Fixing Laylat al-Qadr on the Twenty-Seventh Night

Question

It has been commanded to seek Laylat al-Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten days of the noble month of Ramadan. Will it then be a bid’a to always, every year, observe precisely the twenty-seventh night of Ramadan as Laylat al-Qadr, and every year to complete (khatm) the recitation of the Noble Qur’an on that very night? Is it established, whether from the predecessors (aslaf)

Answer

It has been commanded to seek Laylat al-Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten [days], but many scholars, on the basis of certain indications (qara’in), gave preference to the twenty-seventh, since the preponderant likelihood (zann ghalib) is that it is the twenty-seventh night — though there is no certainty in this to the extent of ruling out the other nights.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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