Dua for Laylatul Qadr: The Authentic Dua and Meaning

What is Laylatul Qadr?

Laylatul Qadr, often translated as the Night of Decree or the Night of Power, is a single night that falls within Ramadan and is described in the Quran as being better than a thousand months of worship. It is named directly in Surah Al-Qadr, the 97th chapter of the Quran, a short but weighty surah revealed about this exact night.

The surah opens with the statement that the Quran itself was sent down on this night, and it describes angels and the Spirit (understood by scholars to mean the angel Jibril) descending by the permission of their Lord with every decree. The final verse describes the night as peace until the appearance of dawn. Reading the surah alongside this article gives real depth to why the night carries such weight in the hearts of Muslims.

In simple terms, Laylatul Qadr is a single night on which worship, reflection and sincere dua carry a reward greater than eighty three years of ordinary devotion. That is the literal meaning behind "better than a thousand months." Scholars explain that this is a mercy from Allah to a nation whose average lifespan is far shorter than that of earlier communities, giving every believer a realistic chance at an extraordinary reward within a single lifetime.

The night is tied specifically to Ramadan, the month in which the Quran began its revelation, and more precisely to the final stretch of the month. It is not a fixed calendar date like Eid; instead, the Prophet directed the Muslim community to search for it within a range of nights, which is exactly what the next section of this guide covers.

Surah Al-Qadr in Arabic, transliteration and meaning

Reading the surah that names this night, in its own words, is one of the simplest ways to understand why it matters so much. Surah Al-Qadr is only five short verses, easy to memorise, and worth reciting slowly on the last ten nights themselves.

• Inna anzalnahu fi laylatil qadr (97:1) means "Indeed, We sent it [the Quran] down during the Night of Decree."
• Wa ma adraka ma laylatul qadr (97:2) means "And what can make you know what is the Night of Decree?"
• Laylatul qadri khayrum min alfi shahr (97:3) means "The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months."
• Tanazzalul mala-ikatu war-ruhu fiha bi-idhni Rabbihim min kulli amr (97:4) means "The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter."
• Salamun hiya hatta matla'il fajr (97:5) means "Peace it is until the emergence of dawn."

Notice the structure. The surah opens by telling us the Quran itself was revealed on this night, then asks a rhetorical question designed to make the listener pause and consider just how significant that is, before answering its own question with the comparison to a thousand months. It closes on the word salam, peace, describing the character of the night itself as calm and safe from harm until the first light of dawn appears. Many reciters and scholars have noted how the entire surah moves from revelation, to value, to the descent of the angels, to a description of the peace and mercy that fills the night, in just a few short lines. Our fuller tafsir of Surah Qadr walks through each verse in more depth if you want to study it beyond this summary.

The dua Aisha (RA) was taught to say

The single most important thing to know about the dua for Laylatul Qadr is that it comes directly from an authentic hadith, not from later custom. Aisha (RA), the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, asked him a very practical question: if she happened to know which night was the Night of Decree, what should she say? His answer is preserved word for word, and it is the dua Muslims around the world now recite in search of the night.

The hadith is recorded in Sunan al-Tirmidhi (Hadith 3513) and also in Sunan Ibn Majah, and it is graded sahih, meaning authentic, by hadith scholars including Shaykh al-Albani. It reads, in essence: Aisha said, "O Messenger of Allah, if I know which night is the Night of Decree, what should I say during it?" He said, "Say: Allahumma innaka afuwwun tuhibbul afwa fa'fu anni."

Notice how short and direct this dua is. It is not a long formula. It is a handful of words built entirely around one theme: asking Allah for forgiveness by calling on His name Al-Afuww, the One who pardons. This matters because it tells us what the Prophet considered the single most valuable thing to ask for on the greatest night of the year: not wealth, not worldly success, but forgiveness itself.

It helps to sit with the meaning of afw for a moment, since it is a slightly deeper word than the more general term for forgiveness, maghfirah. Maghfirah carries the sense of covering or veiling a sin. Afw carries the sense of erasing it entirely, wiping it away as though it had never been written. When you say this dua, you are not just asking Allah to overlook your sins. You are asking Him to remove them from your record altogether, and you are reminding yourself, in the same breath, that this is something Allah loves to do. He is not reluctantly forgiving; He loves forgiving.

Practically, this means the dua is easy to memorise in one sitting and easy to repeat many times through the night. Say it while standing in prayer, in prostration, between the units of your night prayer, or quietly to yourself as you sit in reflection. There is no fixed count required; repeat it as often as your heart is present, and let it anchor the rest of your worship on the night.

