Last ten days of Ramadan

The last ten days of Ramadan are very special. These last days should be spended with as much worship as possible. The first of these nights occurs on the eve of 21st day of Ramadan. Our Holy Prophet used to dedicate himself entirely to worship in these ten nights as compared to any other night of the year. Among the last ten days the holy night of Layla tul Qadr (the night of Power) occurs. It is a night more blessed than a thousand months.

Aisha (RA) tells us: "During the last ten nights of Ramadan, the Prophet (PBUH) would tighten his waist belt and spend the night in worship. He would also wake up his family." (Al Bukhari)
Aisha also says: "I had never known Allah's Messenger to read the entire Quran in a single night, or to spend the whole night in prayer up until the morning, or to spend a whole month in fasting - except in Ramadan."

Spending the whole night in prayer means he would spend some time in eating dinner, pre-dawn meal , doing the regular chores along with spending most of the night in worship and supplication. He would not worship alone but also wake up his wives to pray for much longer portion of the night in these ten days.

Umm Salamah, the Prophet's wife, relates that the Prophet  woke her up one night and said: "Glory be to Allah. What has been sent down of trials during this night? What has been sent down of treasures, so that the denizens of the bedchambers will be awakened? O Lord! To be clothed in this world by naked in the Hereafter." (Al Bukhari)

The great jurist, Al-Shafi'i, declares: "It is Sunnah for one to exert greater efforts in worship during the last ten nights of Ramadan."

One of the greatness of these nights is that in these special nights one of them is Laylat-al-Qadr. The rewards of worship earned in this night are more than any if a Muslim spends worshipping whole life.

Imam Ibrahim Al-Nakha`i says: "Good works performed on this night are better than those performed consistently for a thousand months."

Abu Hurayrah relates that the Prophet said:

"Whoever spends Laylat al-Qadr in prayer, believing in Allah and seeking His reward, will be forgiven all of his past sins." (Al Bukhari& Muslim)

"Believing in Allah", in this hadith, means not only to believe in Allah, but to believe in the reward that we are promised for observing prayer on this night.

Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Power) is on one of the odd nights. Aisha relates that Prophet Muhammad  said: - "Seek out Laylat al-Qadr in the odd nights during the last ten nights of Ramadan." (Al Bukhari & Muslim) -