Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum Birahmatika Astaghitsu — Meaning, Hadith & How to Recite

By Effat Saleh · Founder of islamtics · Sources: Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3524, Sunan an-Nasa’i (al-Kubrā 6/147), Mustadrak al-Hakim 1/545, Musnad Ahmad 27898, Madarij as-Salikin (Ibn al-Qayyim), at-Targhīb wa’t-Tarhīb (al-Mundhiri). · Last updated 10 May 2026

“Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum birahmatika astaghitsu” is a short, weighty supplication the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ turned to whenever a matter distressed him. It calls on Allah by two of His most majestic names — Al-Hayy (The Ever-Living) and Al-Qayyum (The Self-Sustaining Sustainer) — and asks for relief through His mercy. This page covers the exact Arabic, the chain of narration in Jami` at-Tirmidhi, scholarly authentication, the longer version taught to Fatimah (RA), and how classical scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim used it.

Pronunciation

The dua is short — five Arabic words. Phonetically: yaa-HAY-yu, yaa-qay-YOOM, bi-rah-ma-ti-ka, as-ta-GHEETH. Stress falls on the second syllable of each name (Hay-yu, qay-Yoom). The video below walks through each word slowly.

The Dua: Arabic Text and Transliteration

In Arabic

With diacritics (the form most useful for accurate recitation):

يَا حَيُّ يَا قَيُّومُ بِرَحْمَتِكَ أَسْتَغِيثُ

Without diacritics (the form you will see in most printed mushafs and digital text):

يا حي يا قيوم برحمتك أستغيث

Transliteration

Yā Ḥayyu yā Qayyūm, bi-raḥmatika astaghīth

Plain spelling: Ya Hayyu ya Qayyum, birahmatika astaghith (or astaghitsu with the Arabic case-ending pronounced).

Word-by-Word Meaning

The translation most commonly used is: “O Living, O Self-Sustaining Sustainer, in Your Mercy I seek relief.” Below is the literal breakdown so you can feel the weight each word carries.

Notice the verb astaghīth — it is not the general word for “ask” (as’al) or “supplicate” (ad’u). It is the verb a drowning person uses. The whole phrase is the cry of someone who cannot rescue themselves, addressing the only One who can.

The Hadith: Tirmidhi 3524 — Source, Chain & Authenticity

The dua is preserved in Jami` at-Tirmidhi, hadith number 3524 (Book 48, Hadith 155 / Vol. 6 Book 45, Hadith 3524), narrated by the companion Anas ibn Malik (RA) — the Prophet’s ﷺ personal servant for ten years.

Anas ibn Malik said: “Whenever a matter would distress him, the Prophet ﷺ would say: ‘Yā Ḥayyu yā Qayyūm, bi-raḥmatika astaghīth’ (O Ever-Living, O Self-Sustaining, by Your mercy I seek relief).”

Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3524

The same passage in Tirmidhi continues with a sister narration: “Be constant with: ‘Yā Dhal-Jalāli wal-Ikrām’ (O Possessor of Majesty and Honour).” The two are often quoted together because both invoke Allah by His names in moments of need.

How Scholars Graded This Hadith

The dua is preserved across multiple hadith collections through several independent chains. Below is a single-glance reference to every collection that records it, with the verdict each leading muhaddith reached.

The narrators in the most-cited Tirmidhi chain are: Muḥammad ibn Ḥātim al-Muktib → Abū Badr Shujāʿ ibn al-Walīd → al-Ruḥayl ibn Muʿāwiyah → al-Raqāshī → Anas ibn Mālik → the Prophet ﷺ. The chain is reinforced by the independent Fatimah (RA) narrations recorded by Nasa’i, al-Hakim, al-Bayhaqi, and Ahmad — and by the Greatest-Name supplication in Nasa’i 1300, in which the Prophet ﷺ confirmed that calling on Allah by al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm is calling on Him by His greatest name. Multiple paths converge on the same dua.

