✦ AT A GLANCE ✦

القدر

Al-Qadr

The Power · 5 verses · meccan · 1 min read

✦ Why this name

The Decree — al-Qadr, the night on which matters are decreed.

✦ When it came

Meccan. It describes the night on which the Quran began to be sent down, sought in the last ten nights of Ramadan.

✦ The story

Five verses about one night.

*"Indeed, We sent it down during the Night of Decree. And what can make you know what the Night of Decree is? The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months."*

Better than eighty-three years. One night.

*"The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter."* And then the last verse, which is the whole feeling of the night in one word:

*"Peace it is, until the emergence of dawn."*

Not "reward". Not "power". **Peace** — until the sun comes up.

✦ How it unfolds

  1. AYAH 1-2

    The night it came down

    The revelation's beginning, and a question that holds the answer back.

  2. AYAH 3

    Better than a thousand months

    The value stated in a comparison anyone can measure.

  3. AYAH 4-5

    Peace until dawn

    Angels descending for every matter, and peace until the sun rises.

✦ Verses to carry

Sources

Introductions to the surah in Tafsir Ibn Kathir and Mawdudi's Tafhim al-Qur'an; ayah numbering per the Madani mushaf.

Awaiting scholar review — please read alongside a trusted tafsir.