFHeMPn-eF8
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/pause-and-reflect-12-singling-out-the-27th-night-for-worship
**Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia

## Summary
In this Ramadan reflection, the speaker draws a powerful parallel between contemporary political scandals — specifically referencing the Epstein files and the war on Iran as a potential distraction — and historical patterns of elite corruption described in the Quran. He focuses on the ayah from Surah Al-Isra [Al-Isra 17:16]: 'And when We wish to destroy a town, We command its elite, and they commit wickedness therein, so the word is justified against it, and We destroy it with complete destruction.' The speaker presents three scholarly interpretations of this verse: (1) Allah commanded the elite with righteousness and they disobeyed; (2) Allah allowed their evil to consume them as a precursor to destruction; and (3) Allah gave them wealth, power, and means, which they used to indulge their lowest desires until destruction came. He connects this Quranic principle to historical examples, including how Allah exposed Al-Walid ibn Mughirah's illegitimate birth when he tried to humiliate Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), how Prophet Yahya (ﷺ) was martyred for refusing to legitimize the corrupt desires of Herod Antipas, and how Fir'awn's regime was built on exploitation and moral depravity. The speaker emphasizes that the pattern of corrupt elites using distraction, deflection, and war to cover their scandals is timeless. He concludes with hope, noting that in the Quran, the exposure and destruction of corrupt elites are divinely linked — when they feel most invincible and most exposed, that is precisely when Allah's punishment arrives. He calls on believers to recognize these signs and to make du'a for the oppressed.

## Transcript
**[0:00]** Is there any basis for specifying the 27th night as Laylatul Qadr? Yes or no? Is it permissible, if you had an Islamic scholar who said, tonight is Laylatul Qadr, it is 27th every single year, what would you say?

**[0:17]** What if it was the sahaba, the person who used to lead the prayer, the first taraweeh prayers after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, whom Umar radiAllahu anhu gathered them behind, Ubayy ibn Ka'b radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, who would say, Wallahi it's the 27th night. Abdullah ibn Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala anhuma, Ibn Umar radiAllahu anhuma, Zirr ibn Hubaysh

**[0:35]** who radiAllahu anhu narrates from Ubayy ibn Ka'b radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Okay, that changes things a bit. If the companions themselves said the 27th night, some of them said the 27th night is Laylatul Qadr. Now, this is a long-standing difference

**[0:53]** of opinion in Islam, but this is a valid opinion. I've spoken about it probably every year for the last several years and leaned into this a bit inshaAllah ta'ala. It is indeed a valid opinion and some might even claim the jumhur, the majority of the scholars who said the 27th is the night of Laylatul Qadr or the most likely to be Laylatul Qadr. I'm

**[1:14]** not going to go into all of the details of which madhab and which schools and which scholars, but Ubayy ibn Ka'b when he said that, he said, but your brother Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu anhu is saying it can be any night. He said that Abdullah ibn Mas'ud does not want people

**[1:30]** to get lazy, to depend on one night alone. He wants them to strive for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because the companions, even those who believed that Laylatul Qadr was the 27th night, they still sought it every single one of the last 10 nights. They still

**[1:45]** honored all of these 10 nights. So he said that was the fear of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Here's the thing, and I want us to inshaAllah ta'ala hold on to this for a moment. Did the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam give some people the message to strive

**[2:04]** harder on the 27th night? The answer is actually yes. A couple of narrations are very interesting. The one from al-Nu'man ibn Bashir radiAllahu ta'ala anhu said we prayed behind the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam for several nights. One night he pushed past the first half of the night, the second into the last third, and then on the 27th night the Prophet sallAllahu

**[2:24]** alayhi wa sallam led us in prayer for so long that we thought we were going to miss suhoor. It's one narration from the Messenger of Allah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam which I'm paraphrasing and I've spoken about in greater detail in other places. The other one is the old man who came to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and said Ya Rasulullah inni shaykhun kabir.

**[2:41]** I'm an old man and it's very difficult for me. I can't stay up all these nights. I have a condition where I can only probably pull off one or two of these nights. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam said to him alayka bis sabi'a, then for you pay attention to

**[2:56]** the seventh night. Pay attention to the seventh of the last ten, meaning pay attention to the 27th night. There is a basis for honoring this night. Imam al-Razi rahimahullah ta'ala he has a different take, not a different take but an additional benefit by the way to what

**[3:13]** Ubayy radiAllahu ta'ala said about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam not wanting people to get lazy. He said that if it was revealed that it is the 27th night and the whole ummah knew that it was the 27th night and it was only the 27th night, imagine how sinful the person would be for missing on the 27th night. Imagine

**[3:34]** how condemnable a person would be if he knew there is one night of the year that is Laylatul Qadr and it is that night, Hiyah, as Abdullah ibn Abbas radiAllahu anhuma, one of the bases of his opinion is that he says the 27th word Hiyah in Surah al-Qadr, it is. Imagine

