In pictures: Muslims mark Laylat al-Qadr across Middle East

Laylat al-Qadr, which falls on the 27th day of Ramadan, is the most important night of the Muslim holy month. It marks the revelation of the first verses of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. Muslims traditionally spend the night in worship and devotion, praying for the souls of the dead.

In Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Muslim worshippers prayed during what translates as "night of power". (AFP/Mahmoud Khaled)

In the photo above, also taken in Cairo, worshippers take part in evening tarawih prayers inside Amr Ibn El-Aas Mosque (Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

Maintaining social distancing, worshippers performed tarawih prayers at the Kabaa in the Grand Mosque, in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on 9 May 2021. (Reuters/Saudi Press Agency)

Some 90,000 Palestinian worshippers flocked to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque on 8 May 2021 for Laylat al-Qadr (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

Laylat al-Qadr this year was marked by tensions in Jerusalem, amid demonstrations against Israel's planned evictions of Palestinian families from the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah which have led to confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians.

Though the prayers were conducted safely, Israeli forces quickly began cracking down on Palestinians trickling out of the Old City after the service, arresting many and wounding at least 90 according to medics (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

People watch a whirling dervish in Lebanon's southern city of Saida late on 8 May 2021. Dervishes are adepts of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam. Those who whirl, like planets around the sun, turn dance into a form of prayer (AFP/ Mahmoud Zayyat)

Muslim men pray at Fatmah Mosque in Kuwait City just before daybreak (AFP/Yasser al-Zayyat)

Men pray at al-Basha mosque in the old city of Mosul in northern Iraq in the early hours of 9 May 2021 (AFP/Zaid al-Obeidi)