Question
I have heard that some Sahaba or Sahabi1 swore upon the holy Qur’an that Shab-e-Qadr is always on the 27th of Ramadhan… Is it true?
Answer
The Prophet (pbuh) is said to have mentioned a few signs of Lailatul Qadr. Among these signs was that on the morning of this night, the sun rose without its normal brightness. Ubayye ibn Ka`b (ra) felt that such was the case on one of the mornings of the 27th night of Ramadhan and was therefore of the opinion that it was the 27th night of Ramadhan which was Lailatul Qadr. Thus, even though It is correct that Ubayye ibn Ka`b (ra) swore that he thought that the date of the ‘Lailatul Qadr’ was the 27th night of the month of Ramadhan, he has also mentioned that his opinion is based on his experience and not on any narrative ascribed to the Prophet (pbuh).
Besides Ubayye (ra), none of the other companions of the Prophet (pbuh) has so categorically fixed the 27th night of Ramadhan to be the ‘Lailatul Qadr’, although a number of narratives show that many of them were very keen to find it out. In these circumstances I am of the opinion that we are not in a position to say for certain, exactly which night is the Lailatul Qadr, especially when the Prophet (pbuh) did not say so, even though he was specifically asked about it by a large number of his companions.
- i.e. Companions or a companion of the Prophet (pbuh). [↩]