Shab e Barat: Meaning, Significance and Scholarly Views

Shab e Barat is the night between the 14th and 15th of Sha'ban, the eighth month of the Islamic calendar. The name is Persian and Urdu: shab means night and bara'at means release or acquittal, so it is usually rendered as the Night of Absolution or the Night of Forgiveness. In Arabic it is Laylat al-Bara'ah, written ليلة البراءة, or simply Nisf Sha'ban, the middle of Sha'ban.

Many Muslims spend it in prayer, Quran recitation and seeking forgiveness. What the night actually establishes, and how far it should be singled out, is a question on which respected scholars have genuinely disagreed for centuries. This guide sets out the meaning, what the Quran and Hadith do and do not say, where the scholarly difference lies, and which popular claims about the night have no basis.

It is written as information, not as a ruling. It has not been reviewed by a named scholar, and where scholars differ it says so rather than presenting one view as settled.

Bara'ah, written براءة, carries in Arabic the sense of being cleared, released or absolved of a liability. Applied to this night, the full Arabic name Laylat al-Bara'ah, written ليلة البراءة, expresses the hope of being absolved of sin. It is known by different names across the Muslim world, all referring to the same night:

• Laylat al-Bara'ah, in Arabic ليلة البراءة
• Nisf Sha'ban, in Arabic نصف شعبان
• Shab-e Barat (Persian, Urdu and Bengali)
• Berat Kandili (Turkish)
• Nisfu Sya'ban (Malay and Indonesian)
• Barat Gecesi (Azerbaijani)

The night is observed most widely in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Turkey and parts of the Levant, and much less so in the Gulf. That geographic pattern follows the scholarly difference described below rather than any difference in the calendar.

Sha'ban is the month immediately before Ramadan, so Shab e Barat falls roughly a fortnight before Ramadan begins. Because the Islamic calendar is lunar, it moves about ten or eleven days earlier against the Gregorian calendar each year.

One point causes regular confusion. An Islamic day begins at sunset, not at midnight. The night of the 15th of Sha'ban therefore begins at sunset at the end of the 14th and ends at dawn on the 15th. The daytime that follows is the 15th of Sha'ban, which is why discussions about fasting refer to the day after the night.

If you are looking the night up in Arabic sources, it is written ليلة البراءة, and announcements from Arabic-speaking countries usually refer to the middle of Sha'ban rather than to the Persian and Urdu name.

The exact Gregorian date depends on the moon-sighting announcement where you live and can differ by a day between countries, in the same way that the start of Ramadan is announced differently in different places. We have deliberately not printed a fixed Gregorian date here, because any date given a year ahead is a projection rather than a confirmed one. Your local mosque will announce it.

The Quran does not name Shab e Barat. There is one verse that some commentators have connected to it:

إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَٰهُ فِى لَيْلَةٍ مُّبَٰرَكَةٍ

“Indeed, We sent it down on a blessed night.” (Quran 44:3)

The great majority of commentators hold that this blessed night is Laylat al-Qadr in Ramadan, not mid-Sha'ban, and they point to the Quran itself saying that the Quran was sent down in Ramadan (2:185) and on the Night of Decree (97:1). A minority view, reported from the early commentator Ikrimah, identified it with the night of mid-Sha'ban.

So the honest position is this: the Quran establishes the virtue of a blessed night, and the dominant reading of that verse is Laylat al-Qadr. Anyone who tells you the Quran explicitly describes Shab e Barat is overstating the case.

Several reports mention the night of mid-Sha'ban. The best known is narrated from Mu'adh ibn Jabal and recorded by al-Tabarani and Ibn Hibban:

“Allah looks upon His creation on the night of mid-Sha'ban and forgives all His creation except a polytheist or one harbouring rancour.”

A related report from Aisha, in al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, describes the Prophet (peace be upon him) going out to the graveyard of al-Baqi' on that night. A third, narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib in Ibn Majah, instructs standing in prayer that night and fasting the following day.

Scholars assess these reports very differently, and that is the heart of the matter.

• Those who affirm the night's virtue. Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah holds that although the individual chains are weak, they strengthen one another and together reach an acceptable grade, so observing the night is permissible and not an innovation provided nobody treats it as obligatory. Ibn Hibban graded the Mu'adh report authentic, and al-Albani, after examining several chains, concluded that the report is authentic in its combined form.
• Those who do not. Islam Question and Answer, fatwa 154850 holds that no sound report establishes a specific virtue for this night, and that singling it out for prayer or fasting is a reprehensible innovation according to the majority as they read it.
• A middle reading. SeekersGuidance accepts reports on the night's general merit while stating plainly that the report specifically prescribing a fast on the 15th is extremely weak, and advises against turning a secondary matter into a dispute.

The narration about the Prophet visiting al-Baqi' is part of this same disputed body of reports, and is graded weak by a number of scholars. It is not a sound basis for telling anyone that graveyard visits on this night are required.

