The Shaykh Al-Albani’s remarks on the Night of Decree and its signs.

The Shaykh : Today, my daughter Salama called me from Jeddah. It was, of course, before sunrise at our place. She said to me, “I saw the sun?” I said to her, “No, the sun has not risen yet at our place.” She said, “Strange, I saw the sun.” I found her words to be those of a happy person, as if she had seen a sign of the Night of Decree. I asked her, “What did you see? Like a pot? Does it have no rays?” She said, “Yes.” I said to her, “The sun has not risen yet at our place, and I am taking the time for sunrise relative to our house, which differs by a third of an hour from the calendar.”

The questioner : Yes, correct.

The Shaykh : In any case, I took the calendar paper. I had just finished talking about my daughter when I found it written as five and a half and five. I think, yes, five and a half and five. I waited until it became ten minutes to six, then I stood to watch the sun until it began to rise. The bell rang for 'Isam, so I opened the door quickly and said to him, “Come to me. Have you seen the sun? How do you see it? Does it have rays or not? Two opinions are better than one. When I saw its rim, I said it has rays.”

The questioner : Stronger than the twenty-seventh night.

The Shaykh : In any case, we waited until the whole disk rose, if Allah wills.

The questioner : More than the twenty-seventh, my Shaykh.

The Shaykh : A natural sun.

The questioner : Natural.

The Shaykh : In any case, the joke has not come yet. I had just finished the conversation with my daughter and hung up here when the phone rang from there, and lo and behold, Umm al-Yasr was saying, “I saw the sun,” the same words as my daughter. I said to her, “The sun has not risen yet at my place.” She said, “Strange, it has risen at our place here.” The point is, yes, she saw it just as my daughter saw it. To summarize, I saw it, and 'Isam called me a little later and said, “We saw it, and as I told you, after a third of an hour it rose at our place with rays, if Allah wills.” Here I gave her, so to speak, a detail about the Night of Decree: that first, it moves, and second, this matter of moving—I said to her, “You must have knowledge that it may be in the ten odd nights and move from one odd night to another. But the new thing I want to tell you, and this is my opinion, not from a text, it may be correct, it may be wrong, is that the Night of Decree may be relative to individuals, not just to countries. I will explain to you. I said to her, ‘The verse the Messenger of Allah mentioned, which is the rising of the sun like a pot—do you imagine that every individual among the Muslims sees it or at least notices it?’ She said, ‘Of course not.’ I said to her, ‘Do you not imagine that people saw the Night of Decree but did not see its signs?’ I stopped and said to her, ‘I think this is because seeing the Night of Decree does not necessarily have to be a visual sight, but rather it is a spiritual, heart-based sight. And this is the meaning of the saying of the Lady 'Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her)—we are under it, we want—.’”

The questioner : We go around the Pepsi-Cola.

The Shaykh : —It goes around the Pepsi-Cola from here, now—... The man’s Night of Decree is a special manifestation.

The questioner : A feeling.

The Shaykh : Yes, but he does not see any of the material signs and indicators.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : While others see the material signs but did not see anything; perhaps they were not praying.

The questioner: Correct.

The Shaykh : Ah, so on this basis, the Night of Decree may be relative to some men, meaning one person sees the Night of Decree with a spiritual sight on the twenty-first, another on the twenty-third, and so on, because this is a divine manifestation; therefore, it came: , , .

The questioner : It needs another day, my Shaykh. Ah.

The Shaykh : Ah, the twenty-ninth.

The questioner : There is still room for us.

The Shaykh : The twenty-ninth.

The questioner : By Allah, my Shaykh, I was surprised when the announcement mentioned to me these stories. Some of our brothers, one of them said that on the twenty-seventh day he saw the sun like a pot. I was standing in the mosque of al-Taqwa with the young men around, and they asked him how the night was. He showed them how the sun was, according to what I saw, several times in the past years, by the grace of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). And indeed, a person truly feels that its signs are clear and evident, and sometimes, by the grace of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), he feels its blessing.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : But—Glory be to Allah the Great!—the sun’s rays are evident, perhaps on the twenty-seventh for you, on the twenty-third for him, on the twenty-ninth for Abu 'Ubadah.

The Shaykh : Yes, yes, but with the observation that this is an opinion.

The questioner : An opinion.

The Shaykh : My opinion, not a text.

The questioner : Yes.