When to seek Laylatul Qadr

Nobody, not even the Companions of the Prophet, was given a fixed calendar date for Laylatul Qadr. What the Prophet gave instead was a range and a pattern to search within, and that guidance is what Muslims still follow today. As reported in Sahih al-Bukhari, the Prophet said, "Search for the Night of Decree in the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramadan." That single instruction is the foundation of how the whole Muslim world approaches the end of the month.

The last ten nights of Ramadan are the final ten nights before Eid al-Fitr, and the odd nights within that stretch, counting from the start of the month, are typically identified as the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th and 29th nights. Many scholars have pointed to the 27th night in particular as a strong possibility, based on various narrations and reasoning, and it has become the night on which the largest congregations gather in many countries. It is important to be honest here: this is a matter of scholarly opinion built on the available evidence, not a certainty stated outright in an authentic hadith. Only Allah knows the exact night with certainty.

Because the exact night was left unspecified, the wisdom behind it becomes clear the longer you sit with it. If everyone knew for certain which single night carried this immense reward, effort would likely spike on that one night and fall away everywhere else. By keeping the night hidden within a range, the guidance pushes worshippers toward sustained effort across the whole final stretch of Ramadan rather than one night of performance. For a full walk through how the days of the month are counted and when the last ten nights fall in a given year, our guide on when Ramadan falls in 2026 and 2027 is a useful companion, since the odd nights shift with the moon sighting each year the same way the whole month does.

A practical note on counting nights: in the Islamic calendar, a new day begins at sunset rather than midnight, so the "night of the 27th," for example, actually begins on the evening that precedes the daytime of the 27th and runs until dawn. This is why worship on these nights typically stretches from right after the sunset (Maghrib) prayer through the night prayer and on toward the pre-dawn (Fajr) hours. If you are new to how Ramadan's rhythm of fasting and worship fits together across the whole month, our complete Ramadan rules guide covers suhoor, iftar, fasting, and how the last ten nights fit into the bigger picture.

How to spend the night of Laylatul Qadr

Reciting the dua is the heart of the night, but the Prophet's own example shows a fuller pattern of worship across the last ten nights, not a single act performed once and then set aside. Here is what that fuller effort typically includes.

• Extra night prayer (qiyam al-layl). Standing in voluntary prayer, whether alone or in congregation as Taraweeh or the extended night prayers many mosques hold in the last ten nights, is one of the most direct ways to fill the hours of the night with worship. If you are not yet confident in the movements or the recitation, our guide on how to pray Tahajjud explains the night prayer in practical, step-by-step terms.
• Reciting and reflecting on the Quran. Since this is the night the Quran's revelation began, spending time actually reading it, slowly and with reflection, connects directly to the meaning of the night rather than just its reward.
• Reciting the Laylatul Qadr dua repeatedly. Return to Allahumma innaka afuwwun tuhibbul afwa fa'fu anni again and again through the night, in prayer and outside of it, with your heart present in the meaning rather than rushing the words.
• General istighfar and dhikr. Seeking forgiveness in your own words, saying SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, and Allahu Akbar, and other remembrance of Allah fill the gaps between formal prayer and keep the heart engaged. Our piece on istighfar covers the simplest and most well known forms if you want to build this into a steady habit beyond just this one night.
• Sincere personal dua. Beyond the specific Laylatul Qadr dua, this is a night to ask Allah directly for whatever weighs on your heart, in your own language if needed, with full attention and hope.
• Charity. Giving in charity, even a small amount, on these nights follows the wider spirit of generosity the Prophet showed most in Ramadan, and especially in its final ten days.
• Itikaf. Both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim report that the Prophet used to perform itikaf, a period of spiritual seclusion in the mosque devoted entirely to worship, during the last ten nights of Ramadan every year. Not everyone can take on a full itikaf given work and family responsibilities, but even a few hours spent in the mosque on these nights, away from distraction, captures some of that same spirit.

None of this needs to feel like a checklist to rush through. A single night, even a busy one, can genuinely be spent on a handful of these acts done sincerely rather than all of them done hurriedly. Pick what is realistic for your circumstances, whether that is an hour of prayer after Isha, ten extra minutes of Quran before you sleep, or staying up through Suhoor in quiet dhikr, and commit to it across each of the odd nights rather than saving all your effort for a single guess at which night is the one.

Other authentic supplications for the last ten nights

While Allahumma innaka afuwwun tuhibbul afwa fa'fu anni is the specific dua taught for Laylatul Qadr itself, the last ten nights of Ramadan are also a natural time to lean on other well established duas from the Quran and Sunnah. None of these replace the Aisha (RA) dua; they simply round out a night of sincere supplication.

