# Is Laylatul Qadr on the 27th Night? | Ramadan Reflections

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Ramadan Reflections (2025)
**Published:** 2025-03-27
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/jgsk4RJxHTM
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/is-laylatul-qadr-on-the-27th-night-ramadan-reflections
**Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia

## Description
Have you been saving your best for just one night? Dr. Omar Suleiman unpacks the mindset the Sahabah warned against and reframes how we should approach the 27th night and Laylatul Qadr.

## Transcript
**[0:00]** The Prophet ﷺ said, خذوا القرآن من أربعة. Learn the Qur'an from four people. This is trivia. Who are those four people? Abdullah ibn Abbas, رضي الله عنهما, no, not in this hadith.

**[0:16]** Even though he is hafidh al-Qur'an. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, رضي الله عنه, good, that's one. Ubay ibn Ka'b, رضي الله عنه, that's two. It's like a fundraiser now. Third, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, رضي الله عنه, and the fourth one?

**[0:33]** Always the toughest one. No? No? Salim, Mawla Abi Hudhayfah. May Allah be pleased with them. So Salim, Mu'adh, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, and Ubay ibn Ka'b.

**[0:50]** These are the four people in this authentic narration. The Prophet ﷺ said, take the Qur'an from these four people. Now, Salim, رضي الله عنه, was martyred in the battle of Yamamah. Very famously along with Abi Hudhayfah, رضي الله عنه. A beautiful story of two men who came from Mecca together.

**[1:08]** And they were lifelong friends, subhanAllah. Salim is the mawla in such a beautiful way, right? Of this family, of Abu Hudhayfah, and there's a story behind that. So Salim, رضي الله عنه, was killed early on, was martyred early on.

**[1:23]** Mu'adh ibn Jabal, رضي الله عنه, the Prophet ﷺ sent him to Yemen. May Allah be with our brothers and sisters in Yemen. Allahumma ameen. So that leaves two, Ubay ibn Ka'b, رضي الله عنه, and Mu'adh, I'm sorry, and Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, رضي الله عنه.

**[1:42]** Why am I giving you this context? Because sometimes we have discussions and it's important to put it in a seerah context. When Umar, رضي الله عنه, gathered the Muslims for taraweeh, meaning people were praying taraweeh in pockets, and he gathered them behind one imam, he chose Ubay ibn Ka'b, رضي الله عنه.

**[2:01]** And Ubay ibn Ka'b, رضي الله عنه, is the one, so if you were to pray taraweeh in Medina, just imagine yourself, just a few years after the death of the Prophet ﷺ, you would be praying behind Ubay ibn Ka'b, رضي الله عنه. Ubay ibn Ka'b, رضي الله عنه, is the one who famously swore that Laylatul Qadr was on the 27th night.

**[2:21]** He swore by Allah that Laylatul Qadr was on the 27th night. So what usually happens when two people have a difference of opinion, or you go to a scholar and you ask him something and you want to see if someone else is going to say something different,

**[2:37]** you just get that answer and then you go to someone else, and you don't tell the other person that you asked that person, right? You just ask them, what's your opinion? And then you go back to the first person and you say, hey, well that person said this. Sheikh Yasir, it happens all the time.

**[2:53]** That person said this, that person said that, that person said this, right? So they go to Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, رضي الله عنه, the second person who fits this description of the Prophet ﷺ mentioned. And they asked him, when is Laylatul Qadr? And you can see the personalities come out.

**[3:08]** Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, رضي الله عنه said, من يقم الحول whoever stands the entire year in prayer, يصب ليلة القدر. Then he will catch Laylatul Qadr.

**[3:24]** So he said, pray every night of the year and you'll get Laylatul Qadr. SubhanAllah, look at the difference. Ubay ibn Ka'b is in the masjid saying, Wallahi it's the 27th night. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud is not even telling you Ramadan. He said, any night of the year, you want to catch Laylatul Qadr?

**[3:41]** Pray every single night of the year. من يقم الحول whoever prays the whole year, you'll catch Laylatul Qadr. So they go back to Ubay ibn Ka'b. Abu al-Mundhir is his kunya. And they say, Abu al-Mundhir, your brother ibn Mas'ud says,

**[3:59]** من يقم الحول whoever stands the whole year will catch Laylatul Qadr. And he responds, and he says, my brother Abdullah ibn Mas'ud did not want people yet to get lazy. He didn't want people to get lazy.

**[4:15]** But he said, but he knows that Laylatul Qadr is in the last 10 nights of Ramadan and that it's one of the odd nights and that is the 27th night. He said that about Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. I'll give you another incident to give you a little bit of perspective on this entire discussion

**[4:31]** about the attitude that the companions were talking about. Because it's not the answer, it's the attitude. Allah Azza wa Jalla says, حافظوا على الصلوات والصلاة الوسطى Guard particularly the middle prayer. What is صلاة الوسطى?