The Longer Version Taught to Fatimah (RA)

The Prophet ﷺ taught his daughter Fatimah (RA) a longer form of this dua to recite morning and evening. He said to her: “What could prevent you from listening to the advice I give you? You should say when morning comes and when evening comes:”

يَا حَيُّ يَا قَيُّومُ بِرَحْمَتِكَ أَسْتَغِيثُ، أَصْلِحْ لِي شَأْنِي كُلَّهُ، وَلَا تَكِلْنِي إِلَى نَفْسِي طَرْفَةَ عَيْنٍ

“Yā Ḥayyu yā Qayyūm, bi-raḥmatika astaghīth, aṣliḥ lī shaʾnī kullahu, wa lā takilnī ilā nafsī ṭarfata ʿayn.”

Translation: “O Ever-Living, O Self-Sustaining, by Your mercy I seek relief. Rectify all my affairs, and do not leave me to myself even for the blink of an eye.”

This longer version is recorded across at least six classical collections: Sunan an-Nasa’i (as-Sunan al-Kubrā 6/147 and ʿAmal al-Yawm wa’l-Laylah no. 46), Mustadrak al-Hakim (1/545 and 1/730), al-Bayhaqi‘s al-Asmā’ wa’ṣ-Ṣifāt (no. 112) and Shu`ab al-Iman (760-761), Sunan Abu Dawud 5090, and Musnad Ahmad 27898. Its chain was graded ṣaḥīḥ by Imam al-Hakim (with al-Dhahabi agreeing) and by al-Mundhiri in at-Targhīb wa’t-Tarhīb, and ḥasan by Sheikh al-Albani in Sahih at-Targhīb 1/273. Multiple independent chains, all converging on a sahih or hasan verdict — see the cross-collection table above.

Two phrases at the end repay attention. “Aṣliḥ lī shaʾnī kullahu” asks Allah to put right every single one of your affairs — nothing excluded. “Wa lā takilnī ilā nafsī ṭarfata ʿayn” asks Him to never hand you over to your own self for as long as it takes an eye to blink. Together they confess total dependence: I cannot manage even an instant of my life without You.

Al-Hayy + Al-Qayyum: Why These Two Names Together?

This pairing is not random. Al-Hayy and Al-Qayyum appear together in only three verses of the entire Quran — and each of those verses is a high point of the surah it sits in:

1. Surah al-Baqarah 2:255 — Ayat al-Kursi, the greatest verse of the Quran.
2. Surah Aal `Imran 3:2 — opening declaration of the surah.
3. Surah Ta-Ha 20:111 — describing every face humbled before Him on the Day of Judgement.

Each verse opens with the same phrase: “Allāhu lā ilāha illā huwa, al-Ḥayyu al-Qayyūm” — “Allah, there is no god but He, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining.” Calling Allah by both names invokes the same combination the Quran itself uses for its most majestic statements about His being.

Al-Ḥayy — The Ever-Living

From the root ḥ-y-y (to live, preserve life, be sound and whole). Allah’s life is uncreated, unending, complete in itself, and not borrowed from anything outside Him. Ibn al-Qayyim wrote in Madarij as-Salikin: “Every divine attribute flows from these two names, and Al-Ḥayy is the foundation from which every other divine attribute flows.”

Al-Qayyūm — The Self-Sustaining Sustainer

From the root q-w-m (to stand, rise, manage, sustain). Al-Qayyum is the One who stands by Himself — needing nothing — and at the same time the One by whom everything else stands. Every breath, heartbeat, atom of your body, and event in your life is being actively held in existence by Him right now.

So when you say Yā Ḥayyu yā Qayyūm, you are simultaneously affirming two things: Allah’s intrinsic, eternal perfection (Al-Hayy) and His active, moment-by-moment management of your situation right now (Al-Qayyum). One name without the other would not be enough. Calling on Al-Hayy alone affirms eternity; adding Al-Qayyum binds that eternity to your affairs in this very minute. That is why the Prophet ﷺ reached for this exact pairing whenever distress weighed on him.

