English Translation

Abdullah narrated to us: al-Abbas ibn al-Walid al-Narsi narrated to me, he said: Hammad ibn Shu'ayb narrated to us, from Asim, from Zirr ibn Hubaysh, from Abdullah, that he said concerning the Night of Decree: "Whoever stands in prayer the whole year will attain it." So I set out until I arrived before Uthman ibn Affan, and I wished to meet the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, among the Emigrants and the Helpers. Asim said: He told me that he stayed close to Ubayy ibn Ka'b and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, and he claimed that the two of them used to stand in prayer until the sun set, then they would pray two rak'ahs before the sunset prayer. He said: I said to Ubayy — and he had a certain roughness in him — "Lower your wing for us, may Allah have mercy on you, for I only wish to draw benefit from you." He said: "You want to leave no verse in the Qur'an without asking me about it." He said: And he was a true friend to me, so I said, "O Abu al-Mundhir, tell me about the Night of Decree, for Ibn Mas'ud says, 'Whoever stands in prayer the whole year will attain it.'" He said: "By Allah, Abdullah indeed knew that it is in Ramadan, but he obscured it from the people so they would not rely solely on it. By Allah who sent down the Book upon Muhammad, it is indeed in Ramadan, and it is the night of the twenty-seventh." I said, "O Abu al-Mundhir, how did you come to know that?" He said: "By the sign that Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, informed us of, so we counted and we memorized it. By Allah, it is indeed that very night, without exception." He said: I said, "And what is the sign?" He said: "It rises, when it rises, having no rays, until it climbs high." And Asim, on that night, from before dawn, would not taste any food, until, when he had prayed the dawn prayer, he would climb up onto the minaret and look at the sun when it rose, having no rays, until it turned white and climbed high.