Surah Al-Qadr Word by Word + The Seven-Link Method

Surah Al-Qadr is five verses and thirty words about a single night — the night the Qur'an began to be revealed, and the night that is worth more than eighty-three years. Muslims across the UK and the United States recite it constantly through the last ten nights of Ramadan, and it is short enough that the meaning of every word can be held at once. This guide gives the complete word-by-word meaning of Surah Al-Qadr and applies the Seven-Link Method.

📌 At a glance

• Surah: Al-Qadr (القدر, "The Night of Decree") — number 97

• Length: 5 verses — 30 words in total

• Revealed: Makkah (Makki)

• Structure: the event, the question, the value, the descent, the peace

• Theme: one night in which the worth of a lifetime can be gained

💎 Did you know?

Every verse of Surah Al-Qadr ends on the letter ر: al-qadr, al-qadr, shahr, amr, al-fajr. Five verses, one rhyme, and the phrase laylatu l-qadr itself repeated three times in the first three verses. Few surahs are constructed this tightly.

📖 What is Surah Al-Qadr?

Surah Al-Qadr (سُورَةُ القدر) is the 97th surah of the Qur'an. Its subject is laylatu l-qadr — usually translated as the Night of Decree or the Night of Power. Both senses are in the root ق-د-ر, which carries measuring out and decreeing on one side and worth and rank on the other.

The surah opens with innā anzalnāhu — "indeed We sent it down" — without saying what "it" is. The pronoun refers to the Qur'an, and leaving it unnamed makes the sentence land harder: the subject is so obvious it does not need saying.

The Prophet ﷺ directed the search for this night to the last ten nights of Ramadan (Sahih al-Bukhari 2017), and taught that whoever stands in prayer on it out of faith and hope of reward is forgiven his previous sins (reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim). Which is why understanding these thirty words is not an academic exercise for anyone who fasts.

🕋 The full text and translation

"Indeed, We sent it down in the Night of Decree. And what will make you know what the Night of Decree is? The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend therein by the permission of their Lord for every matter. Peace it is, until the emergence of dawn."
(Surah Al-Qadr 97:1–5)

🔑 Surah Al-Qadr: word by word

Here is every word of Surah Al-Qadr in order, with its transliteration and English meaning. Take it a few lines at a time rather than trying to absorb the whole table at once.

👉 Want to hear each word and see its syllables and grammar? Study Surah Al-Qadr interactively — with audio for every word — using Eaalim's free Quranic Words tool for Surah Al-Qadr.

🎓 Learn this surah with a teacher, not just a table

Reading the meanings is the first half. Hearing your own recitation corrected is the other. Eaalim gives new students two free trial lessons — one-to-one on Zoom with an Al-Azhar certified teacher, never a group class — booked around your own time zone in the UK, the United States or anywhere else. Paid plans start at £9 per hour.

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📜 Surah Al-Qadr verse by verse

إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَـٰهُ فِى لَيْلَةِ ٱلْقَدْرِ ︑١︒

Innā anzalnāhu fī laylati l-qadr

"Indeed, We sent it down in the Night of Decree."

The -hu at the end of anzalnāhu — "it" — is the Qur'an. Nothing in the surah names it, and that is deliberate.

وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ ٱلْقَدْرِ ︑٢︒

Wa mā adrāka mā laylatu l-qadr

"And what will make you know what the Night of Decree is?"

The Qur'an's formula for something outside ordinary experience. It always introduces an explanation, which arrives immediately.

لَيْلَةُ ٱلْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ ︑٣︒

Laylatu l-qadri khayrun min alfi shahr

"The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months."

A thousand months is over eighty-three years — longer than most lives. The comparison is not "equivalent to" but better than.

تَنَزَّلُ ٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةُ وَٱلرُّوحُ فِيهَا بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِم مِّن كُلِّ أَمْرٍ ︑٤︒

Tanazzalu l-malā'ikatu wa-r-rūḥu fīhā bi-idhni rabbihim min kulli amr

"The angels and the Spirit descend therein by the permission of their Lord for every matter."

Tanazzalu is a form suggesting descent in succession, group after group. Ar-Rūḥ is understood by the majority of commentators as Jibril, named separately from the angels for emphasis.

سَلَـٰمٌ هِىَ حَتَّىٰ مَطْلَعِ ٱلْفَجْرِ ︑٥︒

Salāmun hiya ḥattā maṭlaʿi l-fajr

"Peace it is, until the emergence of dawn."

The word order is unusual: salāmun comes first, so the night is not described as "peaceful" but as peace itself. And it has an end point — dawn — which is why the night is sought and not simply waited for.

🕌 Why the night is sought rather than known

The surah never states which night of the year it is, and that silence is deliberate. The Prophet ﷺ directed his companions to look for it in the last ten nights of Ramadan, and in the odd nights among them — a search rather than a date.

The commentators explain the wisdom in the same way each time: a fixed date would be attended and then forgotten, while a night that must be sought turns ten nights into worship instead of one. The practice the surah produces is therefore larger than the night itself.

Aisha asked the Prophet ﷺ what to say if she found the night, and was taught a supplication asking for pardon (reported by at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah). It is worth noticing what the request is: not wealth, not relief, but being pardoned — which fits a surah that measures the night in what it is worth rather than in what it produces.

💡 Understanding the meaning behind the words

A few words carry most of the weight of this surah, and each rewards a closer look.

Al-Qadr — From ق-د-ر, a root covering both measuring out and decreeing, and worth or rank. Commentators read the name in both senses: the night in which matters are decreed, and the night of great worth. Neither reading excludes the other.