Is This Allah’s Greatest Name? Ibn Taymiyyah’s 40x After Fajr

A well-known hadith in Sunan an-Nasa’i 1300 reports that the Prophet ﷺ heard a man supplicating with a phrase containing Al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm and said that the man had asked Allah by His Greatest Name (Ism al-Aʿẓam) — “the name by which when He is asked, He gives, and when He is called upon, He answers.” Three of the most influential classical scholars — Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Taymiyyah, and Ibn Kathir — held that this pairing is among the strongest candidates for the Greatest Name of Allah.

Ibn al-Qayyim records in Madarij as-Salikin that his teacher Ibn Taymiyyah personally recited the related form “Yā Ḥayyu yā Qayyūm, lā ilāha illā ant” (O Ever-Living, O Self-Sustaining, there is no god but You) 40 times after the two-rakah Sunnah of Fajr and before the Fard prayer. Ibn al-Qayyim describes the practice as having “an astonishing effect in reviving the heart.”

Two notes for the cautious reader. First, the 40-times count is Ibn Taymiyyah’s personal practice (wazifa) drawn from the strength of the names, not a fixed number prescribed by the Prophet ﷺ in any single hadith. Second, the dua of Tirmidhi 3524 itself sets no fixed count — Anas (RA) only says the Prophet ﷺ would say it whenever distressed. Both are valid; neither is a binding sunnah of repetition.

Three Forms of This Dua at a Glance

Across the prophetic and scholarly tradition, the same opening (Yā Ḥayyu yā Qayyūm) appears in three distinct supplications, each with its own occasion, source, and authentication. Most online sources conflate them; the table below keeps them separate so you can recite each one in its proper context.

Memorise the short form first — it is the lightest to carry into a hard moment. Add the Fatimah extension to your morning and evening adhkar when you are settled. The 40-times Greatest-Name practice is optional; it is the one form that comes from a scholar’s wazifa rather than directly from a single hadith.

When and How to Recite

There are four well-attested settings for this dua in the prophetic and scholarly tradition:

• Whenever distress strikes — the original Tirmidhi 3524 context. Any time a matter weighs on you: a sickness, a difficult decision, news that shakes you, a fear about the future. Say it once with full presence and meaning, then repeat as long as the weight remains.
• Morning and evening — using the longer version taught to Fatimah (RA). Add it to your existing adhkar after Fajr and before Maghrib.
• After the Sunnah of Fajr, 40 times — Ibn Taymiyyah’s practice for spiritual revival, using the form “Yā Ḥayyu yā Qayyūm, lā ilāha illā ant.”
• In Tahajjud and in sujood — the Prophet ﷺ encouraged supplication during the last third of the night and within prostration; this dua fits both, since it is short, weighty, and addresses Allah by name.

How to recite it well: pause before you start, recall what the two names mean, picture your situation in your hand and Allah’s mercy as the only thing that can lift it. Then say the words slowly. The dua is short on purpose — there is nothing in it but Allah’s name and your need.

Benefits of This Dua

Because the dua is the Prophet’s ﷺ own choice in moments of distress, its benefits are exactly what its words promise:

• It is a direct request for relief from distress, hardship, and the weight of any matter that troubles you — using the verb astaghīth, the cry for rescue.
• It invokes Allah’s mercy as the means (bi-raḥmatika) — and Allah’s mercy, the Quran teaches, encompasses all things (Surah al-A`raf 7:156).
• It calls Allah by two of His greatest names, which scholars hold to be among the candidates for Ism al-Aʿẓam (the Greatest Name) — duas made through this Name are answered.
• It draws you closer to Allah by acknowledging total dependence — the most beloved posture a servant can take, as Ibn al-Qayyim writes: “The most perfect of people is the one most aware of utter need for his Lord.”
• It is a sunnah — reciting it earns the reward of following the Prophet’s ﷺ practice in addition to whatever Allah grants in answer.

