Al-Qadr · Makki · ayah 2 of 5

Al-Qadr 97:2

وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ ٱلْقَدْرِ

“And what can make you know what is the Night of Decree?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Some things you can hunt down with effort; the worth of this night is not one of them, so the Quran pauses and asks before it tells.

A reflection

Knowledge you can hunt, and knowledge you must be handed

The verb here, adrā, comes from a root with a hunter in it. The lexicons describe a man stalking game from behind an animal. He walks crouched beside a camel or a cow, hidden by its body, until he is close enough to shoot. That screen-animal was called the dariyya. To tadarrā the game was to work out where it was before you could even see it. So dirāya, knowing, is knowledge reached by skill, patience and approach. Some say it means knowing something after first doubting it.

Think of a man who has spent six years tracing his family tree. He has found his great-grandmother on a ship's passenger list, in two census returns, and in a parish record of her marriage. He is a good hunter. Then an aunt hands him a shoebox. Inside is a letter his great-grandmother wrote on her first night in a new country. What she felt that night was in no archive. No amount of searching would ever have found it. It had to be handed to him.

Wa mā adrāka mā laylat al-qadr: 'And what will make you know what the Night of Decree is?' The question marks the edge of the hunt. You can research the calendar of Ramadan and the reports about the odd nights. You can calculate and compare. But the worth of this night, what it holds and what it does to a person, is not game that human cleverness can stalk. It has to be told by the One who made it.

That is humbling in a useful way. We are proud of what we have found out, and rightly so. The hunt is a gift too. But the most important things we know about ourselves came to us as a letter, not as a catch: why we exist, where we are going, and what a single night is worth.

The Quran asks this same question of the Day of Sorting, the steep road, the Striking Hour and the Crusher. Each time it is saying: lower your bow. This one you cannot track. Sit down, and let Me tell you.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.