Anzalnāhu — "We sent it down." The form used here describes sending down as a single act, which the commentators connect to the Qur'an's descent as a whole, distinct from its gradual revelation to the Prophet ﷺ over twenty-three years.

Ar-Rūḥ — "The Spirit." Named alongside the angels rather than among them. The majority of commentators identify it as Jibril, singled out for his rank.

Maṭlaʿ al-fajr — The emergence of dawn — literally the point at which it rises. The night has a boundary, and the surah names it precisely.

🔗 The Seven-Link Method applied to Surah Al-Qadr

Thirty words, and three of them repeat a two-word phrase. Here is how to hold Surah Al-Qadr exactly.

Verbal link (1) — the phrase said three times

Laylatu l-qadr appears in verses 1, 2 and 3 — and never in verses 4 or 5, where the night is referred to only as fīhā and hiya ("in it", "it"). The moment the name stops being repeated is the moment the surah moves from valuing the night to describing it.

Phonetic link (2) — one rhyme, five verses

Al-qadr, al-qadr, shahr, amr, al-fajr — every verse ends on ر. If a verse of yours ends on any other sound, a word has been added or lost.

Thematic link (3) — event, question, value, descent, character

One job per verse, in that order. Verse 1 tells you what happened; verse 2 asks; verse 3 values; verse 4 describes what happens; verse 5 describes what the night is.

Narrative link (4) — the question is answered immediately

Unlike Al-Qari'ah, where wa mā adrāka is left hanging, here the answer follows at once in verse 3. Knowing which surah delays its answer and which does not keeps the two apart.

Visual link (5) — five frames

A single night, and something immense arriving in it; a question; a scale with one night on one side and eighty-three years on the other; the sky filling with descending ranks; and stillness, holding until the first light.

Numerical link (6) — counts

5 verses, 30 words, 3 occurrences of laylatu l-qadr, 1 question, 1000 months. The arithmetic is worth doing once: a thousand months is 83 years and 4 months.

Similar-verse link (7) — the wa mā adrāka family

The same formula appears in Al-Qari'ah 101:3 (ma l-qāriʿah) and Al-Humazah 104:5 (mā l-ḥuṭamah). Three surahs, one formula, three different nouns. Attach each one to its own surah deliberately — and note that only here is the answer given in the very next verse.

🎥 The visual film

Run this sequence in your mind twice after Fajr and twice before sleep — one image per stage:

1. Verse 1 — a night, and something entering the world through it.

2. Verse 2 — a question you cannot answer from experience.

3. Verse 3 — a balance: one night on one side, eighty-three years on the other, and the night wins.

4. Verse 4 — ranks descending, one after another, with permission.

5. Verse 5 — complete stillness, holding until the first grey line at the horizon.

📚 How to learn Surah Al-Qadr word by word

1. Day 1 — verses 1–3. The phrase laylatu l-qadr three times carries most of the words.

2. Day 2 — verse 4, the longest in the surah. Take it in three pieces: who descends, by whose permission, for what.

3. Day 3 — verse 5, and then the whole surah, checking the ر rhyme on every ending.

4. In Ramadan — recite it in the last ten nights knowing what it says, not only that it is recommended.

A qualified teacher shortens all of this: correct Tajweed, honest feedback on the verses you only think you know, and answers to the questions that come up once you start understanding the words.

🇬🇧 🇺🇸 Studying Surah Al-Qadr from the UK or the United States

Most people reading this guide are not learning Arabic in an Arabic-speaking country. They are fitting the Qur'an around school runs in Birmingham, shift work in Manchester, or an evening after the commute home in Chicago or Toronto — and the practical problem is rarely motivation. It is finding a teacher who will correct one surah properly, at a time that actually exists in your week.

That is the gap Eaalim Institute was built for. We are a London-based institute teaching English-speaking Muslims across Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe:

• One-to-one, never group. Every lesson is private on Zoom, so the whole session is spent on your recitation rather than waiting your turn in a halaqa.

• Al-Azhar certified teachers. Male and female teachers, matched to the student — which matters for families booking for children.

• Scheduled around your time zone. Evening and weekend slots, arranged around school hours and prayer times rather than against them.

• Two free trial lessons before you pay anything, and plans from £9 per hour after that.

If you have read this far into a word-by-word guide, you are already doing the hard part. A teacher simply makes it faster — and stops you memorising a mistake.

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🎓 Learn it properly with Eaalim

The two halves of this guide match two Eaalim courses. Our Quranic Words Course teaches Qur'anic vocabulary word by word to English-speaking students across the UK, the United States and worldwide. Our Qur'an Memorisation (Hifz) Course applies the Seven-Link Method surah by surah with Al-Azhar certified teachers, one to one.

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✨ Key takeaways

• Surah Al-Qadr is 5 verses and 30 words, and all five verses rhyme on ر.

• The "it" of verse 1 is the Qur'an, deliberately left unnamed.

• A thousand months is more than eighty-three years — and the night is described as better than that.

• Salāmun comes first in verse 5, so the night is called peace itself, not merely peaceful.

• The Prophet ﷺ directed the search for the night to the last ten nights of Ramadan (Sahih al-Bukhari 2017).

Continue with Surah Al-Bayyinah word by word + the Seven-Link Method, or with Surah Al-Qari'ah.

✨ Conclusion

Thirty words about one night. Learned word by word — qadr, alf, tanazzalu, salām — Surah Al-Qadr becomes something you can actually think about while you are standing in it: not a night to be spent hoping, but a night whose worth, contents and ending have all been described in advance.

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