Rabbana La Tuakhizna Inna Sina: Meaning, Arabic & Dua Benefits

Rabbana la tuakhizna in nasina aw akhtana is the opening clause of the supplication that closes Surah Al-Baqarah — the dua of ayah 286, in which the believers ask Allah not to hold them accountable for what they have forgotten or for the mistakes they have committed. It is one of the most weighted Rabbana duas in the Quran: taught by Allah Himself in answer to a moment of distress among the Companions, paired in the Sunnah with the protective virtue of “whoever recites the last two verses of Al-Baqarah at night, they will suffice him,” and recited every evening across the Muslim world as part of the night-time adhkar.

This guide gives the full Arabic of the dua with and without diacritics, an accurate transliteration, the established English meaning, the asbab al-nuzul (cause of revelation) recorded in Sahih Muslim, a petition-by-petition breakdown of the verse, the four authenticated benefits of reciting the last two ayat of Surah Al-Baqarah at night, the recommended times and settings for recitation, related Quranic duas for forgiveness and humility, and a frequently-asked-questions section that answers the most common reader queries about meaning, source, and Urdu translation.

Rabbana La Tuakhizna Inna Sina: Arabic, Transliteration & English Meaning

The dua is short and easy to memorize, but the precise wording matters: the verbs nasina (forgot) and akhtana (erred) carry a distinction the classical commentators were careful to preserve. Below is the supplication clause of Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286 in the Uthmanic mushaf, with and without diacritics, followed by the standard transliteration and the established English translation.

In Arabic

With diacritics, for accurate pronunciation in salah or memorization:

رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَآ إِن نَّسِينَآ أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا

And without diacritics, as it commonly appears in print and search:

ربنا لا تؤاخذنا إن نسينا أو أخطأنا

Transliteration

Rabbana la tuakhizna in nasina aw akhtana

Common spelling variants that appear in search include “Rabbana la tuakhizna inna sina,” “Robbana latuakhidna inna sina,” “Rabbana la touakhidna in nasina,” and the Malay/Indonesian phrasing “Robbana latuakhidna inna sina artinya” (where artinya means “meaning”). All refer to the same Quranic ayah at Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286; the variation comes from regional transliteration habits, not from any difference in the Uthmanic text.

English Meaning

“Our Lord, do not hold us accountable if we forget or make mistakes.”

Source: Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayah 286 (Not 283)

The dua Rabbana la tuakhizna in nasina aw akhtana is part of ayah 286 of Surah Al-Baqarah — the very last verse of the chapter, not verse 283 as the older copy of this article (and several poorly-edited online sources) used to claim. Verse 283 deals with the legal rules of debt and pledges; verse 286 is where Allah closes the longest surah of the Quran with the most beloved Rabbana dua in the entire mushaf. The full ayah opens with “La yukallifu Allahu nafsan illa wus’aha” — “Allah does not burden a soul with more than it can bear” — and only after that theological foundation does the dua begin.

لَا يُكَلِّفُ ٱللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا ٱكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَآ إِن نَّسِينَآ أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَآ إِصْرًۭا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦ ۖ وَٱعْفُ عَنَّا وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَٱرْحَمْنَآ ۚ أَنتَ مَوْلَىٰنَا فَٱنصُرْنَا عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ

“Allah does not burden a soul with more than it can bear. It will have the consequence of what good it has gained, and it will bear the consequence of what evil it has earned. Our Lord, do not hold us accountable if we forget or make mistakes. Our Lord, and do not lay upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, and do not burden us with what we have no ability to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people.” — Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286.

Together with ayah 285, this verse forms what the Sunnah calls “the last two verses of Surah Al-Baqarah“ — the focal point of multiple authentic hadiths on night recitation. Their position at the very end of the longest surah is itself part of their virtue: classical commentators including Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani note that Allah closed the chapter not with rulings but with this open-handed supplication, leaving the believer’s last words on the longest surah of the Quran as a request for mercy on forgetfulness.

