I read to Shaykh ʿImād al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Badrān ibn Shibl al-Nābulusī in his mosque, and I read in Damascus to Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿĀliyah al-Ḥajjār; they both said:
Abū Naṣr Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir informed us in the year 618 AH; Abū al-Qāsim Saʿīd ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan informed us; ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Bundār (1) informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhalliṣ informed us; Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal and ʿUbayd Allāh al-Qawārīrī narrated to us; they said:
Muʿādh ibn Hishām narrated to us; my father narrated to me, from Qatādah, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās:
A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Prophet of Allah, I am an old man and it is hard for me to stand [in prayer]. Direct me to a particular night—perhaps Allah will enable me therein to attain the Night of Decree.” He replied, “Seek the seventh (2).”
This is the wording of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.
ʿAbd Allāh al-Baghawī said, “I do not know anyone who transmitted this hadith with this chain except Muʿādh.”
Imām Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī ʿUmar informed us in his book; Ḥanbal
…as well as the ordinances of the religion, the call to it, and questions concerning it; Abu Dawud, no. 3692, Book of Beverages, chapter “On Containers.”
(1) ‘Ali b. Ahmad b. Muhammad b. ‘Ali, Abu l-Qasim al-Bandar, better known as Ibn al-Basri, born 386 AH/996 CE. See al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, 11:325.
(2) Recorded in the Musnad, 1:240, with a sound chain. Ibn Hajar writes in Fath al-Bari, 4:229, while determining the date of Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Decree): “The twenty-first opinion is that it is the night of the twenty-seventh; this is the prevailing view in the Hanbali school, is reported from Abu Hanifa, and was asserted—under oath—by Ubayy b. Ka‘b, as related by Muslim.” Muslim also transmits, through Abu Hazim from Abu Hurayra: “We were discussing Laylat al-Qadr when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Which of you remembers when the moon rose looking like half a platter?’” Abu l-Hasan al-Farsi comments: “That is the night of the twenty-seventh, for on that night the moon rises in that shape.” Al-Tabarani relates from Ibn Mas‘ud that the Prophet ﷺ, when asked about Laylat al-Qadr, said, “Who remembers the night of the sahbawat (reddish dawns)?” I replied, “I do—it is the night of the twenty-seventh.” Ahmad likewise transmits it, raised to the Prophet, with the wording: “Laylat al-Qadr is the night of the twenty-seventh.” Ibn al-Munadhir states: “Whoever wishes to seek it should seek it on the night of the twenty-seventh.” Similar reports are narrated from Jabir b. Samura (al-Tabarani, al-Awsat) and from Mu‘awiya (Abu Dawud).