**[3:50]** if everyone knew it was the 27th night and you still went to sleep and you still spent the night doing other things. Then that person would be sinful. And there are multiple narrations to that effect like when the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam would ask for another sign, that this mountain be turned into gold and the answer was, look if it is turned into

**[4:09]** gold and they still disbelieve, then the punishment will come even more severe upon them. So sometimes not knowing is a mercy in that sense because knowing but still abstaining would be a greater sin, even more condemnable in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So what do we take

**[4:27]** from this, dear brothers and sisters, bi'idhnillahi ta'ala. The first thing that I'm going to tell you is that this year in particular, Ramadan for some of the ummah started on Wednesday, others it started on Thursday, so there will be some tomorrow who will be treating it like the 27th night and some who will be treating it like the 28th night. What if those that

**[4:47]** started a day later are right? And you only push yourself this night. Now if you're like that man who came to the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and you have circumstances, let's say that your job is very difficult, you can only take a night or two off for the next few nights. I would say yes, based on what the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam

**[5:05]** told that man, really push yourself tonight, push yourself tomorrow night inshaAllah ta'ala. If you have health conditions or work conditions or you really have to make those types of choices, then yes you can prioritize. But what if it's tomorrow? And then, well if it's

**[5:21]** not tomorrow, if it's indeed tonight, then that would mean that the day after tomorrow is the 29th night, which we go back to an odd night. So I'm going to give you a mechanism bi'idhnillahi ta'ala, because I want to keep this khatirah very short, I know how cold it is outside and we have a long night of ibadah bi'idhnillahi ta'ala. This year, just treat

**[5:39]** it this way, you have two 27th nights and two 29th nights. Two 27th nights and two 29th nights. That's it. There's only a few nights left. Push yourself as if you have two more 27ths and two more 29ths. Allah azza wa jal has been so merciful to us to let us build

**[5:58]** into this place that we are in right now. So is there a basis for singling it out? Yes. And if there is a scholar who takes the opinion that it is the 27th night every single year, he's following some of the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He's not necessarily wrong. Of course we tend to always lean on the opinion that it changes from year

**[6:18]** to year and this was the opinion as well of some of the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and multiple ulema like Ibn Hajar, Ibn al-Qayyim and others, may Allah be pleased with them all. But dear brothers and sisters, tonight, tomorrow night, you're in the 27th now. Push yourself, single it out, honor it bi'idhnillahi ta'ala, do dhikr as

**[6:39]** you walk from place to place and this year inshaAllah ta'ala, two more 27th nights and two more 29th nights. There's no playing around at all with these last four nights because truly, they really have the potential to be odds and they are of the most precious

**[6:54]** of the odd nights. May Allah azza wa jal make us amongst those that catch Laylatul Qadr. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala write it down for us fully. Allahumma ameen. Jazakumullahu khayran. Please be careful on your way out and in inshaAllah ta'ala with the weather and please be considerate as well. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

**[7:15]** Al-Fatiha.

## Other Episodes in "Pause and Reflect"
- [Pay Attention to the Masjid Al-Aqsa Shutdown | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #11](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/pause-and-reflect-11-pay-attention-to-masjid-al-aqsa-shutdown.md)
- [How Can You Despair of the Lord of Laylatul Qadr? | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #10](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/pause-and-reflect-10-how-can-you-despair-of-the-lord-of-laylatul-qadr.md)
- [What If Laylatul Qadr Is The Wrong Night? | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #9](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/pause-and-reflect-9-what-if-laylatul-qadr-is-the-wrong-night.md)
- [Sharia Takeovers and Middle East Chaos | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #8](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/ramadan-pause-and-reflect-8-sharia-takeovers-and-middle-east-chaos.md)
- [Why The Epstein Empire Attacked Iran | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #7](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/why-the-epstein-empire-attacked-iran-ramadan-pause-and-reflect-7.md)
- [How Am I Supposed To Feel About Israel vs. Iran? | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #6](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/how-am-i-supposed-to-feel-about-israel-vs-iran-pause-and-reflect-6.md)
- [The Only Surah Without Bismillah | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #5](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/the-only-surah-without-bismillah-ramadan-pause-and-reflect-5.md)
- [One Small Sin That Tips the Scale | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #4](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/pause-and-reflect-4-one-small-sin-that-tips-the-scale.md)
- [He Wrote on Himself Mercy | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #3](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/pause-and-reflect-3-he-wrote-on-himself-mercy.md)
- [The Scholars Who Can’t Read | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #2](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/pause-and-reflect-2-the-scholars-who-cant-read.md)
- [The Baqarah Challenge | Ramadan Pause and Reflect #1](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/pause-and-reflect-ramadan-2026/pause-and-reflect-1-the-baqarah-challenge.md)