Dua Qunoot: Arabic, Transliteration, and Meaning

What is Dua Qunoot?

Dua Qunoot is a supplication recited while standing during the prayer. You will see it written both as dua qunoot and as dua e qunoot, and both spellings point to the same thing. The Arabic word qunoot has a few related meanings in the language, including obedience and devotion and standing at length in worship, but when Muslims speak of "the qunoot" in everyday terms they usually mean this standing supplication, most often the one recited in the Witr prayer that comes after Isha.

Unlike the fixed recitations of the prayer, such as Al-Fatihah, the qunoot is a moment of asking. You stand before Allah and pour out requests for guidance, forgiveness, protection, and help. It is one of the more personal parts of the prayer, which is part of why so many people feel attached to it and want the words to be correct. It sits inside the structure of salah, yet it opens a door to supplication in a way the rest of the prayer does not.

There are two well-known texts that Muslims use for Dua Qunoot, and this guide covers both in full. The first begins Allahumma inna nasta'inuka and is the wording favoured in the Hanafi school. The second begins Allahumma-hdini fiman hadayt and was taught by the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, to his grandson Hasan ibn Ali, may Allah be pleased with them both. Both are established, both are widely recited, and neither is a mistake. Which one you use tends to follow the school of jurisprudence and the community you learned from.

Beyond the Witr, there is a separate use of qunoot called Qunoot Nazilah, recited in the obligatory prayers at times of hardship or calamity affecting the Muslims. We cover that later in the guide, because it is a different situation with a different purpose, even though it shares the name and the standing posture.

When is Qunoot recited?

The most common place for Dua Qunoot is the Witr prayer. Witr is the odd-numbered prayer offered at night after Isha, and it is greatly encouraged in the Sunnah. Many people pray it as three rak'ahs, and the qunoot is recited in the final rak'ah. If you are still learning the night prayers, our guide on the Tahajjud prayer explains how the voluntary night prayers fit together, and Witr is usually the seal placed at the end of that night worship.

Here is where the schools differ in a way worth understanding early, because it affects how often you say the qunoot. In the Hanafi school, the Qunoot of Witr is recited every night, all year round, as a regular part of Witr. In the Shafi'i school, the qunoot in Witr is recited specifically in the second half of the month of Ramadan, while the Shafi'i school also recommends a daily qunoot in the Fajr prayer. The Hanbali school recites qunoot in Witr through the year like the Hanafis but places it differently in the prayer, as we will see. The Maliki school does not generally recite qunoot in Witr and instead recites a qunoot in Fajr. None of this is a contradiction to lose sleep over; it reflects different readings of authentic narrations, and each school follows its evidence.

So the short answer to "when is qunoot recited" depends on who you ask, but the practical version for most people is this. If you follow the Hanafi school, you say Dua Qunoot in Witr every night. If you follow the Shafi'i school, you say it in Fajr daily and in Witr during the last half of Ramadan. If you follow the Hanbali school, you say it in Witr. And in all schools, a special qunoot is recited in the obligatory prayers when the community faces a real calamity. When you pray behind an imam, you simply follow the imam, which keeps things simple in congregation.

Because Witr is tied to the night and to the timing of Isha, knowing your prayer times accurately helps you keep it. A prayer time app that gives you the exact start of Isha for your city, and reminds you before the night runs out, makes Witr far easier to protect as a habit. Niyyara does this for free, so you always know the window you are working within.

The Hanafi Dua Qunoot in full

This is the text most associated with the Hanafi school, recited in the last rak'ah of Witr. It is a beautiful, compact supplication drawn from the language of the early generations, and it moves from seeking help and forgiveness, to affirming worship of Allah alone, to hope and fear of Him. Here is the full Arabic, then an accurate transliteration, then the meaning.

Transliteration: Allahumma inna nasta'inuka wa nastaghfiruka wa nu'minu bika wa natawakkalu 'alayka wa nuthni 'alaykal-khayr, wa nashkuruka wa la nakfuruka, wa nakhla'u wa natruku man yafjuruk. Allahumma iyyaka na'budu wa laka nusalli wa nasjud, wa ilayka nas'a wa nahfid, narju rahmataka wa nakhsha 'adhabak, inna 'adhabaka bil-kuffari mulhaq.

