Dua Qunoot: Both Versions, in Arabic, Transliteration and Meaning

If you searched for dua qunoot and found a page with one dua on it, that page told you the truth about half the Muslim world. Qunoot means standing in prayer and supplicating — most commonly in the last rak'ah of witr — and there are two texts in common use, printed in the box above. Which one you were taught depends almost entirely on where you grew up.

The two are not interchangeable in status. One is a hadith with a chain going back to the Prophet ﷺ, who taught it to his grandson. The other is transmitted from 'Umar and from the recitation of Ubayy ibn Ka'b, and the strongest verdict on it is that its chain is authentic as a statement of a Companion. That distinction is worth knowing, and it is not a reason to stop reciting either.

What Qunoot Is

Qunut in Arabic carries the sense of standing in obedience. In fiqh it refers to a supplication made in the standing position of a prayer, outside the ordinary recitation. It appears in three contexts: in witr, the odd-numbered prayer that closes the night; in the Fajr prayer, according to some schools; and as qunut an-nazilah, a supplication offered in obligatory prayers when a calamity strikes the community.

Witr itself is the prayer this page is mostly about. It is prayed after Isha and any point up to Fajr, and if you pray tahajjud in the last third of the night, witr is what you close with. Qunoot is where you stop reciting and start asking.

Version 1: The Hadith of al-Hasan ibn Ali

Al-Hasan ibn Ali — the Prophet's grandson — said: "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught me some words that I say during the witr." One of the two narrators of the report adds the detail: in the supplication of the witr. Then comes the dua in Version 1 above (Sunan Abi Dawud 1425).

Sunnah.com carries al-Albani's grading of the Abu Dawud version as sahih. At-Tirmidhi narrates the same hadith through the same chain and Abu Isa comments that it is hasan, known only from this route, and adds a line worth quoting: he knows nothing from the Prophet ﷺ concerning qunoot in witr better than this (Jami' at-Tirmidhi 464). Sunnah.com displays the Darussalam grading of the Tirmidhi version as sahih.

One textual note, since pages rarely mention it: the Abu Dawud wording includes وَلاَ يَعِزُّ مَنْ عَادَيْتَ — and none is honoured whom You oppose — while the Tirmidhi wording does not. Both are recited. If your masjid says it and the page you are reading omits it, neither is wrong.

Read the requests themselves and notice what is being asked. Guidance, wellbeing, protection, blessing — but each one is framed as inclusion in a group Allah has already dealt with in that way: guide me among those You have guided. The dua does not ask for a new dispensation. It asks to be counted in.

Version 2: The Text the Hanafis Recite

If you grew up in South Asia, Turkey, Central Asia or much of the Balkans, the dua you memorised as a child almost certainly begins Allahumma inna nasta'inuka wa nastaghfiruka. This is the qunoot of the Hanafi school, recited in the third rak'ah of witr every night of the year.

Its status is different from Version 1, and being straight about that is more respectful than glossing over it. It is not narrated as a saying of the Prophet ﷺ. It is recorded as the practice and words of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab; Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah and Musannaf 'Abd ar-Razzaq preserve it from the recitation of Ubayy ibn Ka'b and from Ibrahim an-Nakha'i instructing that it be said specifically in qunut al-witr. Al-Bayhaqi graded its chain authentic in as-Sunan al-Kubra, and al-Albani stated in Irwa' al-Ghalil 2/170 that its chain is authentic as a statement of 'Umar.

So: a well-attested Companion-level text, adopted by an entire school of law and recited without interruption for over a thousand years — but not a prophetic hadith of the same rank as Version 1. Anyone who tells you it is fabricated is overstating it; anyone who tells you the Prophet ﷺ said it is also overstating it. Many Hanafis recite both, one after the other, which resolves the question in the only way that costs nothing.

One more detail worth flagging: Hisn al-Muslim prints the two halves of this dua in the reverse order, opening with Allahumma iyyaka na'budu. The order above is the one recited in Hanafi practice. The words are the same either way.

Before or After Ruku'? The Real Disagreement

This is the question that actually divides practice, and at-Tirmidhi records the split himself, immediately after narrating the hadith:

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud held the view of qunoot in witr throughout the year, and chose qunoot before the ruku'. This is the statement of some of the people of knowledge, and it is what Sufyan ath-Thawri, Ibn al-Mubarak, Ishaq and the people of Kufa say. It has been reported of Ali ibn Abi Talib that he did not make qunoot except in the second half of Ramadan, and that he made qunoot after the ruku'. Some of the people of knowledge went to this, and it is what ash-Shafi'i and Ahmad say.

