al-Qadr 97:3

Laylatu'l-qadri khayrun min alfi shahr "The Night of Qadr is better than a thousand months."

The second verse had asked the question; this verse gives the answer. And attention must be paid to how the answer is built.

The answer is not a description but a comparison. What the night is, is not recounted; what it comes to, is stated. That is, the sūra does not explain the nature; it reports the worth.

This choice is consistent with the logic of the second verse. There it had been said "you cannot know this". A thing whose nature cannot be known can be conveyed only by comparison — not by quality but by measure.

Root: خ ي ر. Goodness, superiority, being preferable. Khayr, ikhtiyār (choosing — taking what is good), mukhtār, khiyār (the right of option) are from the same root.

A point of grammar: Khayr is in fact an elative (ism al-tafḍīl, the comparative form) and its original is akhyar. In Arabic this word and its opposite sharr (originally asharr) have been shortened from much use, and the hamza has dropped. The same wearing away was seen in the spelling of bismi in the basmala (the treatment of al-Fātiḥa).

That is, the expression "khayrun min" means exactly "better than…"; by the very form of the word it already carries a comparison.

The reckoning. A thousand months comes, in the lunar calendar, to about 83 years and 4 months. This is a long human lifetime — far longer than the average lifespan of that period.

The conclusion the classical commentaries draw from this is: one night comes to more than a lifetime. And note: the comparison is made not with nights but with months. Had it been said "better than a thousand nights", the comparison would have been between things of the same kind. When "a thousand months" is said, a single night is set against a lifetime.

Here one must be honest: both readings are possible and both can be defended.

The first reading — the number is real. A thousand months is exactly a thousand months. This reading has support from within the Qurʾān: at al-ʿAnkabūt 29/14 it is said that Noah (Nūḥ) remained among his people "a thousand years less fifty". The number there is exact — because a subtraction has been performed. That is, the Qurʾān does use "a thousand" as an exact number as well.

The second reading — "a thousand" reports multitude. In Arabic large round numbers (seventy, a thousand) are most often used not as exact numbers but in the sense of too many to be counted. Instances from the Qurʾān:

• "Even if you ask forgiveness for them seventy times, God will not forgive them" (al-Tawba 9/80). The "seventy" here is not a limit; the classical interpretation understands it as "ask as much as you like".
• "Every one of them would wish to be given a life of a thousand years" (al-Baqara 2/96).

Assessment. I adopt no preference between the two readings, because the outcome does not change. If the number is exact: one night comes to more than 83 years. If it reports multitude: one night comes to more than a stretch of time too long to be counted. What is said in both is the same — worth is not proportional to duration.

This is the sūra's real claim, and I shall take it up separately below.

A caution. Building calculations on this number — dividing it into years, deriving ratios, tying it to letters — falls outside this commentary per the method (Method). The verse sets a measure; it does not give an equation.

For this verse a few occasions are transmitted in the sources of exegesis. The prominent ones:

• It is recounted to the Prophet that one of the earlier communities was long-lived and performed much worship; the Companions grieve at the shortness of their own lifespans, and this verse comes down.
• It is recounted that a man from the Children of Israel strove in the way of God for a thousand months without laying down his weapon; the Muslims marvel at this, and the verse comes down.

On these reports. They are found in the books of exegesis, but their chains are weak or mursal (with the Companion link omitted). Their different versions do not fully agree with one another. They are not sound enough to allow one to say "the sūra came down definitely upon such-and-such an event".

Against this, the anxiety the reports voice is realistic and explains the logic of the verse: one whose life is short fears that his worship will remain little. The verse's answer comes to that anxiety at exactly the right point — length of time is not the sole measure.

This verse is easily passed over when it is not thought about. Yet it says something very fundamental: not all units of time are equal to one another.

The modern understanding of time assumes exactly the opposite. The clock divides time into equal and interchangeable units: every second is equal to every second, every hour is of the same length, time is a measurable and calculable resource. The sentence "time is money" is the summary of this understanding — time is thought of as a currency whose value per unit is fixed.

The verse breaks this assumption. One night comes to more than twenty-nine thousand-odd nights. This is mathematically meaningless — and it is said precisely for that reason. The source of the worth is not in the duration.

Then where? The rest of the sūra will say: in what happened on that night. The Qurʾān came down that night (verse 1), the angels come down that night (verse 4). That is, the worth of the night comes from what enters into it.

This gives rise to a general principle about time: the worth of a stretch of time is measured not by its length but by its content.