I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, "Seek it when nine nights remain, or seven nights remain, or five nights remain, or in the last three nights."
سمعت رسول الله ﷺ يقول: التمسوها في تسع بقين، أو سبع بقين، أو خمس بقين، أو في ثلاث أواخر ليلة.
Tirmidhi (794) narrated it from Humayd bin Masada, who said, Yazid bin Zuray narrated to us, who said, Uyayna bin Abdul-Rahman narrated to us, who said, my father narrated to me, who said, Laylat al-Qadr was mentioned in the presence of Abu Bakra, and he said, "I would not have sought it in anything I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ except in the last ten nights, for I heard him say," and he then related the hadith. Its chain is hasan.Imam Ahmad (20376) and Abu Dawud Tayalisi (922) also narrated it, and Ibn Khuzayma (2175) graded it sahih, and from him Ibn Hibban (3686) and Hakim (1/438) all narrated it, all of them by another route from Uyayna bin Abdul-Rahman with his chain, similarly, and some of them added at the end of the hadith, "He would not pray during the first twenty nights any differently than his prayer throughout the rest of the year, but when the last ten nights began, he would strive hard."Tirmidhi said, hasan sahih.I say, in it is Uyayna bin Abdul-Rahman, who is Ibn Jawshan Ghatafani, "truthful," as stated in "Taqrib." Nasai declared him trustworthy, and Ahmad said, "There is no harm in him." His father, Abdul-Rahman bin Jawshan Ghatafani, is in a better position than him, and he was declared trustworthy by Abu Zura, Ibn Saad, Ajli, and Ibn Hibban. Ahmad said, "He is not well known." I say, this is because no one among the narrators has been mentioned as transmitting from him except his son Uyayna. He has many hadiths that he narrates from Abu Bakra and others, and the people of knowledge examined these hadiths and found nothing in them to be objected to, so they declared him trustworthy.