What is meant by the saying of the Exalted: “And the dawn, and the ten nights”? Are they the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah or the last ten nights of Ramadan? And if the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah are intended,

The questioner : May Allah reward the honorableThe Shaykh : You mentioned that these ten nights are better than the last ten nights of Ramadan. Are they the ones intended in the saying of Allah the Exalted: Are they the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah or the ten days of Ramadan? And if the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah are intended, why does He say: and not “and days”? And would the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah be the “known days” in His saying: And does Shaykh al-Islam have a statement on this?

The Shaykh : Our statement was that we said these days are better than the ten days, but we remained silent regarding the nights. This is because the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) said that “days” is used to mean nights, and “nights” is used to mean days. So in His saying: some scholars, indeed most of the exegetes, hold that the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah are intended, while others hold that the nights of the ten days of Ramadan are intended. The first opinion states that in the Arabic language, “nights” is used to refer to days and nights, and in that case there is no problem. However, some scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) said that the nights of the last ten days of Ramadan are better because they contain Laylat al-Qadr, which is better than a thousand months. As for the days of the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah, they are better than the days of the ten days of Ramadan. So there is a distinction between the nights and the days. In any case, we encourage our brothers to do good deeds in these ten days, the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah, night and day.