What is istighfar?
Istighfar is the act of asking Allah for forgiveness. The word comes from the Arabic root gh–f–r, which means to cover or conceal, so to seek forgiveness is to ask that a fault be covered over. Its everyday form is the phrase astaghfirullah — “I seek forgiveness from Allah.”
Istighfar belongs to the wider practice of dhikr, the remembrance of Allah, but it has a particular shape. Dhikr can be praise, or thanks, or a declaration of what is true. Istighfar is a request, and what is requested is that Allah cover a fault and forgive it.
It is not reserved for great sins or for moments of crisis. The narrations describe it as something the Prophet ﷺ did through an ordinary day, and in large numbers.
“By Allah! I ask for forgiveness from Allah and turn to Him in repentance more than seventy times a day.”
What that establishes is frequency and ordinariness: istighfar as a habit of speech rather than an emergency measure. The word is also flexible in length — it can be a single phrase, or the long supplication the Prophet ﷺ called sayyid al-istighfār. All of it is istighfar. The sections below take the word, the forms, the numbers, and the times in turn.
The word itself
Arabic builds most of its vocabulary from three-letter roots, and istighfar is a clear case. The root is gh–f–r (غ‑ف‑ر), and its basic sense is covering. A mighfar is a helmet — the thing that covers the head. From the same root comes maghfira, forgiveness: not so much the erasure of a fault as the covering of it, so that it no longer exposes the one who committed it.
That root is then set in a pattern, and Arabic patterns carry meaning of their own. The pattern here is istafʿala, which turns a root into a request for the thing the root names. Put gh–f–r into istafʿala and you get istaghfara: to ask for covering, to seek forgiveness. Its verbal noun is istighfār, and its first-person present is astaghfiru — “I seek forgiveness.” Name the One being asked and the everyday phrase is complete: astaghfirullāh.
Two things follow from the shape of the word. First, istighfar is grammatically a request rather than a statement: saying it is asking, not announcing. Second, because the root means covering rather than deleting, what is asked for is not that the past be rewritten but that it be veiled by the only One entitled to veil it. The Qur’an states that second point directly, in the middle of a verse describing people who seek forgiveness:
“And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves, remember Allāh and seek forgiveness for their sins — and who can forgive sins except Allāh?”
The verse is worth reading for what it does and does not say. It describes the people — they remember Allah, they ask, and they do not persist knowingly — and it asserts that no one forgives sins but Allah. It attaches no reward of its own; that comes in the verse after it.
The forms of istighfar
The app’s library keeps six formulas. Each has its own page with the full text, transliteration, meaning and source; what follows is what distinguishes them from one another.
The sixth is the longest, and the only one the Prophet ﷺ gave a name of its own.
“If somebody recites it during the day with firm faith in it, and dies on the same day before the evening, he will be from the people of Paradise; and if somebody recites it at night with firm faith in it, and dies before the morning, he will be from the people of Paradise.”
That is the whole of what the narration promises, and this page does not extend it. The full text is on its own page, taken verbatim from the app’s library.
How many times a day?
Two narrations give numbers, and they give different ones. Abū Hurayra’s report, quoted above, puts it at more than seventy times a day (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6307). Al-Agharr al-Muzanī reports a different wording, with a different figure:
“There is (at times) some sort of shade upon my heart, and I seek forgiveness from Allah a hundred times a day.”
Muslim places that narration in a chapter titled “It is recommended to pray for forgiveness a great deal,” which is a fair summary of what both reports establish together. Neither states an upper limit, and no source ranks one figure above the other. A hundred is the number people most often adopt as a daily target, because it is the round one and it is the one stated in Muslim.
The figure matters less than the habit it protects. A number is a way of making sure the practice happens at all, which is the only reason a counter is useful: it holds the count so attention can stay on the words.
Istighfar in the Qur’an
The Qur’an returns to istighfar often, and — this is the striking part — it repeatedly attaches worldly consequences to it, not only forgiveness. The clearest passage is Nūḥ’s call to his people.
“And said, “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 and provide for you gardens and provide for you rivers.””
In Sūrat Nūḥ, seeking forgiveness is linked to rain in continuing showers, to increase in wealth and in children, and to gardens and rivers. Those four are what the passage names; it names nothing else. The prophet Hūd makes a similar call to his own people, and the outcomes named there are rain and strength:
“And O my people, ask forgiveness of your Lord and then repent to Him. He will send [rain from] the sky upon you in showers and increase you in strength [added] to your strength.”
