For hundreds of years, lovers have been searching for Laylah. This search is a love story like no other. They know her features. They know about her beauty. They know that she would be most cherished. With great excitement, every year, they look for Laylah- Laylatul-Qadr: the Night of Power.

The Prophet Muhammad encouraged the search for Laylatul-Qadr:

Search for it in the last ten of Ramadan. (Sahih Al-Bukhari)

To help us in this search, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave us clues. He informed us that the night would fall on an odd night:

Search for Laylat-ul-Qadr in the odd of the last 10 of Ramadan. (Al-Bukhari)

Odd Nights Do Not Necessarily Mean Odd Dates

Laylatul-Qadr (the Night of Power) will fall on an odd night during the last ten nights of Ramadan. This is not the same as saying that it would fall on one of the odd dates.

A lunar month can either be 29 or 30 days, depending on the moon sighting. If a month ends up having 30 days, the odd nights will fall on the even dates.

However, if a month ends up having 29 days, the odd nights will fall on odd dates. The existence of the additional 30^th day shifts what dates the nights would fall on. This method of counting is according to the Prophet’s words:

Search for it (the Night of Power) in the last ten of Ramadan, in the 9^th that remains, the 7^th that remains, the 5^th that remains. (Al-Bukhari)

Method of Counting the Nights

An Unmatched Night: Don’t Miss

If Ramadan ends up having 30 days, the 9 nights that remain of the month would be the 22^nd of Ramadan and the nights after that. The nights to look for would be the remaining odd nights, namely the 9^th night, the 7^th night, the 5^th night, the 3^rd night, and the last night.

These nights would correspond with the 22^nd of Ramadan, the 24^th of Ramadan, the 26^th of Ramadan, the 28^th of Ramadan and the 30^th of Ramadan, respectively. All these dates are even dates, but at the same time, they are odd nights in respect to the number of nights that remain for the month.

If Ramadan ends up having 29 days, the 9^th remaining night would be the 21^st of Ramadan, and the 7^th remaining night would be the 23^rd, the 5^th would be the 25^th, and so on.

Ibn Taymiyah confirms this method of night-counting to identify the Night of Power:

“It will be in the odd of it. But, the odd is in regards to what has passed. So it is sought in the 21^st night, 23^rd night, 25^th night, 27^th night and the 29^th night. And it is in regards to what remains (of the month) as the Prophet said, ‘For the 9^th that remains, for the 7^th that remains, for the 5^th that remains, for the 3^rd that remains.’

So according to this, if the month is 30 days, Laylatul-Qadr would fall on the even nights. The 22^nd night would be the 9^th that remains, and the 24^th night would be the 7^th that remains.”

Fasting Ramadan - Nourishment of the Soul

Abu Saeed al-Khudri also confirmed that to find Laylatul-Qadr the nights have to be calculated and not the dates. A questioner asked him:

“O Abu Saeed! You are more knowledgeable about numbers than us.”

He said:

“Yes. We have more right to it than you.”

“What is the 9^th, 7^th, and 5^th?”

Abu Saeed responded:

“When 21 have passed, what follows it is 22, and that is the 9^th. And when 23 have passed, what follows it is the 7^th. And when 25 has passed, what follows it is the 5^th.” (Muslim)

Since we can only know which nights are odd only after the month has been completed, we would have to focus on every night of the last ten nights to ensure we catch Laylatul-Qadr.

If Ramadan ends up having 30 days, the odd nights will fall on the even dates. If the month ends up having 29 days, the odd nights will fall on the odd dates.

The table below shows both possibilities:

(From Discovering Islam’s archive)