Ramadan day 21 - why we weren’t told the exact Night of Power.

There are many authentic narrations telling us which night is the Night of Power, but no scholar can say for sure what night it actually falls on. It’s also considered to be one of the odd nights, but how do you know if you’re praying an odd or even night because if you try and follow the moonsighting, you won’t know until the 29th day if there are 29 or 30 days in the month.

The wisdom in not knowing the exact day of Laylatul Qadr, and not knowing if you’re even praying on an odd night, is to motivate everyone to try their best to make Qiyam in all of the last 10 nights. If we were certain that Laylatul Qadr is on a specific day 100% with no doubt and with full agreement of all the scholars, it would make us lazy and only seek that one day.

But Allah wants more from you, because He really wants to see who will compete for His mercy in all 10 nights. Allah is showing us once again subhana wata'aalah, that He is the most knowledgeable, and we are completely under His control and we submit to Him. The Prophet ﷺ also was extra diligent in the last 10 nights, so why shouldn’t we? He is the perfect example we need to follow:

Narrated Aisha RA:

With the start of the last ten days of Ramadan, the Prophet (ﷺ) used to tighten his waist belt (i.e. work hard) and used to pray all the night, and used to keep his family awake for the prayers.

(Sahih Bukhari 2024)