Laylat al-Qadr, the “Night of Power” or “Night of the Decree,” is the holiest night in Islam. By tradition the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad on this night. You can think of it as a spiritual window that opens to the presence of Allah (God).
It is believed that what you do this night can change your future. That’s true. What you do today, defines your tomorrow. The books you read today can affect your life for years to come.
Some Muslims spend the night in the mosque or with family. Some celebrate in stillness alone, in “I’tikaf,” because it is mostly in stillness that we can experience the presence of the divine, regardless of your name for God. Stillness is a wonderful practice of self-healing.
Laylat al-Qadr 2026
The Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar so the date changes every year. The holiday is proclaimed by the sighting of the moon, so we can only say when it is expected.
The last ten nights of Ramadan are all considered powerful nights. The two main branches of Islam celebrate the peak on different nights:
What is Laylat al-Qadr?
The Muslim festival commemorates the night when the Qur’an began to be revealed to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. The historic event took place on one of the last ten nights of Ramadan in 610. Nobody is certain which night it was, so many Muslims celebrate for the last ten nights, in consideration that Allah wants people to be faithful every day.
The revelations continued for many years, but this was the beginning. Laylat al-Qadr celebrates the beginning of Islam. If a Christian reference helps you understand, Laylat al-Qadr has the same importance for Muslims as Easter does for Christians. It’s the beginning of faith.
Laylat al-Qadr Inspires Reading
It’s believed that what you do on the Night of Power has more spiritual significance than anything you do on any other day or night. Because this night is so powerful, many people stay up all night. Many spend the night reading the Quran. Encouraging reading is a wonderful thing.
Why Does New York Latin Culture Magazine Cover Islam?
Islam isn’t Latin. If anything the Islamic and Latin worlds are competitors in West Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe.
Yet we mixed together in Islamic Spain. We are not even taught about it in the United States, but Islamic Spain was one of the pinnacles of humanity in its time, the third great European civilization.
The civilization of Islamic Spain was equal in breadth and significance to the Romans and the Renaissance. Muslims brought the knowledge of West and South Asia to Europe. Many technological advances were made and Jewish poets writing in Arabic for Spanish sultans recovered classical European knowledge from the great Islamic libraries. The Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution wouldn’t have happened the way they did without the advancements of Islamic Spain.
Furthermore, Arab merchants ran the African coastal trade, first between East Africa and India, and then around most of the African coast. Africans married in because the Islamic traders were business leaders in their communities. So Islam is one of the great religions of Africa.
The TransAtlantic Slave Trade (1500s – 1800s) brought West African Muslims to the Caribbean and the Americas. For example, Dutty Boukman, one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) was called “Boukman” because he was a man of the book. He was a Muslim imam (priest).
There are relatively few Muslims in Latin America, but there are some. Many internalize their faith to avoid harassment. In the Caribbean today, people occasionally speak Arabic to me. When I ask how they learned, they say they were taught to pray at home. It’s amazing that the tradition survived in secret at home for so long. That’s a powerful testament to faith.
Islam is also one of the faiths you will encounter in New York City. So I write a little about Islam to understand it myself, and to try and increase mutual understanding and tolerance. We are all human.
Laylat al-Qadr Mubarak”
“Blessed Laylat al-Qadr” in Arabic