Sayyidul Istighfar, often called the master supplication for seeking forgiveness, is a fuller acknowledgment of Allah as Creator and Sustainer paired with a confession of sin and a request for pardon. It is a longer and more detailed companion to the short Laylatul Qadr dua, and many people recite both across the same night, the short dua repeated often and the fuller one recited once with careful attention to its meaning. Our dedicated guide on dua for forgiveness lays out Sayyidul Istighfar and other authentic forgiveness supplications in full, with Arabic, transliteration and meaning.

General duas for guidance and good in this life and the next, such as the well known Quranic supplication asking for good in this world and good in the hereafter and protection from the punishment of the Fire, found in Surah Al-Baqarah, are also fitting on a night devoted to asking Allah for everything that matters. If you already keep a personal list of duas for specific situations, from travel to your parents, Laylatul Qadr is a fitting night to bring all of them together rather than treating your worship as limited to only one supplication.

Dua Qunoot, recited by many in the Witr prayer that closes the night prayers, is another authentic supplication worth reviewing before Ramadan's last ten nights begin, since Witr is typically prayed at the end of Taraweeh or Tahajjud on these nights. You can find the full wording, transliteration and meaning in our guide to Dua Qunoot.

The common thread across all of these is sincerity over quantity. The Prophet did not teach a long list of mandatory recitations for Laylatul Qadr. He taught one short, precise dua in response to a direct question, and left the rest of the night open for whatever heartfelt worship a person is able to bring. Memorise the specific dua well, and let it anchor everything else you choose to add.

Signs scholars have mentioned about the night

Some hadith describe signs that were noticed the morning after Laylatul Qadr, most notably a narration recorded in Sahih Muslim describing the sun rising that following morning without its usual piercing rays, appearing calm and subdued. Scholars have discussed this and similar reports as possible indicators recognised in hindsight, the morning after, rather than something to actively look for or wait on during the night itself.

It is worth being cautious here. These signs, even where authentically reported, describe what some Companions noticed afterward, not a checklist for identifying the night in advance. Chasing signs or treating a particular sunrise as proof can quietly distract from the actual point of the night, which is sincere worship regardless of whether you ever have visible confirmation. Spend the night in prayer and dua because it might be the night, not because you are hunting for evidence that it was.

Common mistakes to avoid

A few patterns show up often around Laylatul Qadr that are worth naming directly, so you can sidestep them.

1. Saving all effort for the 27th night only. Since the night is not confirmed, treating every odd night from the 21st onward as a real possibility, and worshipping accordingly, is truer to the Prophet's own guidance than betting everything on one date.
2. Reciting the dua without understanding it. The words are short enough to learn both the Arabic and the meaning together. Understanding that you are calling on Allah's name Al-Afuww and asking Him to erase your sins, not merely overlook them, changes how the dua is felt.
3. Treating the night as only about staying awake. Physically staying up means little without the prayer, recitation, dhikr and dua that are meant to fill those hours. Rest earlier in the day if needed so you can be present and unhurried at night, rather than exhausted and distracted.
4. Neglecting the fast itself. The last ten nights fall at the tail end of the fasting month, and the worship of the night should sit alongside, not replace, care for the obligations of the day, including the fast and the five daily prayers.
5. Chasing signs instead of worship. As covered above, do not let curiosity about signs the next morning distract from sincere effort during the night itself.

None of these mistakes are unusual or shameful; they are simply easy patterns to fall into during a busy, tiring stretch of the month. Naming them in advance makes it easier to plan a night that is calm, sincere and sustainable rather than rushed.

How Niyyara helps you catch the night

Knowing the dua is only part of being ready for Laylatul Qadr. The other part is simply being organised enough, night after night through the last ten nights of Ramadan, to actually stop and worship at the right time, without scrambling to remember the Arabic or checking whether Maghrib has come in yet. That is exactly what Niyyara is built to support, at no cost.

Niyyara is a free, private, ad-free companion for daily worship. It gives you accurate prayer times for your exact location, so you know precisely when Maghrib, Isha and Fajr fall on each of the last ten nights, and it can sound the azan so you are never caught off guard. It includes a dua library with the Laylatul Qadr dua and many others, each with Arabic script, transliteration and meaning, the full Quran with audio for the reflection and recitation these nights call for, an Islamic calendar so you can track exactly which night of Ramadan you are on, and a tasbih for dhikr through the long hours of the night.

Because it costs nothing and carries no ads or subscriptions, there is no friction between you and the worship you came to do. Set your location once, and let Niyyara handle the timing and the reference material while you focus fully on the night itself.

The dua for Laylatul Qadr is short, authentic and easy to carry with you into every odd night of Ramadan's final ten: Allahumma innaka afuwwun tuhibbul afwa fa'fu anni. Learn it well before Ramadan's last ten nights begin, understand what you are asking for, and spend each of those nights, not just one, in prayer, recitation, dhikr and sincere dua. May Allah grant you the night, and may He accept the worship you bring to it.