Counting the Last Ten Nights of Ramadan and Laylat al-Qadr

Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Decree, also called the Night of Power) is one night in the last ten nights of Ramadan. Its exact date is not known. The Prophet ﷺ told Muslims to seek it in those ten nights, especially the odd ones: the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th and 29th. Because each Islamic day begins at sunset, the "27th night" starts at sunset on the evening before the 27th day of fasting. By the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar, the 27th night of Ramadan 1448 begins at sunset on Friday 5 March 2027.

Key Takeaways

• The Quran names the Night of Decree in Surah al-Qadr (97) but does not give its date.
• Sahih hadith place it in the last ten nights of Ramadan, with emphasis on the odd nights.
• Each night begins at sunset and comes before the day with the same number, so the 27th night is the evening before the 27th fast.
• A Ramadan of 29 days has only nine nights from the 21st on, and the month's length is not known until the evening of the 29th.
• Calculated dates for 1448 AH: the last ten nights begin at sunset on Saturday 27 February 2027. Local announcements may differ by a day.

What the Quran says about the Night of Decree

Surah al-Qadr is five verses long and is entirely about this night. In a translation of the meaning (Saheeh International on quran.com), Quran 97:1 says: "Indeed, We sent it [i.e., the Qur'ān] down during the Night of Decree." Quran 97:3 adds that the night "is better than a thousand months," and 97:5 describes it as peace "until the emergence of dawn."

Two other verses connect the night to Ramadan. Quran 44:3 refers to the Quran being sent down "during a blessed night," and Quran 2:185 names Ramadan as the month in which the Quran was revealed. None of these verses gives a day of the month.

Encyclopaedia Britannica's entry on Laylat al-Qadr summarizes the tradition: the night commemorates the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, believed to have taken place on one of the final ten nights of Ramadan in 610 CE, "though the exact night is unclear."

What the hadith say about which night

The date comes from hadith rather than the Quran, and the narrations point to a range of nights rather than one fixed date.

• The last ten nights. In Sahih al-Bukhari 2020, Aisha reports that the Prophet ﷺ used to say, "Look for the Night of Qadr in the last ten nights of the month of Ramadan."
• The odd nights. In Sahih al-Bukhari 2017, the instruction is to search for it "in the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan."
• The last seven. In Sahih al-Bukhari 2015, several Companions saw in dreams that it was in the last seven nights, and the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever wants to search for it should search in the last seven.
• The 29th, 27th and 25th. In Sahih al-Bukhari 2023, the Prophet ﷺ came out to tell the Companions the date, but two men were quarrelling and the knowledge was taken away. He said that might be for their good, and told them to search for it on the 29th, 27th and 25th.
• The 21st in one year. In Sahih al-Bukhari 2018, the Prophet ﷺ said he had been shown the night and then made to forget it, and that he saw himself prostrating in mud and water. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri reports that on the night of the 21st it rained, the mosque roof leaked, and he saw the Prophet ﷺ after the dawn prayer with mud and water on his face.
• The 27th, by Ubayy ibn Ka'b's oath. In Sahih Muslim 762a, the Companion Ubayy ibn Ka'b swore that it is the night that "precedes the morning of twenty-seventh," and gave as its sign that the sun rises that morning bright and without rays.

Read together, these texts explain why many Muslims treat all ten nights as candidates and give extra effort to the odd ones. Britannica notes that the night is most commonly observed on the 23rd by Shia Muslims and on the 27th by Sunni Muslims. Which nights to emphasize is a question for the scholars or mosque you follow.

Why the 27th night comes before the 27th day

Islamic dates begin at sunset. The US Naval Observatory's Islamic observances service states that its dates "begin at sunset of the previous evening and end at sunset on the date tabulated."

So the night always comes first. The 27th night of Ramadan begins at sunset at the end of the 26th fast and lasts until dawn. The 27th fast follows during the daylight hours after it. Ubayy's wording in Muslim 762a matches this order: the night that precedes the morning of the 27th.

A calendar that marks "27 Ramadan" on a Saturday describes the Saturday daytime. The 27th night is the Friday evening. If you plan to attend night prayers, write the evening into your plan, as in "Friday night, after Isha." The sister post on why the Islamic day begins at sunset explains the convention in more detail.