Meaning: "O Allah, we seek Your help, we seek Your forgiveness, we believe in You, we rely upon You, and we praise You in the best way. We thank You and we are not ungrateful to You, and we cast off and forsake the one who disobeys You. O Allah, You alone we worship, and to You we pray and prostrate, and towards You we hasten and strive. We hope for Your mercy and we fear Your punishment. Surely Your punishment will reach the disbelievers."

Notice how the supplication is worded in the plural: we seek, we believe, we rely. When you recite it alone you are still speaking on behalf of the believers as a whole, which is a small, moving detail. The last line is a statement of truth about the consequence of rejecting Allah, not a curse against any particular person. Read line by line, the dua is a summary of the believer's stance before their Lord: dependence, gratitude, sincere worship, and a heart held between hope and fear.

A note on the transliteration marks. The apostrophe stands for a sound in Arabic that does not exist in English, and letters like the emphatic ones cannot be shown perfectly in the Latin alphabet. Treat the transliteration as a scaffold to get you started, and let your ear do the real work by listening to a good reciter. The exact pronunciation is best corrected in person by someone who knows, which no written guide can fully replace.

The dua of Hasan ibn Ali

The second well-known text is the one the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, taught his grandson Hasan ibn Ali, may Allah be pleased with them both, to say in the Witr. It is narrated in the collections of Abu Dawud, at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah, and at-Tirmidhi graded it hasan. It is the text most associated with the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, and it is loved for how directly it asks for the things a soul most needs.

Transliteration: Allahumma-hdini fiman hadayt, wa 'afini fiman 'afayt, wa tawallani fiman tawallayt, wa barik li fima a'tayt, wa qini sharra ma qadayt, fa innaka taqdi wa la yuqda 'alayk, wa innahu la yadhillu man walayt, wa la ya'izzu man 'adayt, tabarakta Rabbana wa ta'alayt.

Meaning: "O Allah, guide me among those You have guided, grant me wellbeing among those You have granted wellbeing, take me into Your care among those You have taken into Your care, bless me in what You have given me, and protect me from the evil of what You have decreed. For You decree and none decrees over You, and none whom You have befriended is ever humiliated, and none whom You oppose is ever honoured. Blessed are You, our Lord, and Exalted."

A small point of accuracy worth mentioning. The phrase "wa la ya'izzu man 'adayt," meaning "none whom You oppose is ever honoured," appears in some narrations of this dua and not in others. You will therefore hear it recited both with and without that line, and both are within the range of what has been transmitted. Some worshippers also add at the end a sending of blessings upon the Prophet, saying "wa salla Allahu 'ala an-Nabiyyi Muhammad." Because the transmitted wordings vary slightly, do not be surprised to hear small differences from one imam to another.

Read the requests in order and you notice how complete they are. Guidance first, because everything follows from it. Then wellbeing in body and soul. Then the care and friendship of Allah. Then blessing in what you already have, rather than only asking for more. Then protection from the harm hidden inside destiny. It closes by affirming that all decree belongs to Allah and that His friend is never truly disgraced. Learning what the lines mean, and not just their sound, turns this from a memorised passage into a heartfelt request.

Before or after ruku? The school differences

One of the most common questions about Dua Qunoot is where exactly it goes in the rak'ah: before you bow into ruku, or after you rise from it. The honest answer is that both are practised, both rest on narrations, and the schools differ. Knowing the difference helps you follow your own school correctly and avoid confusion when you pray somewhere that does it another way.

The Hanafi school recites the Qunoot of Witr before ruku. In the last rak'ah of Witr, after you finish reciting Al-Fatihah and a surah, you raise your hands and say the takbir, then fold your hands and recite the qunoot while still standing, and only then do you bow into ruku. This is why Hanafis say the qunoot in the standing that comes before the bow.

