Sayyid al-Istighfār
اَللّٰهُمَّ أَنْتَ رَبِّيْ لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ ، خَلَقْتَنِيْ وَأَنَا عَبْدُكَ ، وَأَنَا عَلَىٰ عَهْدِكَ وَوَعْدِكَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُ ، أَعُوْذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا صَنَعْتُ ، أَبُوْءُ لَكَ بِنِعْمَتِكَ عَلَيَّ وَأَبُوْءُ بِذَنْبِيْ ، فَاغْفِرْ لِيْ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوْبَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ.
O Allah, You are my Lord. There is no god worthy of worship except You. You have created me, and I am Your slave, and I am under Your covenant and pledge (to fulfil it) to the best of my ability. I seek Your protection from the evil that I have done. I acknowledge the favours that You have bestowed upon me, and I admit my sins. Forgive me, for none forgives sins but You.
Virtue
Shaddād b. Aws (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhu) narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The most superior manner of seeking forgiveness is that you say [the above]. Whoever says it during the day with firm belief in it and dies on the same day before the evening, he will be from the people of Paradise. And whoever says it during the night with firm belief in it and dies before the morning, he will be from the people of Paradise.” (Bukhārī 6306)
Explanation
This du‘ā’ asks Allah for forgiveness only at its end and everything before it prepares for that request. We affirm that He is our Lord, that none is worthy of worship but Him and that He created us and we are His servants. We recall our pledge - “Am I not your Lord?” and they replied, “Yes, we bear witness” (7:172) - and His promise, narrated by Muʿādh b. Jabal (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhu), that Allah will not punish the one who does not associate partners with Him (Bukhārī 7373). We say ‘to the best of my ability’ because we can never worship Him as He deserves We then seek refuge from the evil of what we have done, acknowledge His favours upon us and admit our sins. Only then do we ask, “Forgive me, for none forgives sins but You.” The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever says it with firm belief will enter Paradise, so learn its meaning and say it with conviction
References
- Bukhārī 6306
Scholarly reviewed · Recite once