Why Allah Revealed This Dua: The Qad Fa’altu Moment

The asbab al-nuzul (cause of revelation) of Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286 is recorded by Abu Hurayrah in Sahih Muslim 125, and it is the most striking back-story of any Rabbana dua in the Quran. When ayah 284 was revealed — “Whether you reveal what is in yourselves or conceal it, Allah will call you to account for it” — the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ came to him visibly burdened, sat on their knees, and said: “O Messenger of Allah, we have been charged with what we can bear — the prayer, fasting, jihad, charity — but this verse has been revealed about us, and we cannot.”

The Prophet ﷺ replied: “Do you wish to say what the people of the two books before you said: ‘We hear and we disobey’? Rather, say: ‘We hear and we obey; Your forgiveness, our Lord, and unto You is the destination’” — the exact words of ayah 285. When the believers internalized the verse and their tongues followed, Allah Himself revealed ayah 286 in response. The narration in Sahih Muslim records that for every clause of the dua, Allah answered — “Qad fa’altu”: “I have done so.”

• When the believers said “Our Lord, do not hold us accountable if we forget or make mistakes,” Allah said: Qad fa’altu — “I have done so.”
• When they said “Our Lord, do not lay upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us,” Allah said: Qad fa’altu.
• When they said “Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy upon us,” Allah said: Qad fa’altu.

This is what makes Rabbana la tuakhizna in nasina aw akhtana different from almost every other Rabbana dua in the Quran. It is not a dua the believers composed and Allah accepted; it is a dua Allah Himself placed on their tongues, then answered before the ink of the revelation was dry. When the believer recites it today, they are repeating a request that has already received an authenticated divine “yes” in Sahih Muslim.

Meaning of the Dua, Petition by Petition

The full dua of 2:286 contains six distinct petitions, each addressing a different dimension of the believer’s relationship with accountability, hardship, and mercy. Read together they form a complete supplication; read separately they show the architecture of how Allah taught His servants to ask for forgiveness.

“If we forget or make mistakes”

The two verbs nasina (forgot) and akhtana (erred) are precisely chosen. Nasina is involuntary forgetting — the prayer missed because the time slipped by, the obligation that fell off the mind. Akhtana is unintentional error — the wrong word, the wrong action taken in good faith. Together they cover the entire category of lapses for which the believer is not morally culpable in the strict legal sense but for which they still seek divine pardon. Deliberate sin (’amd) is not in this petition’s scope; the believer asks separately for forgiveness of that elsewhere.

“Do not lay upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us”

This petition refers, by scholarly consensus, to the strictures placed on earlier nations such as the Bani Isra’il — the rules of ritual purity that required cutting impure garments, the prohibitions whose scope exceeded what the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ would later be asked to bear. The dua acknowledges that the Shari’ah of this Ummah is itself a mercy of measured weight, and asks Allah to keep it that way.

“Do not burden us with what we have no ability to bear”

The Arabic ma la taqata lana bihi uses taqa — capacity — the same root as the verse’s opening wus’a. The dua mirrors the verse’s own theological premise: Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity, and the believer asks Him to keep affirming that. It is not a request to be exempted from trial, but a request that trial remain within bearable bounds.

“Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy upon us”

Three verbs in rising order. ’Afu ‘anna means to wipe out the trace of the sin so no record remains; ighfir lana means to cover and conceal it; irhamna means to act with active compassion. The believer is not asking for one of these — they are asking for all three layered on top of one another: the obliteration of the act, the concealment of its mark, and the active mercy that follows.

“You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people”

The closing affirmation. Anta Mawlana — “You are our Mawla” — uses one of the most loaded words in Quranic Arabic: protector, ally, master, guardian. The believer closes by anchoring everything that preceded in the relationship that makes the asking possible at all. The petition for victory follows naturally from that affirmation; if Allah is the Mawla, no other authority can be invoked.