**[4:47]** صلاة العصر Or, what's the other opinion? صلاة الفجر وسطى means the middle, but it also means the best. And so there is an opinion that صلاة الفجر is الوسطى

**[5:02]** The Prophet ﷺ said, من صلى البردين دخل الجنة Whoever prays the two cool prayers, فجر and عصر, will enter paradise. And, قرآن الفجر كان مشهودا The recitation of Fajr is witnessed by the angels. So some of the scholars said

**[5:18]** صلاة الوسطى is actually Fajr prayer. Now, you go to Umar ibn Khattab رضي الله عنه, with this type of a question. And you say, which one is صلاة الوسطى? Which one is the prayer of صلاة الوسطى? What do you think an answer is? He said, I have a better idea for you.

**[5:34]** Why don't you guard all of the prayers? حافظوا على الصلوات And you'll naturally guard الصلاة الوسطى. Why are you trying to find this cheat code? Why are you trying to find a hack? Like the Prophet ﷺ, when he says, من صلى البردين, whoever prays the two cool prayers,

**[5:50]** will enter paradise. If you only pray Fajr and عصر, are you even a Muslim? Debatable. But it's certainly not a pathway to Jannah. We know it's five prayers. When something is emphasized, that does not mean it's to the neglect of the others.

**[6:06]** And the Sahaba hated the attitude. By the way, on صلاة الوسطى, the correct opinion is that it's صلاة العصر, because the Prophet ﷺ mentioned, in the famous incident of the trench, about missing صلاة الوسطى, meaning عصر, that being delayed upon صلاة الوسطى. But the point is, dear brothers and sisters,

**[6:22]** the Sahaba did not like this attitude, of singling something out and trying to put so much emphasis on it that you make it like a cheat code. Because Islam is a way of life, it's not a single night. Salah is a daily practice of five prayers, it's not this one special prayer.

**[6:38]** We don't believe in hacks in Islam. We believe that Allah ﷻ has mandated and made obligatory what is blessed, and Allah ﷻ has made beautiful certain opportunities where there is opportunity for more blessing. But at the same time,

**[6:54]** we don't believe in hacks. And so when you would go to the Sahaba with a question like that, so you think it's tonight? Imagine standing in front of Umar ibn Khattab, or standing in front of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, saying, so I heard it's the 27th night, is it the 27th night?

**[7:10]** Like let me know, give me the inside information, the inside scoop, so that when everybody else is still pursuing 28, 29, 30, I can go to sleep, because I already got the inside information. Now, with all that being said, with the 27th night, there are multiple opinions, as I mentioned

**[7:27]** in the very beginning of the first 10 nights, that there are multiple opinions as to whether or not Laylatul Qadr is this night or that night, or does it change from the odd nights. There are over 40 opinions that Hafiz ibn Hajar narrated. The opinion of my teachers and the one that I believe to be

**[7:43]** the most correct, and Allah knows best, is that it does change, but still, you can still say Laylatul Qadr, Laylatul Saba' wa 'Ishreen, the 27th night, with all other factors aside, is Arja Layla, the most hoped for night, meaning no other factors.

**[7:59]** So you know, this year, the 21st night fell on Laylatul Jumu'ah. There are other signs that come with other nights. We know the famous narration where it ended up happening on the 23rd night in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, but all nights put together, that of course, there is something about the 27th night, and there is

**[8:15]** evidence to that. The Prophet ﷺ in the Hadith of Nu'man ibn Bashir, prayed on the 23rd night, the 25th night, the 27th night, he mentioned the lengthening of the Prophet ﷺ's prayer on the 27th night to the point that we thought we were going to miss the Suhoor. There is something to it. The old man who came to the

**[8:31]** Prophet ﷺ and told the Prophet ﷺ, I can't pray all of the nights equally, I have circumstances, eventually the Prophet ﷺ ends up saying to him, then focus on the 7th, the 27th night. If that's all you have, if you can only go for it on that one night, then you go for it on that one night.

**[8:47]** But we're not that old man. We're not in this situation. So think like you're sitting in front of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud and asking him, so is it the 27th night? He says, why don't you just pray every night of the year?

**[9:03]** And you'll catch Laylatul Qadr. But at the same time, when you're in the night, you need to focus. And so like I said to you on the 21st night, I said I want you to forget all what I said about Laylatul Jumu'ah and the 21st night, or an odd night

**[9:19]** coinciding, once it's over. When you start, push yourself. Say tonight is Laylatul Jumu'ah. Tonight is an odd night. Now that it's over, put it in the books. Tonight, now that we're starting the 27th night, so those of you that will watch this recording after, forget everything I said. Those of us that are

**[9:35]** starting the 27th night, yes, there is a lot that's attached to the 27th night. We can't definitively say that it's Laylatul Qadr. It is a beautiful, powerful night of the blessed 10 nights. And to have a man of the caliber of Ubay ibn Ka'b رضي الله عنه, swearing by

**[9:51]** Allah that it's the night, that's not to be taken lightly. So we ask Allah Azza wa Jal to allow us to catch it, whether it is tonight or whether it is another night. And we ask Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to write down for us its full reward. Allahumma ameen. Please don't come to me afterwards and say, so you're saying it's the 27th night. I'm saying push

**[10:07]** yourself on the 27th night and push yourself on the nights that remain. BarakAllahu feekum. Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

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