When is dua accepted? 6 times from the hadith
Nabi ﷺ named the moments when Allah is closest to saying yes. Most of them come round every single day.
You ask Allah for things every day. Sometimes it feels like nobody is listening.
Nabi ﷺ told us when to ask. He named certain times when a dua is almost never turned away.
Here are six of them. Four of them come round every single day.
You do not need a better dua. You need a better time.
1. The last third of the night
Every night, in the last third of it, Allah comes down to the lowest heaven and asks: “Who is calling on Me, so I can answer him? Who is asking Me, so I can give him? Who is seeking My forgiveness, so I can forgive him?”
Every night. He asks. Most of us are asleep.
You do not have to stay up all night. Set an alarm for forty minutes before Fajr. Make wudu, pray two rakah, and ask. That is it.
2. When the adhan is being called
Nabi ﷺ said two duas are not refused, or rarely refused. One of them is the dua at the time of the adhan.
Five times a day the adhan goes. Five times a day the door is open. Next time you hear it, stop what you are doing and ask for one thing.
3. Between the adhan and the iqamah
Nabi ﷺ said, “The dua made between the adhan and the iqamah is not rejected.”
Not rejected. Those are his words.
That gap is usually ten to fifteen minutes. Most of us spend it on our phones. Spend it asking instead.
4. Right after the fard prayer
Someone asked Nabi ﷺ which dua is most likely to be heard. He said: in the last part of the night, and at the end of the obligatory prayers.
So do not get up the second you say salam. Sit for one minute. Say your dhikr. Then ask.
5. On Friday, from when the imam sits until the prayer ends
There is one hour on Friday when a Muslim does not ask Allah for anything except that Allah gives it to him.
One narration in Sahih Muslim puts that hour between the imam sitting down on the minbar and the prayer finishing. So the khutbah is not the time to check your phone. It is the time to ask, quietly, in your heart.
6. The last hour of Friday, after Asr
Another narration puts the same hour at the very end of Friday, after Asr, before Maghrib. Nabi ﷺ said: “Seek it in the last hour after Asr.”
The scholars say both narrations are strong, so take both. Ask during the khutbah, and ask again before Maghrib on Friday.
Four of these six moments come round every day. Nobody who prays is ever far from one.
One thing that makes all six work
The time is not magic. What makes the dua heard is that your heart is in it.
Nabi ﷺ said Allah does not answer a dua from a heart that is somewhere else. So when you reach one of these windows, put the phone down, look at nothing, and mean it.
What to do
- Pick one window this week and use it every day. The gap between adhan and iqamah is the easiest.
- Keep a short list of what you are asking for. Same list, every window, until it is answered.
- Ask for the small things too. Nothing you need is too small to ask Allah for.
What not to do
- Do not rush the dua because the iqamah is coming. Two sincere sentences are enough.
- Do not say “I asked and nothing happened” after a week. Nabi ﷺ said every dua is answered: Allah gives it, or He turns away a harm of the same size instead.
- Do not skip the last third of the night forever because you cannot manage it every night. Once a week is still once a week.
One last thing
The last third of the night is the one window Nabi ﷺ mentioned twice. If you only ever manage one of the six, make it that one.
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari 1145; Sunan Abi Dawud 2540; Jami` at-Tirmidhi 212; Sunan Abi Dawud 521; Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3499 (hasan); Sahih Muslim, hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash’ari on the Friday hour; Sunan Abi Dawud 1048; Sunan an-Nasa’i 1389; Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3573 (every dua is answered); Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3479 (the heedless heart, hasan)
SM
The teaching in this post comes from the Quran and the hadith listed above. I only put it in plain words. The tips on what to do and what not to do are my own advice. If you want to talk about anything in this post, write to me at salam@sunnahdaily.com.
For a ruling on your own situation, please speak to a qualified local scholar. You are welcome to email me about it as well, and I will help if I can, or point you to someone who can.