The Shafi'i and Hanbali schools recite the qunoot after ruku. You bow and rise as normal, and in the standing after ruku, the one where you say "Rabbana wa lakal-hamd," you then raise your hands and recite the qunoot before going down into prostration. This is why in many mosques you will see the imam supplicating in that upright standing near the end of the rak'ah.

Both placements are reported in authentic narrations, which is exactly why the scholars arrived at different conclusions. This is not a case of one group following the Sunnah and another ignoring it. It is a difference in how the evidence is weighed, and it falls within the accepted range of practice. If you are learning, the simplest rule is to follow the way your teacher, your local imam, and your school of jurisprudence teach, and when you pray in congregation, follow the imam regardless of your own habit.

How to raise your hands in Qunoot

How you hold your hands during the qunoot is another point where practice varies, and again it follows the school. Here is the general picture so you know what you are seeing and what to do.

In the schools that recite the qunoot after ruku, it is common to raise the hands in supplication, palms turned upward toward the sky as you would in ordinary dua, and then to wipe the face with the hands afterward according to one view, though not everyone does the wiping. Raising the hands here matches the idea that this is a moment of asking, and lifting the hands is the natural posture of a person making a request of their Lord.

In the Hanafi school, where the qunoot is said before ruku, the more common practice is to raise the hands to the ears for the opening takbir that precedes the qunoot, and then to fold the hands on the body as in the standing part of the prayer while reciting the supplication, rather than holding them up throughout. So the raising happens once, at the takbir, and then the hands are folded again.

You can see how the two flow from the two placements. When the qunoot sits inside the standing before ruku, it stays closer to the posture of that standing. When it sits in the standing after ruku, it takes on the posture of open supplication. Neither is careless, and the difference is small in practice. Learn the way your community prays, do it calmly, and do not let a difference in hand position distract you from the words you are saying. As always, a knowledgeable teacher can show you your own school's way far better than a paragraph can.

Qunoot Nazilah in times of calamity

Qunoot Nazilah is a different use of the qunoot, and it is worth understanding on its own. The word nazilah refers to a calamity or a hardship that descends on people. This qunoot is recited in the obligatory prayers, not only in Witr, when the Muslim community faces a genuine difficulty: an enemy, oppression, drought, an epidemic, or the suffering of Muslims somewhere in the world.

It is established that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, recited qunoot in this way at certain times, supplicating for people who were in distress and against those who wronged the believers, and then leaving it when the situation changed. This tells us two useful things. First, Qunoot Nazilah is tied to a real need, not a fixed daily routine. Second, it is meant to be stopped once the calamity passes, rather than carried on indefinitely.

In practice, the imam recites it standing after rising from ruku in the final rak'ah of an obligatory prayer, and those praying behind say ameen to his supplication. The wording is not a single fixed text. The one leading the prayer asks Allah for what fits the moment: relief for those who are suffering, safety for the oppressed, firmness for the believers, and justice against wrongdoing. Because Qunoot Nazilah involves the congregation and the judgement of when a situation truly calls for it, it is normally led by the imam and guided by knowledgeable people rather than something an individual improvises into every prayer.

If you ever join a prayer where the imam raises his hands after ruku in a fard prayer and begins to supplicate, this is likely what is happening. Follow along, raise your hands if that is your community's practice, and say ameen. It is one of the ways the prayer connects the worshipper to the wider concerns of the ummah, turning a personal act of worship into a shared plea for help.

How to memorise Dua Qunoot

Memorising Dua Qunoot is very doable, even if Arabic is new to you. The text is short, it rhymes and repeats in ways that help the memory, and thousands of people who did not grow up with Arabic have learned it. Here is a gentle approach that works.

Pick one text first. Do not try to learn both the Hanafi dua and the dua of Hasan ibn Ali at the same time. Choose the one your school and community use, learn it well, and only later consider the other if you wish. Splitting your attention early just slows you down.

Break it into small phrases. Use the phrase tables in this guide. Each row is a bite-sized chunk. Learn the first phrase until you can say it without looking, then add the second and say both together, then the third, and so on. This layering, where you always recite from the start and add one new piece, builds a strong chain that is hard to forget.

