Practice · 3 min read
Morning and evening adhkar
Most lists of morning and evening adhkar run to thirty or forty items, mixing authentic narrations with weak ones and giving no references for either.
This one is eight, and every item carries its collection, its hadith number and its narrated count.
Short and traceable is more useful than long and unsourced. If you want more later, you can add to a list you can check.
The eight
Said once in the morning and once in the evening unless a different count is given.
The Arabic, transliteration and meaning for several of these are on the counter, where each preset shows its own source.
- The three Quls — Surah al-Ikhlas, al-Falaq and an-Nas, three times each. Sunan Abi Dawud 5082, Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3575.
- Bismillahi alladhi la yadurru ma'a ismihi shay' — three times. Sunan Abi Dawud 5088, Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3388. Graded sahih by al-Albani.
- Sayyid al-Istighfar — the master supplication of seeking forgiveness, once. Sahih al-Bukhari 6306.
- SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi — one hundred times. Sahih Muslim 2692, which names morning and evening specifically.
- Allahumma bika asbahna in the morning, Allahumma bika amsayna in the evening — once. Sunan Abi Dawud 5068, Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3391.
- Allahumma inni as'aluka al-'afwa wal-'afiyah — once. Sunan Abi Dawud 5074.
- A'udhu bi kalimatillahi at-tammati min sharri ma khalaq — three times in the evening. Sahih Muslim 2709.
- Raditu billahi Rabban, wa bil-Islami dinan, wa bi-Muhammadin nabiyyan — three times. Musnad Ahmad 18967, with supporting routes.
Why this list is short
Because the long lists are where weak narrations travel.
A list of forty adhkar with no references cannot be checked by the person using it, and a weak narration sitting between two sahih ones inherits their credibility.
Eight items that you can verify is a better starting point than forty you cannot.
Two of the above carry an explicit count in the narration — a hundred for SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi, three for several others. The rest are said once.
When is morning and when is evening?
The general practice is after Fajr for the morning and after Asr for the evening.
Scholars discuss the exact windows, and there is room in them. Saying them late is better than not saying them.
Nothing here is obligatory, and there is no qada for a missed morning.
About the longer lists
This page is not saying that everything outside these eight is weak. A good deal of it is sound.
The problem is presentation: lists that give no source cannot be told apart from lists that invented their contents.
If a list you have been given carries collections, numbers and gradings, it can be checked and used. If it carries none, the three questions on dhikr for rizq, shifa and hajat will sort most of it out.
Where to go next
For every phrase this site carries with its source, see what to say on a tasbih.
For the dhikr after each fard prayer, which is separate from the morning and evening set, see dhikr after salah.