The same sūrah opens with the pairing put as a command, and attaches to it a good provision for an appointed term:
“And [saying], “Seek forgiveness of your Lord and repent to Him, [and] He will let you enjoy a good provision for a specified term and give every doer of favor his favor.””
And in Sūrat al-Anfāl the link runs the other way — not a benefit granted but a punishment withheld:
“And Allāh would not punish them while they seek forgiveness.”
Read together these verses do something specific: they tie istighfar to the ordinary conditions of a life — water, provision, offspring, strength, safety — rather than to the next world alone. What they do not do is offer a checklist. Each outcome belongs to the verse that names it, in the context that verse describes, which is why this page attributes each one rather than collecting them into a list of benefits.
When it is recited
Istighfar has no fixed hour — it is a phrase, and a phrase can be said at any time. The sources do, however, mark a few moments.
After the prayer. Thawbān reported the Prophet’s ﷺ practice on finishing the ṣalāh:
“When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished his prayer, he begged forgiveness three times and said: “O Allah! You are Peace, and peace comes from You…””
By day or by night. The reward stated for sayyid al-istighfār in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6306 is framed around those two windows — said during the day, or said at night — which is why it is commonly kept as a morning and evening supplication.
Before dawn. Among the qualities the Qur’an praises is seeking forgiveness in the last hours of the night:
“…and those who seek forgiveness before dawn.”
Beyond these, the sources cited on this page do not fix particular times, and this page does not invent any. The general instruction in the narrations is quantity and regularity rather than scheduling — which, in practice, means the moment you notice the need for it.
Questions people ask
What does astaghfirullah mean?
Astaghfirullah means “I seek forgiveness from Allah.” It is built on the Arabic root gh–f–r — to cover, to shield, to forgive — placed in the pattern istafʿala, which turns a root into a request. So the word is literally a request that Allah cover and forgive a fault.
How many times a day should you say astaghfirullah?
The Sunnah gives two figures rather than a rule. Abū Hurayra narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said he sought Allah’s forgiveness and repented more than seventy times a day (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6307), and al-Agharr al-Muzanī narrated that he said he sought forgiveness a hundred times a day (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2702a). Many people take a hundred as a daily figure for that reason.
What is the best form of istighfar?
The Prophet ﷺ called one supplication sayyid al-istighfār — the master of seeking forgiveness — and it is reported in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6306. Beyond that, the sources do not rank the shorter forms against each other. The plain phrase astaghfirullah is the one most people keep on the tongue through the day.
What is Sayyid al-Istighfar?
Sayyid al-Istighfār is the supplication beginning “O Allah, You are my Lord; there is no god but You. You created me and I am Your servant…”, narrated by Shaddād ibn Aws in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6306. In the same narration the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever says it during the day with firm faith and dies before evening, or says it at night and dies before morning, will be among the people of Paradise.
Is istighfar the same as tawbah?
They are close but not identical. Istighfār is the asking — seeking that a fault be covered and forgiven. Tawbah is the turning back itself. The Qur’an repeatedly pairs them in that order: “Seek forgiveness of your Lord and then repent to Him” (Hūd 11:3 and 11:52). The fuller everyday phrase joins them too: astaghfirullāh wa atūbu ilayh — “I seek forgiveness from Allah and I repent to Him.”
Our sourcing standard
Everything on this page is traced to a source. Qur’anic verses are quoted with their sūrah and verse numbers; the narrations are taken from Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and cited by their exact numbers, each one read on sunnah.com before it was published here. Where a virtue is mentioned it is the virtue that verse or narration itself states, attributed on the spot rather than gathered into a list of benefits. Popular stories about istighfar that carry no verifiable chain — including the widely circulated account of Imam Ahmad and the baker — are deliberately left out.
Counting your istighfar
Keeping the count is what frees the attention to stay on the words — the same thing tasbih beads were always for. Istighfar is a free istighfar counter and dhikr counter, a digital tasbih for iOS and Android: no ads, no account, no tracking, and it works fully offline. Every formula in its library is one of those quoted above, with Arabic, transliteration, meaning and source.