Learn the meaning alongside the sound. Do not memorise it as empty syllables. When you know that a phrase means "guide me among those You have guided," the words stick because they carry sense, and your heart is present when you recite them. Meaning is memory glue. It is also the whole point, since the qunoot is a supplication and you should feel what you are asking for.

Listen far more than you read. Reading transliteration only takes you so far, because Arabic has sounds the Latin alphabet cannot show. Listen to a clear reciter say the dua slowly, again and again, and imitate out loud. Your ear will pick up the rhythm and the correct sounds better than your eye ever will. The full Quran audio and duas inside Niyyara are useful for exactly this kind of listening practice.

Recite it outside the prayer. Say it while you walk, while you cook, in quiet moments during the day. The goal is to make it so familiar that when you stand in Witr you are not straining to recall it. Repetition in easy moments pays off in the prayer.

Use it while you learn, do not wait. You do not need perfect memory to start. While you are learning, you can supplicate in your own words in that standing, asking Allah for guidance, forgiveness, and protection, and add lines of the memorised dua as they become solid. Praying Witr consistently while you learn is far better than delaying Witr until the dua is flawless. If you are still building the prayer itself, our full walkthrough on how to pray in Islam covers every step of a rak'ah so the qunoot has a familiar prayer to sit inside.

Common questions and gentle corrections

A few things trip people up when they first learn Dua Qunoot. None of them are cause for worry, and knowing them in advance keeps you calm in the prayer.

1. Thinking there is only one correct text. There are two well-known supplications, plus room for other authentic wordings, and your school guides which you use. Hearing a different one from another Muslim does not mean either of you is wrong.
2. Worrying about before versus after ruku. Both placements are valid and follow different schools. Learn your own school's way, and follow the imam in congregation. This is not something to argue over.
3. Freezing because the dua is not memorised. Do not abandon Witr while you learn. Supplicate in your own words in that standing and keep adding the memorised lines. Consistency beats waiting for perfection.
4. Rushing the words. The qunoot is a supplication, so recite it with a settled heart rather than racing through it. Slowing down makes it both more correct in spirit and more meaningful.
5. Reciting sounds without meaning. Learn what each line asks for. A supplication you understand is a supplication you feel, and it is far easier to remember.
6. Assuming Qunoot Nazilah is a daily duty. It is recited in the obligatory prayers only when a real calamity calls for it, usually led by the imam, and left when the difficulty passes. It is not something to add to every prayer on your own.

Underneath all of these is the same reassuring theme. The differences in Dua Qunoot are differences of valid practice, not a maze of right and wrong. Learn your school's way, be patient with your Arabic, understand what you are saying, and keep praying Witr. For any ruling specific to your circumstances, follow qualified scholars and a trusted local teacher rather than piecing answers together alone.

How Niyyara helps you learn

Learning a dua is one part memory and one part habit. The memory comes from listening and repeating; the habit comes from praying at the right times, night after night, until Witr and its qunoot are simply part of your day. Niyyara is built to help with both, without costing you anything.

Niyyara is a free, private, ad-free companion for a practicing Muslim. It gives you accurate prayer times calculated for your exact location and the current date, including Isha, so you always know the window in which Witr belongs. It can sound the azan when each time enters, which for many people is the nudge that turns good intentions into kept prayers. It includes the full Quran with audio, which is ideal for training your ear on Arabic pronunciation, a collection of everyday duas, an accurate Qibla compass, the 99 names of Allah, a tasbih for remembrance, the Islamic calendar, and a worship tracker to help you watch your consistency grow.

Because it is completely free, with no subscriptions and no ads, there is nothing standing between you and your worship. That matters more than it sounds. Worship should never feel like a product being sold to you. Niyyara stays out of the way and simply helps you pray on time, face the right direction, and keep learning your duas at your own pace.

Dua Qunoot rewards a little patience. You now have both well-known texts in full, an accurate transliteration and meaning, a clear picture of when and where it is recited, an honest account of where the schools differ, and a gentle plan to memorise it. The rest is practice and showing up for Witr. May Allah make it easy for you, accept your prayers, and guide you among those He has guided. Start with tonight's Witr.