When the last ten nights begin

The last ten begin at sunset at the end of the 20th day of Ramadan. In Sahih al-Bukhari 2016, Abu Sa'id says the Prophet ﷺ addressed them on the morning of the 20th of Ramadan and told those in seclusion with him to stay on for the last ten nights. In Bukhari 2018 he describes the Prophet ﷺ returning home "after passing the twenty nights," on the 21st, in the years he secluded himself in the middle ten.

In practice, the first of the last ten nights is the night of the 21st, which starts on the evening of the 20th fast.

How a 29-day Ramadan changes the count

A Hijri month has 29 or 30 days. In Sahih al-Bukhari 1913, the Prophet ﷺ describes the month as "sometimes of 29 days and sometimes of thirty days." The post on why an Islamic month has 29 or 30 days covers the astronomy behind this.

That has two effects on the last ten nights.

A 29-day month has nine nights from the 21st

Counting from the 21st, a 30-day Ramadan has ten nights (21 to 30). A 29-day Ramadan has nine (21 to 29), because the evening after the 29th fast is the night of Eid. The odd nights are the same in both cases: the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th and 29th. The 30th night, when it exists, is an even night.

You learn the length only on the last evening

Communities that sight the moon learn whether Ramadan has 29 or 30 days on the evening of the 29th fast. If the crescent of Shawwal is accepted that evening, the next day is Eid. If not, there is one more night and one more fast. A printed calendar has to choose in advance, which is why a calculated date may differ from your local one. The post on why Eid al-Fitr can fall on different days explains how that decision is made in different places.

Counting from the end of the month

One narration counts backwards. In Sahih al-Bukhari 2021, Ibn Abbas reports the instruction to look for the night "when nine or seven or five nights remain." The English translation on sunnah.com adds the bracket "(i.e. 21, 23, 25, respectively)."

The arithmetic shows why the month's length matters here. If you count the current night as one of those remaining, nine nights remain on the 21st night of a 29-day month. In a 30-day month, nine nights remain on the 22nd. Counted this way, the same instruction falls on odd nights in one month and even nights in the other. In the next narration, Sahih al-Bukhari 2022, Ibn Abbas himself also says to search for it on the 24th. Because the length of the month is uncertain until its last evening, the broader instruction in Bukhari 2020 to look in all ten nights covers both counts.

Calculated dates for the last ten nights of 1448 AH

By the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar used on this site, Ramadan 1448 begins on Monday 8 February 2027 and has 29 days, with Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday 9 March 2027. Each night below begins at sunset on the evening shown and ends at dawn the next morning.

If your community completes Ramadan to 30 days, there is a 30th night beginning at sunset on Monday 8 March, a 30th fast on Tuesday 9 March, and Eid on Wednesday 10 March.

If your community begins Ramadan a day later than the calculated date, every row moves one day later. The 27th night would then begin at sunset on Saturday 6 March instead of Friday 5 March. The post on how the start of Ramadan is decided covers why that happens.

For the following year, the same calendar puts the start of the last ten nights of Ramadan 1449 at sunset on Wednesday 16 February 2028, and the 27th night at sunset on Tuesday 22 February 2028.

What the Prophet ﷺ did in the last ten nights

Several sahih narrations describe how the Prophet ﷺ spent these nights.

• Extra effort in worship. In Sahih al-Bukhari 2024, Aisha reports that when the last ten days began, he would "tighten his waist belt," pray through the night, and wake his family for prayer.
• Seclusion in the mosque (i'tikaf). In Sahih al-Bukhari 2026, Aisha reports that he practiced i'tikaf in the last ten days of Ramadan until he died, and that his wives did so after him.
• Night prayer on Laylat al-Qadr. In Sahih al-Bukhari 1901, the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever prays on the Night of Qadr out of sincere faith and hoping for reward from Allah will have their previous sins forgiven.
• A short supplication. In Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3513, graded sahih (Darussalam) on sunnah.com, Aisha asked what to say if she knew which night it was. He taught her: "O Allah, indeed You are Pardoning, [Generous,] You love pardon, so pardon me".

How to organize i'tikaf, night prayers and other worship is a matter of personal practice; ask a qualified scholar or your local mosque for guidance.

Plan the last ten nights

Open the Ramadan page for the calculated start and end of Ramadan each year, then use the Ramadan 1448 calendar to see the 20th to the 29th in a monthly grid. For each odd night, write down the evening it starts, not just the date of the fast that follows. Mark every entry as provisional until your mosque announces the start of Ramadan, and recheck the last few nights again after the announcement on the evening of the 29th. To check any single date, the date converter converts between Hijri and Gregorian.