Surah Qadr Meaning in English, Urdu & Hindi (Word by Word)

Surah Al-Qadr (Surah 97) means: We sent the Quran down on the Night of Qadr. And what will make you understand what the Night of Qadr is? The Night of Qadr is better than a thousand months. In it the angels and the Spirit come down, by their Lord's permission, with every matter. It is peace — until the rising of dawn.

In Roman Urdu the first line is: Yaqeenan humne ise Shab-e-Qadr mein naazil farmaaya. The "ise" (it) is the Quran.

This is one of the surahs many of us recite in namaz — especially in Ramadan — without knowing that it is literally about the night the Quran came down. Here it is verse by verse, then word by word.

Surah Qadr in Arabic with English and Roman Urdu

Notice that Pickthall uses two different English words for al-qadr: "Predestination" in verse 1 and "Power" in verses 2–3. That isn't a mistake — the word really holds both ideas, as we'll see below.

Surah Qadr word by word

"In the book" = the word's number in 600 Words of the Quran and how many times that word appears in the whole Quran. "—" means it's not one of the 600.

Count how many of these you already recognise from Urdu: khayr, shahr, malā'ikah, rūḥ, rabb, amr, salām, fajr. For an Urdu or Hindi speaker, Surah Qadr is almost half-familiar before you even start.

What does "Qadr" mean?

The root q-d-r is about measure — deciding the size, amount or value of something. From that one idea come several meanings:

• decree / destiny — what is measured out and decided (Urdu: taqdeer)
• power — the ability to decide and do (Urdu: qudrat)
• value, honour — how much something is worth (Urdu: qadr karna, to value someone)

That's why translations differ. "Night of Decree", "Night of Power", "Night of Predestination", "the Night of Honour" — each is highlighting one side of the same root. Other words from this family are in the book:

When you hear ʿalā kulli shay'in qadīr ("Able to do all things") — a phrase that comes up again and again in the Quran — it's the same root as the name of this night.

Three details worth noticing

1. "We sent it down" — but "it" is never named. The surah doesn't say "the Quran". It just says anzalnāhu, "We sent it down", as if everyone already knows what "it" is. Another verse in Surah Al-Baqarah makes the month clear:

Surah Ad-Dukhan (44:3) also says the Quran was sent down "on a blessed night". Put together, this is why Muslims look for Laylat al-Qadr in Ramadan — most commonly in its last ten nights.

2. "What will make you know?" The phrase wa mā adrāka is a Quranic way of saying "this is bigger than you think". It appears in other short surahs too — for example Surah Al-Qariʿah. Word #556, adrā, appears 17 times in the Quran.

3. Better than a thousand months. A thousand months is a little over 83 years. The verse doesn't say "equal to" — it says khayr, better. One night, when it's spent well, outweighs a whole lifetime of ordinary nights.

Surah Qadr meaning in Hindi — a simple version

For those who think in Hindi/Urdu, here is the whole surah in everyday words (a simplified paraphrase, not a translation):

Humne Quran ko Qadr ki raat mein utaara. Tumhein kya pata woh raat kya hai? Qadr ki raat hazaar maheenon se behtar hai. Us raat farishte aur Jibraeel apne Rabb ke hukm se har kaam ke liye utarte hain. Woh raat subah hone tak poori salaamati hai.

Read this once, then recite the Arabic, and you'll feel the difference.

Using it in namaz this Ramadan (and after)

• Recite Surah Qadr after Al-Fatiha and pause, even for a second, at khayrun min alfi shahr — "better than a thousand months".
• On any night you pray late in Ramadan, read the Roman Urdu of verse 5 before you begin: yeh raat saraasar salaamati ki hoti hai.
• Learn the four "Urdu-looking" words first: khayr, shahr, amr, salām. Then anzala, malak, rūḥ, idhn. That's most of the surah.

Surah Qadr is one of the short surahs of the last juz. If you're building up your namaz surahs, see the last 10 surahs with meaning, and don't miss Surah Ikhlas meaning — the shortest one to learn next. For the whole prayer, namaz ka tarjuma walks through every part.

The book 600 Words of the Quran is built on exactly this idea: learn the words that keep coming back — anzala, khayr, rabb, kull, amr — each with a real verse, in English and Roman Urdu. Start with the free lesson above.