Related Prophetic Duas for Distress

The Prophet ﷺ taught several duas for hardship; learn them as a small toolkit you can reach for in different moments. The closest companions of Yā Ḥayyu yā Qayyūm are:

• Yā Dhal-Jalāli wal-Ikrām (“O Possessor of Majesty and Honour”) — paired with our dua in the same Tirmidhi passage; the Prophet ﷺ said: “Be constant with it.”
• The Dua of Yunus (“Lā ilāha illā anta, subḥānaka, innī kuntu mina-ẓ-ẓālimīn”) — recited from the belly of the whale; the Prophet ﷺ said no Muslim invokes Allah with it for any matter without being answered.
• Allāhumma raḥmataka arjū (“O Allah, for Your mercy I hope, do not leave me to myself for the blink of an eye, and rectify all my affairs”) — narrated by Abu Bakrah (RA), graded hasan by Albani in Sahih al-Jāmi`.
• For ongoing emotional weight, see our collection of Quranic and prophetic duas for anxiety, depression, and stress.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum birahmatika astaghitsu” mean in English?

It means “O Ever-Living, O Self-Sustaining, by Your mercy I seek relief.” The Prophet ﷺ used it to ask Allah for rescue from distress through His mercy, calling Him by two of His most majestic names — Al-Hayy (The Ever-Living) and Al-Qayyum (The Self-Sustaining). It is recorded in Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3524.

Is the hadith of Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum authentic?

Yes. Imam at-Tirmidhi classed the chain as gharīb (rare, narrated through one chain), and Sheikh al-Albani graded it ḥasan (good) in Silsilah aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥah no. 227, as did the Darussalam editors of Tirmidhi. The longer Fatimah-version of the same dua was graded ṣaḥīḥ by Imam al-Hakim and al-Mundhiri, and ḥasan by al-Albani.

When should I recite this dua?

The original prophetic context is any moment of distress — that is the setting Anas ibn Malik (RA) describes in Tirmidhi 3524. The longer version was prescribed for morning and evening as part of daily adhkar. It is also appropriate in sujood, in the last third of the night during Tahajjud, and after the Sunnah of Fajr (Ibn Taymiyyah’s 40-times practice).

How many times should I recite Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum?

There is no fixed number in the original hadith. Anas (RA) says only that the Prophet ﷺ would recite it whenever a matter distressed him — once with full presence is enough; repetition is encouraged when the distress lingers. The well-known 40-times after Fajr figure comes from Ibn Taymiyyah’s personal practice recorded by Ibn al-Qayyim in Madarij as-Salikin, not from a binding sunnah of repetition.

Is Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum the Greatest Name of Allah (Ism al-A`zam)?

Three classical scholars — Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Taymiyyah, and Ibn Kathir — held that the pairing of Al-Hayy and Al-Qayyum is among the strongest candidates for the Greatest Name. Their evidence is a hadith in Sunan an-Nasa’i 1300 in which the Prophet ﷺ confirmed that a man supplicating with this combination had asked Allah by His Greatest Name. Other scholars hold different candidates, but this view is well-evidenced.

What did the Prophet ﷺ teach Fatimah (RA) about this dua?

He taught her a longer form to recite morning and evening: “Yā Ḥayyu yā Qayyūm, bi-raḥmatika astaghīth, aṣliḥ lī shaʾnī kullahu, wa lā takilnī ilā nafsī ṭarfata ʿayn” — “O Ever-Living, O Self-Sustaining, by Your mercy I seek relief; rectify all my affairs and do not leave me to myself even for the blink of an eye.” It is recorded in Sunan an-Nasa’i (al-Kubrā), Mustadrak al-Hakim, and al-Bayhaqi‘s al-Asmā’ wa’ṣ-Ṣifāt.

Memorise the short form first; carry it with you for the moment a matter distresses you. Add the longer Fatimah version to your morning and evening adhkar when you are ready. The Prophet ﷺ chose these exact words for himself in his hardest moments — choose them too.