🫧 Islamic Duas for Distress & Grief — Arabic, Transliteration & Meaning
Below are 15 supplications for Distress & Grief, presented with vowelized Arabic script, easy-to-read Latin transliteration, English translation, and explicit source & grading references.
Allahumma inni a’udhu bika minal-hammi wal-hazan, wa a’udhu bika minal-ajzi wal-kasal, wa a’udhu bika minal-jubni wal-bukhl, wa a’udhu bika min ghalabatid-dayni wa qahrir-rijal
O Allah, I seek refuge in You from anxiety and sorrow, from incapacity and laziness, from cowardice and miserliness, from being overwhelmed by debt and from the oppression of men.
Reported Context & Reflection: Abū Umāma related: the Prophet ﷺ entered the mosque and found me sitting there outside the time of prayer. He asked, “What has you sitting here?” I said: worries and debts that will not let go of me. He said, “Shall I not teach you words by which Allah removes your worry and settles your debt?” He taught me this supplication. Abū Umāma said: I said it — and Allah removed my worry and settled my debt.
📚 Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb ad-Daʿawāt · Sunan Abī Dāwūd 1555 · an-Nawawī, al-Adhkār — Kapitel: Was man bei Kummer und Schulden sagt
Allahumma la sahla illa ma ja’altahu sahla, wa anta taj’alul-hazna idha shi’ta sahla
O Allah, nothing is easy except what You make easy, and You make the hard thing easy when You will.
Reported Context & Reflection: The Arabic ḥazn means both grief and rough, stony ground. The supplication asks, quite literally, for the steep slope to be levelled.
📚 Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, Kitāb ar-Raqāʾiq (von Anas ibn Mālik)
Rabbana afrigh alayna sabran wa tawaffana muslimin
Our Lord, pour patience upon us and cause us to die as Muslims.
Reported Context & Reflection: Spoken by the magicians who set out against Mūsā in the morning and believed by midday. Pharaoh threatened to cut off their hands and feet and crucify them. Their answer was not defiance but this request: not for rescue, but for steadfastness to the last breath. The word afrigh means “to pour out” — patience poured over a head like water.
La ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu minaz-zalimin
There is no god but You. Glory be to You! I have indeed been among the wrongdoers.
Reported Context & Reflection: Yūnus had walked away from his people; the lot on the ship fell to him, and the fish swallowed him. In a threefold darkness — night, sea, and the belly of the fish — he says not one sentence about his situation. He names Allah first, glorifies Him, then takes the blame. There is no request in it at all. He was answered nonetheless.
Reported Virtue: The Prophet ﷺ said: “The supplication of Dhun-Nūn when he called out from within the whale — no Muslim ever supplicates with it for anything without Allah answering him.”
Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs.
Reported Context & Reflection: Ibn ʿAbbās said: Ibrāhīm said these words when he was thrown into the fire — and Muḥammad ﷺ said them with the believers after Uḥud, when they were told, “The people have gathered against you, so fear them.” Their faith increased at that, rather than faltering.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. Allahumma’jurni fi musibati wa akhlif li khayran minha
Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we return. O Allah, reward me in my affliction and replace it for me with something better.
Reported Context & Reflection: When her husband Abū Salama died, Umm Salama said these words — thinking to herself: who could be better than Abū Salama? She said them anyway. Later she married the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. She herself narrates the Prophet’s words: “No servant is struck by an affliction and says this, without Allah rewarding him for it and giving him something better in its place.”
📚 Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 918, Kitāb al-Janāʾiz · an-Nawawī, al-Adhkār — Kapitel: Was man beim Unglück sagt
O Ever-Living, O Sustainer — Do Not Leave Me to Myself
Ya Hayyu ya Qayyum, bi-rahmatika astaghith, aslih li sha’ni kullah, wa la takilni ila nafsi tarfata ayn
O Ever-Living, O Sustainer! By Your mercy I call for help. Set right all my affairs and do not leave me to myself for the blink of an eye.
Reported Context & Reflection: The Prophet ﷺ said to his daughter Fāṭima: “What keeps you from listening to what I urge upon you? Say, morning and evening …” and taught her these words. The real request is the last line: not for success, but not to be left to oneself for even an instant.
📚 al-Ḥākim, al-Mustadrak & Sunan an-Nasāʾī (ʿAmal al-Yawm wa l-Layla), von Anas ibn Mālik · an-Nawawī, al-Adhkār — Kapitel: Bittgebete bei Kummer
Allahumma inni abduka, ibnu abdik, ibnu amatik, nasiyati bi-yadik, madin fiyya hukmuk, adlun fiyya qada’uk. As’aluka bi-kullismin huwa lak, sammayta bihi nafsak, aw anzaltahu fi kitabik, aw allamtahu ahadan min khalqik, awista’tharta bihi fi ilmil-ghaybi indak — an taj’alal-Qur’ana rabi’a qalbi, wa nura sadri, wa jala’a huzni, wa dhahaba hammi
O Allah, I am Your servant, son of Your servant, son of Your maidservant. My forelock is in Your hand, Your judgement upon me is carried out, Your decree concerning me is just. I ask You by every name that is Yours — by which You named Yourself, or which You sent down in Your Book, or taught to one of Your creation, or kept to Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen — that You make the Qurʾān the spring of my heart, the light of my breast, the lifting of my sorrow and the departure of my worry.
