Power
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[97:1]
BEHOLD, from on high have We bestowed this [divine writ] on the Night of Destiny.

[97:2]
And what could make thee conceive what it is, that Night of Destiny?

[97:3]
The Night of Destiny is better than a thousand months:

[97:4]
in hosts descend in it the angels, bearing divine inspiration by their Sustainer’s leave;
from all [evil] that may happen

[97:5]
does it make secure, until the rise of dawn.

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* v.1 : Or: “of Almightiness” or “of Majesty” – thus describing the night on which the Prophet received his first revelation (see introductory note to the preceding sūrah). On the basis of several Traditions it may be assumed that it was one of the last ten nights – probably the twenty-seventh – of the month of Ramadān, thirteen years before the Prophet’s emigration to Medina.

* v.3 : Sc., “in which there was no similar night” (Rāzī).

* v.4 : The grammatical form tanazzalu implies repetition, frequency, or multitude; hence – as suggested by Ibn Kathīr – “descending in hosts.”
* Lit., “and [divine] inspiration.” For this rendering of rūh, see the first sentence of 16:2 and the corresponding note 2. The present instance is undoubtedly the earliest example of the Qur’anic use of this term in the sense of “divine inspiration.”

* v.5 : Lit., “it is salvation” (salām, see sūrah 5, note 29) – i.e., it makes the believer secure from all spiritual evil: thus Mujāhid (as quoted by Ibn Kathīr), evidently implying that a conscious realization of the sanctity of this night acts as a shield against unworthy thoughts and inclinations.