That is the whole disagreement in one paragraph, from a ninth-century source, and it maps directly onto the schools today:

• ·Hanafi. Qunoot in witr, every night of the year, before ruku'. After finishing the recitation in the third rak'ah you say Allahu akbar, raise the hands, then recite the qunoot, then go into ruku'. Qunoot in witr is classed as wajib.
• ·Shafi'i. Qunoot after rising from ruku'. In witr it is recited in the second half of Ramadan; the Shafi'i school also holds a daily qunoot in the Fajr prayer.
• ·Hanbali. Qunoot in witr, after ruku', using the dua of al-Hasan ibn Ali.
• ·Maliki. No regular qunoot in witr. The Maliki qunoot is in the Subh prayer, and is recited preferably before ruku'.

None of these is the Islamic ruling with the others as deviations. They are four readings of a body of evidence that genuinely points in more than one direction, held by scholars who each had the narrations in front of them. Pray according to the school you follow, and do not correct someone praying next to you who does it differently.

Raising the Hands, and Wiping the Face

Hanafi practice: raise the hands to the ears with the takbir that opens the qunoot, then return them to the normal standing position and recite the dua with the hands folded. Shafi'i and Hanbali practice: keep the hands raised in front of you through the qunoot, as in ordinary supplication.

Wiping the face with the hands afterwards is a separate and older argument. Some scholars hold it established by supporting reports; others hold that nothing sufficiently strong supports doing it inside the prayer and leave it. If you were taught to do it, you are following a real position. If you were taught not to, so are you. This is not a question that rewards the energy usually spent on it.

Qunoot Nazilah: The Calamity Qunoot

There is a third kind of qunoot, and it is the one with the strongest narration attached. Anas ibn Malik reported that when seventy Ansar — men the Companions called al-qurra', the reciters, who gathered firewood by day and prayed by night — were betrayed and killed at the well of Ma'una, the news reached the Prophet ﷺ and he made qunoot for a month in the morning prayer, invoking against the tribes responsible (Sahih al-Bukhari 4090).

That is qunoot nazilah: a supplication added to the obligatory prayers in response to a specific catastrophe befalling the Muslims, for as long as the situation lasts, then discontinued. It is not a fixed text. It is made in response to what is actually happening, which is why the Prophet ﷺ named the tribes. Congregations that add a qunoot for a war or a famine are doing something with clear precedent, and stopping when the affliction ends is part of the practice, not a failure of concern.

If You Do Not Know It Yet

Your witr is valid. No narration restricts qunoot to a single wording — the plain evidence for that is that two different texts have been recited as qunoot since the first generation. If you are learning, take the prophetic version a clause at a time; the opening phrase, Allahumma-hdini fiman hadait, is a complete request on its own and you can pray with only that while the rest settles.

In the meantime, recite a dua you already have. The closing dua of Surah Al-Baqarah works well here — the last two ayats of Surah Baqarah are a supplication in their own right and are recited in qunoot by many. Or ask in your own language. In the Hanafi school, where qunoot in witr is wajib, someone who forgets it entirely performs sajdat as-sahw at the end and the prayer stands.

The One Place in Salah You Speak for Yourself

Almost everything in the prayer is fixed. The opening, the recitation, the words of ruku' and sujud, the tashahhud — you are handed the text and your job is to mean it. Qunoot is the exception. It is a standing supplication with no single mandated wording, made at the end of the day's last prayer, about your own circumstances.

That is why the placement of witr matters as much as its content. It closes the night. You arrive at qunoot having already lived the day you are about to ask about, and the honest version of the dua depends on knowing what that day actually contained — where you needed guidance rather than where it is customary to say you did, what you actually want protecting from. Most people cannot answer that on the spot, standing in the dark, because they have not looked.

This is the practical use of muhasaba, the nightly self-accounting the classical scholars kept: it produces the material qunoot asks for. A short written reckoning before witr — what happened, what you chose, what you avoided — turns guide me among those You have guided from a recited phrase into a request with a subject. Keeping a dua journal does the same over a longer horizon: you write what you asked for, and months later you can see which of it was answered and how, which is a slow education in sabr that no amount of reading produces. The dua does not become more valid this way. It becomes yours.

Frequently Asked Questions