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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Is the Night of Decree fixed on a specific night every year, or does it move from one night to another among the nights of the last ten of the following year?

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Is the Night of Decree fixed on a specific night every year, or does it move from one night to another among the nights of the last ten of the following year? We ask for clarification of this issue with evidence.

The Shaykh : Yes, the Night of Decree is undoubtedly in Ramadan, as Allah the Exalted said:
Indeed, We sent the Qur'an down during the Night of Decree. إنا إنزلناه في ليلة القدر
[Al-Qadr 97:1]
And Allah the Exalted clarified in another verse that Allah revealed the Qur'an in Ramadan, so He said, Mighty and Majestic:
The month of Ramadhan [is that] in which was revealed the Qur'an شهر رمضان الذي أنزل فيه القرآن
[Al-Baqarah 2:185]
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to perform i'tikaf (spiritual retreat in the mosque) in the first ten days of Ramadan seeking the Night of Decree, then he performed i'tikaf in the middle ten days, then he saw it (peace and blessings be upon him) in the last ten days of Ramadan. Then the dreams of a number of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) coincided that it was in the last seven days of Ramadan, so he said:
I have seen that your dreams have coincided in the last seven days of Ramadan, so whoever seeks it, let him seek it in the last seven days أرى رؤياكم قد تواطأت في السبع الأواخر من رمضان فمن كان متحريها فليتحرها في السبع الأواخر
This is the least that has been said about it, meaning regarding its restriction to a specific time. I say this is the least that has been said about it, meaning regarding its restriction to a specific time. And if we examine the evidence regarding the Night of Decree, it becomes clear to us that it moves from one night to another, and that it does not occur on a specific night every year. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw the Night of Decree, or was shown the Night of Decree in a dream, that he would prostrate in its morning in water and mud, and that night was the twenty-first night. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Seek it in multiple nights of the ten التمسوها في ليالٍ متعددة من العشر
This indicates that it is not restricted to a specific night. And with this, the evidence comes together, and a person in every night of the nights of the last ten hopes to encounter the Night of Decree.
And the reward of the Night of Decree is obtained for whoever stands in prayer in it with faith and seeking reward, whether he knows about it or not, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Whoever spends the night of Lailat Al-Qadr in prayer out of faith and in the hope of reward, he will be forgiven his previous sins. من قام ليلة القدر إيماناً واحتساباً غفر له ما تقدم من ذنبه
Sunan an-Nasa'i 2193Sahih (Darussalam)
And he did not say "if he knows that he stood in it." So it is not a condition for obtaining the reward of the Night of Decree that the doer knows it specifically. But whoever stands in prayer in all of the last ten days of Ramadan, we are certain that he stood in the Night of Decree with faith and seeking reward, whether in the first part of the ten, the middle, or the end.
Source alathar.net

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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