Reported Context & Reflection: The companions asked: Messenger of Allah, should we learn them? He said: “Yes — whoever hears them should learn them.” The opening is not a wish but a statement of fact: whose I am, who holds the disposal, and that it is just. Only then comes the request — and it asks not for the problem’s removal but for light inside.
Reported Virtue: The Prophet ﷺ said: no servant says these words when grief and sorrow strike him without Allah removing his sorrow and putting joy in its place.
📚 Musnad Aḥmad & Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān (von ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd) · an-Nawawī, al-Adhkār — Kapitel: Was man bei Kummer und Trauer sagt
La ilaha illallahul-Azimul-Halim. La ilaha illallahu Rabbul-Arshil-Azim. La ilaha illallahu Rabbus-samawati wa Rabbul-ardi wa Rabbul-Arshil-Karim
There is no god but Allah, the Immense, the Forbearing. There is no god but Allah, Lord of the mighty Throne. There is no god but Allah, Lord of the heavens, Lord of the earth, and Lord of the noble Throne.
Reported Context & Reflection: Ibn ʿAbbās reported: this is what the Prophet ﷺ said in distress. Strikingly, it contains no request at all. It is pure testimony — the same sentence three times, each time wider, until the whole structure of the world stands inside it and one’s own problem loses its size.
📚 Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī & Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (von Ibn ʿAbbās) · an-Nawawī, al-Adhkār — Kapitel: Das Bittgebet in großer Bedrängnis (duʿāʾ al-karb)
Allahumma rahmataka arju, fa-la takilni ila nafsi tarfata ayn, wa aslih li sha’ni kullah, la ilaha illa ant
O Allah, it is Your mercy I hope for. Do not leave me to myself for the blink of an eye. Set right all my affairs. There is no god but You.
Reported Context & Reflection: Abū Bakra transmits these words as what the Prophet ﷺ said in distress. “Not for the blink of an eye” — not because Allah would otherwise do so, but because a person left to himself for the blink of an eye would be lost.
📚 Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Kitāb al-Adab (von Abū Bakra) · an-Nawawī, al-Adhkār — Kapitel: Was man bei Kummer und Bedrängnis sagt
Allahumma inni a’udhu bika min jahdil-bala’, wa darakish-shaqa’, wa su’il-qada’, wa shamatatil-a’da’
O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the severity of trial, from being overtaken by wretchedness, from an evil outcome, and from the gloating of enemies.
📚 Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī & Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (von Abū Hurayra) · an-Nawawī, al-Adhkār — Kapitel: Zuflucht vor dem Übel
Rabbi-bni li indaka baytan fil-jannah, wa najjini min Fir’awna wa amalih, wa najjini minal-qawmiz-zalimin
My Lord, build for me a house with You in Paradise, and save me from Pharaoh and his deeds, and save me from the wrongdoing people.
Reported Context & Reflection: The wife of the most powerful man on earth, in one of the most splendid houses of her age, asks first for a house — and names the neighbourhood before the building: “with You”. The Qurʾān sets her forth as an example for the believers, men and women alike.
Rabbana-ghfir lana dhunubana wa israfana fi amrina, wa thabbit aqdamana, wansurna alal-qawmil-kafirin
Our Lord, forgive us our sins and our excesses in our affair, make our feet firm, and help us against the disbelieving people.
Reported Context & Reflection: The verse looks back on Uḥud, where an instruction had been disregarded. The order is striking: first one’s own excess is admitted, and only then are footing and help requested. To ask first for victory after a defeat is to skip the cause.
Rabbana afrigh alayna sabran wa thabbit aqdamana wansurna alal-qawmil-kafirin
Our Lord, pour patience upon us, make our feet firm, and help us against the disbelieving people.
Reported Context & Reflection: From the small band that had crossed the river with Ṭālūt and faced Goliath’s army. They had just said: “How many a small company has overcome a large company by Allah’s permission.” Among them was a young man named Dāwūd.
📚 Koran, Sūrat al-Baqara 2:250
Mūsā in Flight
Quranic Verse
رَبِّ نَجِّنِي مِنَ الْقَوْمِ الظَّالِمِينَ
Rabbi najjini minal-qawmiz-zalimin
My Lord, save me from the wrongdoing people.
Reported Context & Reflection: Mūsā left the city “fearful and watchful” after being warned that they meant to kill him. Five words, said while walking. What follows is the road to Madyan — and everything that made his life.
📚 Koran, Sūrat al-Qaṣaṣ 28:21
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How many duas for Distress & Grief are included on this page?
This collection includes 15 curated supplications for Distress & Grief, each with Arabic text, transliteration, English meaning, and classical reference.
Can I recite these duas in English while learning the Arabic?
Memorizing and reciting prophetic and Quranic duas in their original Arabic carries special blessing, while pouring your heart out to Allah in your own language outside obligatory prayer postures is always welcome.
How are sources and authenticity grades displayed?
Every dua card transparently displays its classification (Quranic Verse, Sahih, Hasan, or Traditional Supplication) alongside exact citations such as Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, or Imam an-Nawawī’s al-Adhkār.
Listen in Imantree — verse by verse audio recitation, tafsir, Hifz mode and bookmarks.