When is Laylat al-Qadr, and what should I do on it?

Where the night is found

The Prophet ﷺ told us the night lies in the final ten nights of Ramadan, and Shaykh Ibn Baz explains that whoever stands in all ten of them will certainly have caught it. Within those ten, the odd nights carry more weight than the even ones, and the twenty-seventh is the most likely of the odd nights.

"Whoever stands in prayer on Laylat al-Qadr out of faith and seeking reward, his previous sins will be forgiven."— Sahih al-Bukhari 1901

That hadith is the heart of the matter, and it is why the scholars urge the whole ten nights rather than one.

Why the exact date is hidden

The scholars differed widely over the precise night — Ibn Hajar counted dozens of opinions, and al-Fawzan classifies them into those that are baseless, those that are weak, and those that are sound. The sound ones all place it in the last ten nights.

The position Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymeen both settle on is that the night moves: it may be the twenty-first one year, the twenty-fifth the next, the twenty-seventh the next. Ibn Uthaymeen's reasoning is that only this reading reconciles all the narrations, and he warns against the person who fixes on the twenty-seventh, exhausts himself there, and neglects the rest.

The wisdom in concealing it is that people should strive through the whole ten nights, so that the one who is serious is distinguished from the one who is not. If the date were known, effort would collapse into a single night.

What to do on the night

The night runs from sunset to dawn — IslamWeb notes that its blessing covers the whole span, not a single moment within it, so there is no hour you must catch. Ibn Baz stresses that standing in prayer at night is recommended, not obligatory; what is obligatory is not the vigil itself but the sincerity with which you keep it.

1. Stand in prayer. Pray in pairs of rak'ahs, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "The night prayer is two by two, and if one of you fears the dawn he prays one rak'ah to make what he has prayed odd." He himself prayed eleven rak'ahs, and Aisha رضي الله عنها reported this. That number is his practice, not a ceiling — IslamWeb records that the Companions prayed twenty rak'ahs in the time of Umar, Uthman and Ali, and that this is the position of al-Thawri, Ibn al-Mubarak and al-Shafi'i.
2. Make this du'a, and make it often. Aisha رضي الله عنها asked the Prophet ﷺ what to say if she knew the night, and he taught her:

اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّي"O Allah, You are Most Forgiving, and You love forgiveness; so forgive me."— Reported by Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah 3850; graded authentic by al-Nawawi

3. Add Qur'an recitation and dhikr. IslamWeb lists these among the acts of the night. Completing the whole Qur'an in one night is not required — if you can, it is a great reward, but it is not a condition.
4. Give charity and repent. Ibn Baz names charity alongside prayer, recitation and supplication as part of what "standing" the night means.
5. Keep it free of showing off. The hadith's condition is imanan wa ihtisaban — out of faith and seeking reward from Allah alone, not for display or any worldly aim.

The forgiveness promised

The reward is forgiveness of previous sins, and the majority of scholars restrict this to those who avoid the major sins, because the Prophet ﷺ said the five prayers, Friday to Friday, and Ramadan to Ramadan expiate what lies between them so long as the major sins are avoided (Sahih Muslim 233).

One point of comfort: you do not need to know which night it was. Ibn Baz states plainly that if your standing coincides with the night, you receive its reward even if you never learn it had been Laylat al-Qadr. The night may be seen by some through its signs — the sun rising without rays the next morning — but not seeing it costs you nothing.

Key takeaways

• Search the whole last ten nights, not one night; the odd nights are more likely, and the twenty-seventh most likely of all.
• The night moves between years, so treat every odd night as a real candidate rather than resting on the twenty-seventh alone.
• Stand in prayer, make the taught du'a, recite Qur'an, give charity and repent — the night's blessing lasts from sunset to dawn.
• Sincerity is the condition: faith and seeking Allah's reward, not display.
• You are not required to identify the night — whoever stands in it sincerely receives its reward whether or not he knows it.

Further reading

• Ibn Baz, Majmu' Fatawa wa Maqalat al-Shaykh Ibn Baz
• Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari
• al-Fawzan, Minhat al-'Allam Sharh Bulugh al-Maram

And Allah knows best.