Nothing established fixes a number of rak'ahs, a set of repetitions, a particular surah to recite a set number of times, or a guaranteed reward for this night. Where you see a specific formula circulating, such as a hundred rak'ahs with a surah repeated ten times in each, that is one of the best-known examples of a fabricated practice, and scholars across the differing camps reject it.

What is uncontroversial is ordinary worship. Voluntary night prayer, reciting the Quran, seeking forgiveness, sending blessings on the Prophet (peace be upon him) and making du'a are recommended on any night of the year. A Muslim who spends this night in that way is on firm ground, whichever position they hold on the night's specific virtue. If you are still learning the prayer itself, our guide on how to pray in Islam covers the basics.

What the two camps actually disagree about is narrower than it appears: not whether worship is good, but whether this particular night may be singled out and treated as special.

These are two different questions, and conflating them causes most of the confusion.

Fasting through Sha'ban generally is well established. Aisha said she never saw the Prophet (peace be upon him) fast a complete month except Ramadan, and never saw him fast more in any month than in Sha'ban (Sahih al-Bukhari 1969, and Sahih Muslim 1156). This is agreed upon and is a sound reason to fast voluntarily during the month.

Singling out the 15th specifically is disputed. The report from Ali instructing a fast on that day, in Ibn Majah, is graded very weak by many scholars; Islam Question and Answer goes further and considers reports about fasting and praying specifically on the 15th to be fabricated, concluding that singling out the day is not permissible. SeekersGuidance, by contrast, notes that someone who fasts on the 15th is rewarded anyway, because voluntary fasting in Sha'ban is itself a sunna.

There is no obligation to fast on this day in any school. Anyone who tells you it is compulsory is mistaken.

A number of claims circulate widely in articles and on social media. None of them is supported:

• That the night marks the conquest of Makkah. It does not. The conquest of Makkah took place in Ramadan of the year 8 AH, in a different month entirely.
• That Noah's Ark came to rest, or was saved, on the 15th of Sha'ban. There is no reliable narration establishing this.
• That it is the birthday of Abbas ibn Ali. His birth is placed on the 4th of Sha'ban, not the 15th, so the claim is inaccurate even on its own terms.
• That the qiblah was changed on this night. The change of the prayer direction is most commonly placed in Rajab of the year 2 AH, which is the view attributed to the majority including Ibn Hajar, with a minority placing it in Sha'ban. Either way it is not tied to this night.
• That every person's fate for the coming year is finally written on this night. Reports to this effect exist but are part of the disputed material above, and the widespread understanding of the Quranic “blessed night” in which matters are decided points to Laylat al-Qadr. Presenting an annual decree as settled fact goes beyond the evidence.

Removing these does not diminish the night. It simply leaves what the sources actually support.

Several customs have grown up around Shab e Barat in particular regions. They are cultural, not religious requirements, and it is worth being clear about the difference:

• Lighting lamps, candles and decorative lights, common in parts of South Asia. Many scholars discourage this, and it has no basis in the sources.
• Fireworks, which are a recent addition, widely criticised on grounds of safety, waste and disturbance.
• Distributing sweets, a social custom. Giving food to neighbours is good in itself; it is not a rite of the night.
• Visiting graves. Visiting graves is generally encouraged in Islam as a reminder of the hereafter. Tying it specifically to this night rests on the weak narration discussed above, so a visit is fine but is not a duty of the night.

None of this is a criticism of the people who keep these customs. It is simply a distinction worth holding on to, so that a local tradition is not mistaken for a religious obligation.

Many people recite the supplication of the Prophet Yunus (peace be upon him) on this night. It is known in South Asia as Ayat-e-Karima, and it appears in the Quran when Yunus called out from within the darkness:

لَّآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّآ أَنتَ سُبْحَٰنَكَ إِنِّى كُنتُ مِنَ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ

La ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu mina az-zalimin.

“There is no god except You. Glory be to You! I have certainly done wrong.” (Quran 21:87)

This is a Quranic supplication of general virtue, appropriate at any time. It is not a prayer prescribed for the 15th of Sha'ban, and no particular number of repetitions is established for it. Reciting it on this night is fine; presenting a fixed count as a requirement of the night is not.

The points above were checked against the following published sources, which are linked so you can read them in full and see the differing positions for yourself.

• Quran 44:3 and Quran 21:87, Quran.com
• Sahih al-Bukhari 1969 on fasting in Sha'ban, and Sahih Muslim 1156
• Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, on observing the night of mid-Sha'ban
• Islam Question and Answer, fatwa 154850, and Islam Question and Answer on fasting the 15th of Sha'ban
• SeekersGuidance: SeekersGuidance and The Fifteenth Night of Sha'ban

If you would like to study this material properly rather than in article form, our Islamic teachings course covers beliefs, worship and the Islamic calendar with a tutor.

Mid-Sha'ban falls about two weeks before Ramadan, which makes it a natural point to begin preparing. See how to welcome Ramadan.