Dua for Forgiveness: 9 Authentic Duas From Quran and Sunnah

The best dua for forgiveness is Sayyid al-Istighfār, which the Prophet ﷺ himself named the master of seeking forgiveness. Shaddād ibn Aws reported it in Sahih al-Bukhari 6306. It affirms that Allah is your Lord, renews your covenant with Him, admits both His blessings and your sin, and only then asks for forgiveness.

The promise attached to it is unusually specific. Whoever says it during the day with firm faith and dies before evening is among the people of Paradise, and whoever says it at night with firm faith and dies before morning is among the people of Paradise. That is why it sits in the morning and evening adhkār of so many Muslims.

Look at the phrase abūʾu laka, “I acknowledge to You.” It appears twice: once for Allah's blessings, once for your sin. The dua teaches that honest repentance holds both in view at the same time, gratitude without denial and regret without despair.

Three short duas for forgiveness are easy to memorise and come straight from the Sunnah. One is a phrase the Prophet ﷺ repeated a hundred times in a gathering, one carries a striking promise in Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, and one he taught Abū Bakr to say inside the prayer. None needs wuḍūʾ or a set time.

ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said the Companions would count the Prophet ﷺ saying this a hundred times in a single sitting. Al-Albānī graded the narration ṣaḥīḥ. It is short enough to repeat on a walk or while waiting, which is exactly how it was used.

The Prophet ﷺ said whoever says it is forgiven, even if he had fled from the battlefield. A close version without the word al-ʿAẓīm appears in Sunan Abī Dāwūd 1517.

Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq asked the Prophet ﷺ for a dua to say in his prayer, and this is what he was taught. Many Muslims say it after the tashahhud, just before the closing salām. The step-by-step salah guide shows where that moment falls.

The Quran records duas for forgiveness on the tongues of prophets and believers, and each one admits fault before it asks. Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ, Mūsā and Yūnus (peace be upon them) all began with “I have wronged myself.” Four of these Quranic duas are short enough to memorise in a day.

This was the first repentance in human history: the words of Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ after they ate from the tree. They did not blame each other or the one who tempted them. They named their own wrong and asked for two things, forgiveness and mercy.

Mūsā (peace be upon him) said this after he struck a man in a quarrel and the man died. The verse goes on: “and He forgave him. Indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.” The answer comes in the same breath as the dua.

• Lā ilāha illā anta subḥānaka innī kuntu mina al-ẓālimīn (Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ 21:87): the dua of Yūnus from inside the whale, covered in depth in the dua for anxiety and stress guide.
• Rabbanā innanā āmannā faghfir lanā dhunūbanā wa qinā ʿadhāba al-nār (Sūrat Āl ʿImrān 3:16): “Our Lord, we have believed, so forgive us our sins and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.”

You can hear every one of these verses recited in context in the whole Quran with audio and tafsir.

The right dua for forgiveness depends on the moment. A daily anchor should be complete but repeatable, a dua inside salah should be one the Prophet ﷺ taught for prayer, and a phrase for a busy street should be a few words long. The table below matches each authentic dua to the moment it suits best.

The Laylat al-Qadr dua is the one ʿĀʾishah was taught when she asked what to say if she knew which night it was:

Repentance (tawbah) is more than reciting a dua for forgiveness. Sūrat Āl ʿImrān 3:135 describes those whom Allah forgives: when they do wrong they remember Allah, ask forgiveness for their sins, and do not persist in what they did while they know. Each of those three parts can be turned into a step.

• Remember Allah and stop. The verse begins with remembering Allah at the moment of the wrong. Stopping the sin is where repentance starts.
• Ask forgiveness with honest regret. Use one of the duas above, and mean the words “I have wronged myself.”
• Resolve not to persist. The verse praises those who “do not persist.” Change what you can about the situation that led you there.
• Put right what you owe people. If another person was harmed, the Prophet ﷺ said to seek their pardon before the Day of Resurrection, when there will be no money to settle the debt (Sahih al-Bukhari 2449).

The Quran calls this tawbatan naṣūḥā, “sincere repentance” (Sūrat al-Taḥrīm 66:8). Istighfār is the asking; tawbah is the turning. A dua said with no intention to change is still dhikr, but the turning is what the verse describes.

The door does not close quickly. In Sahih Muslim 2759 the Prophet ﷺ said Allah stretches out His hand at night to accept the repentance of the one who sinned by day, and by day for the one who sinned by night, until the sun rises from the west.

No fixed number of istighfār is required, but the Sunnah gives three clear reference points. The Prophet ﷺ sought forgiveness more than seventy times a day (Sahih al-Bukhari 6307), a hundred times a day (Sahih Muslim 2702a), and repeated one dua a hundred times in a single gathering (Sunan Abī Dāwūd 1516).

A hundred a day is a realistic target for most people. Split across the five prayers it comes to twenty after each salah, which takes under two minutes. A hand counter or the digital tasbih keeps count so your attention stays on the words rather than the number.

Allah also ties istighfār to provision in this world. Nūḥ (peace be upon him) told his people: “Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Indeed, He is ever a Perpetual Forgiver. He will send rain from the sky upon you in continuing showers, and give you increase in wealth and children” (Sūrat Nūḥ 71:10-12).

Repeating a sin does not close the door to forgiveness. In Sahih Muslim 2758a the Prophet ﷺ described a servant who sinned and asked forgiveness, then sinned again and asked again, several times. Each time Allah said His servant knew he had a Lord who forgives sins and holds to account, and forgave him.

The lesson drawn from this hadith is about returning, not about permission. The servant in the hadith never stops asking. What breaks a person is the voice that says “you have asked too many times already.” Allah answers that voice directly: “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins” (Sūrat al-Zumar 39:53).

Practically, pair each return with one small change: a different route home, an app deleted, a friend told. Al-Ghafūr and al-Tawwāb are among the 99 Names of Allah, and calling on Him by them is part of the dua itself.

Itabah's daily duʿāʾ collection gathers these supplications from Ḥiṣn al-Muslim with their sources and works offline, and the AI Duʿāʾ companion helps you put what is on your heart into words. If all you want is a printed card of Sayyid al-Istighfār by your bed, that works just as well. The words matter, not the app.