Authentic Benefits of the Last Two Verses of Al-Baqarah

The Sunnah records several explicit virtues for reciting Surah Al-Baqarah 2:285-286 — the verse-block that contains this dua. Four authenticated benefits stand out, each tied to a named hadith:

• They will suffice him at night. Abu Mas’ud al-Ansari narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever recites the last two verses of Surat Al-Baqarah at night, they will suffice him” (Sahih al-Bukhari 5009; Sahih Muslim 807). Classical scholars including Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in Fath al-Bari and Imam al-Nawawi in Sharh Sahih Muslim list multiple meanings of “suffice him” (kafataahu): they substitute for the night’s qiyam if the believer cannot pray it, they suffice as Quran recitation for the night, they suffice as protection from the shaytan, and they repel harms from the human and the home.
• One of the three gifts of the Mi’raj. Ibn Mas’ud narrated that the Prophet ﷺ was given three things on the night of his ascension: the five daily prayers, the last verses of Surah Al-Baqarah, and the forgiveness of major sins for those of his Ummah who do not associate partners with Allah (Sahih Muslim 173). The verses that contain this dua are therefore among the gifts the Prophet ﷺ brought back from above the seven heavens.
• The shaytan does not approach a house in which they are recited. An-Nu’man ibn Bashir narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said the last two verses of Al-Baqarah were written by Allah two thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, and that if they are recited in a home for three nights, no shaytan will come near it (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2882, graded Hasan).
• An authenticated divine response. As covered in the asbab al-nuzul above, every petition in this dua received the explicit answer qad fa’altu — “I have done so” — from Allah, recorded in Sahih Muslim 125. No other Rabbana dua in the Quran carries that signature.

One note of caution: weak and folk-level traditions claim very specific benefits for this dua — numerical wazifa prescriptions, guaranteed cures for black magic, or fixed repetition counts for particular wishes. None of these are tied to authentic hadith. The four virtues above — the sufficiency, the Mi’raj gift, the shaytan-repelling household recitation, and the divine answer of qad fa’altu — are the ones that hold up under the classical hadith-grading tradition. Stick to them and the recitation is on solid ground.

When and How to Recite Rabbana La Tuakhizna Inna Sina

The hadith literature highlights several settings where this dua — or the broader verses 2:285-286 it sits inside — lands with particular weight. Each is grounded either in an explicit narration or in the established practice of the Companions and the early generations.

• After Isha, before sleep. The primary timing recommended by the hadith of kafataahu in Sahih al-Bukhari 5009. Reciting the last two verses of Al-Baqarah after the night prayer or just before going to bed activates the protection promised in the narration.
• In tahajjud and the last third of the night. The hadith of Allah descending to the lowest heaven in the last third of every night, asking who will call upon Him so He may answer (recorded in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim), makes this window the most accepted time for any forgiveness-themed supplication.
• In sujood during salah. The Prophet ﷺ said the servant is closest to his Lord while prostrating. Adding this dua — or any portion of 2:286 — in sujood places one of the most beloved Rabbana petitions in the most beloved bodily posture.
• After the five fard prayers. The Companions are reported to have lingered briefly after each obligatory prayer for personal duas; the opening clause of 2:286 is a natural addition to that short pause.
• In moments of distress and forgetfulness. The dua was first revealed in answer to a moment of distress among the Companions over 2:284; reciting it in moments of regret over forgotten obligations — a missed prayer, a forgotten promise, a mistake made in good faith — mirrors the original setting of its revelation.
• As part of the morning and evening adhkar. Many compilations of the Sunnah-based remembrances include verses 2:285-286 as voluntary additions; the dua at the close of 2:286 belongs naturally among them.

Related Quranic Duas for Forgiveness and Humility

Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286 is one of around forty Rabbana duas the Quran preserves, several of which approach the same themes — forgiveness of mistakes, humility before Allah, and protection from the consequences of human weakness — from different angles. Reading them together strengthens the believer’s vocabulary in supplication:

• Rabbana zalamna anfusana (Surah Al-A’raf 7:23) — the dua of Adam and Hawa after the slip in the garden: “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves; if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us we will be among the losers.” The companion-piece to 2:286 for owning a mistake outright.
• Rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanah (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:201) — the most-recited Rabbana dua, asking for good in this life, good in the next, and protection from the Fire; the Hajj-stations dua the Prophet ﷺ favored.
• Rabbana la tuzigh quloobana (Surah Ali Imran 3:8) — “Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us.” The dua of ar-rasikhuna fil-’ilm, those firm in knowledge.
• Rabbana atmim lana nurana (Surah At-Tahrim 66:8) — “Our Lord, perfect for us our light and forgive us.” The Day-of-Judgment dua of the believers as they cross the Sirat.
• The Prophet’s ﷺ teaching duas for forgiveness — the broader collection of Sunnah-narrated supplications for tawbah and istighfar; pair these with 2:286 in nightly adhkar for a complete forgiveness routine.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Rabbana la tuakhizna in nasina aw akhtana mean in English?

The opening clause of the dua means “Our Lord, do not hold us accountable if we forget or make mistakes.” The full ayah (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286) opens with the theological premise “Allah does not burden a soul with more than it can bear” and then proceeds through six petitions: forgiveness for forgetfulness and error, protection from burdens like those laid on earlier nations, protection from what cannot be borne, pardon, forgiveness, mercy, and victory over the disbelieving people.

Which surah and ayah is Rabbana la tuakhizna from?

The dua is from Surah Al-Baqarah — ayah 286, the final verse of the second and longest surah of the Quran. It is the closing portion of the verse, after the opening declaration that Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. Together with ayah 285, it forms what the Sunnah calls “the last two verses of Surah Al-Baqarah,” the subject of multiple authentic hadiths on night recitation. The older copy of this article placed the verse at 283; that was an editorial error — the correct reference is 286.

What is the full dua of Rabbana la tuakhizna in Arabic?

The full dua, comprising the second half of Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286, is: “Rabbana la tuakhizna in nasina aw akhtana. Rabbana wa la tahmil ‘alayna isran kama hamaltahu ‘ala alladhina min qablina. Rabbana wa la tuhammilna ma la taqata lana bihi. Wa’fu ‘anna wa-ghfir lana wa-rhamna. Anta Mawlana fa-nsurna ‘ala al-qawm al-kafirin” — “Our Lord, do not hold us accountable if we forget or make mistakes. Our Lord, do not lay upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, do not burden us with what we have no ability to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people.”

What is Rabbana la tuakhizna in Urdu translation?

In Urdu, the opening clause is rendered as: اے ہمارے رب! اگر ہم بھول جائیں یا غلطی کر بیٹھیں تو ہم سے مؤاخذہ نہ فرما — “Aye hamare Rabb! Agar hum bhool jayein ya ghalti kar baithein to hum se mu’akhaza na farma.” The verbs translate cleanly: nasina as “bhool jayein” (we forget), akhtana as “ghalti kar baithein” (we make a mistake unintentionally), and la tuakhizna as “mu’akhaza na farma” (do not hold to account). This is the rendering used in the standard Urdu mushaf translations of Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286.

What is the benefit of reciting the last two verses of Surah Al-Baqarah at night?

The Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever recites the last two verses of Surat Al-Baqarah at night, they will suffice him” (Sahih al-Bukhari 5009; Sahih Muslim 807). Classical scholars interpret “suffice him” (kafataahu) in four complementary senses: the verses substitute for the night’s qiyam if the believer cannot pray it, they suffice as Quran recitation for the night, they protect against the shaytan, and they repel harm. Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2882 (graded Hasan) adds that no shaytan approaches a house in which these verses are recited for three nights.

What is the difference between Rabbana la tuakhizna and Rabbana zalamna anfusana?

Both are Quranic Rabbana duas for forgiveness, but they sit at different points of the believer’s relationship with sin. Rabbana la tuakhizna (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286) asks Allah not to hold the believer accountable for what was forgotten or done by mistake — lapses, not deliberate sin. Rabbana zalamna anfusana (Surah Al-A’raf 7:23) — the dua of Adam and Hawa after the slip in the garden — is the dua of owning a wrong outright: “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves; if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us we will be among the losers.” The first is the dua for unintentional error; the second is the dua for owned and admitted sin. Many believers recite both in sequence.