The phrases · 3 min read
The dua of Yunus
This is the supplication of Yunus (peace be upon him), called Dhun-Nun, said from inside the fish.
It has two separate sources, and most pages merge them into one.
The supplication is a verse of the Qur'an. The hadith is a different thing: a report about it.
The two sources, kept apart
This distinction matters, and getting it wrong is the most common error on this topic.
- Quran 21:87, Surah al-Anbiya. The supplication itself is here, inside the account of Yunus.
- Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3505, graded sahih in the Darussalam edition. This is the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ names it the supplication of Dhun-Nun and says that no Muslim supplicates with it for anything except that Allah answers him. It is narrated through Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin Sa'd, from his father, from Sa'd.
How to state it correctly
Do not write that the supplication of Yunus is in Tirmidhi 3505. That is not right.
The supplication is in the Qur'an. Tirmidhi 3505 is the Prophet ﷺ speaking about it.
Both are worth citing. Merging them is the small referencing error that spreads across page after page.
The three parts of the phrase
The wording holds three things in one short line.
There is no god but You: an affirmation. Glory be to You: Allah is beyond any wrong. I was among the wrongdoers: an admission.
Notice what is absent. It asks for nothing. It states who Allah is and what the speaker is, and leaves the need unnamed.
The Arabic, transliteration and meaning are on the counter under this preset with the source attached.
The narrative setting of Yunus
The setting is the reason the wording carries what it does.
Yunus was in the dark of the night, the dark of the sea and the dark of the fish, having left his people without permission. He said this, and he was answered.
The verse that follows the supplication in Surah al-Anbiya states that Allah responded and delivered him, and that believers are delivered in the same way.
Is there a count?
No number is narrated, in the verse or in Tirmidhi 3505.
Counts attached to it elsewhere, 40 in sujud, a hundred a day, a thousand across 40 nights, come from neither source.
Say it as often as the situation asks. How to test a count you have been sent is on dhikr for rizq, shifa and hajat.
It is a verse, which changes one thing
Because the supplication is Qur'an, the discussion about reciting Qur'an in major ritual impurity reaches it in a way it does not reach ordinary dhikr.
The same applies to Hasbunallahu wa ni'mal-wakeel, which is Quran 3:173.
The general position on dhikr and purity is on do you need wudu for dhikr.
Where to go next
For every phrase with its source and count, see what to say on a tasbih.
For the other Qur'anic phrase counted as dhikr, see hasbunallahu wa ni'mal-wakeel.