Fath al-Rabbani

Benefits: … The meaning of this phrase from the hadith, “wa hiya laylatu witrin tis‘in, aw sab‘in, aw khamisatin, aw thalithatin, aw akhir laylatin,” is: “The Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr) is on the odd night of the ninth, or seventh, or fifth, or third, or the last night.” This is actually a particular style of the Arabs, that when half of the month has passed, for convenience, they begin counting the dates from the end. In this hadith, “ninth” means when nine days remain in the month; similarly for the others. Considering our own custom, we have translated this passage as: “This night will be on the odd nights, i.e., the twenty-first, twenty-third, twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh, or twenty-ninth.”

“As for the statement, ‘On this night, no star is thrown until morning,’ the reason for this is that on this night, Satan does not dare to ascend towards the sky to steal words.”

Of all the signs of Laylat al-Qadr mentioned in this hadith, the following two signs are within our capacity to estimate the night:

(1) The night is clear and bright, extremely peaceful, and neither cold nor hot.

(2) When the sun rises in the morning, it has no rays; it is like the full moon of the fourteenth night.

Your (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) statement that “on this night, no star is thrown until morning”—this refers to the shooting stars (shihab thaqib), which are fired at the devils who reach there to steal the words of the heavens. Since on Laylat al-Qadr, angels descend in great numbers, these devils do not even dare to ascend towards the sky.