Best Times for Dua to Be Accepted (Only What the Authentic Texts Say)

Search for the best times for dua to be accepted and you will find lists of twenty, thirty, sometimes forty moments, most with no hadith number and no grading. Strip those down to what is actually established in the Quran and the authentic hadith, and a shorter list remains. It is also a more usable one. This guide gives each time with its source (book and hadith number), notes the grading wherever the hadith is outside Bukhari and Muslim, and says plainly what the texts do not claim. That includes a question many people ask about Al-Aqsa.

Best times for dua to be accepted at a glance

Short answer: the times established by authentic texts are the last third of the night, between the adhan and the iqama, sujood, the end of the prayer before the salam, and the hour on Friday. Acceptance is also hoped for in the dua of the oppressed, the traveller and the parent. None of the texts guarantees a particular outcome; the answer is Allah's.

Best times for dua to be accepted: start with the rule

Before the times, the rule. Nothing in the texts makes dua conditional on a clock. Allah says:

"When My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls upon Me." (Quran 2:186)

"Your Lord says: Call upon Me, I will respond to you." (Quran 40:60)

The times below are moments when acceptance is especially hoped for. They are not the only moments. Missing one of them does not close the door. For general manners of dua, see the etiquette of dua and the benefits of dua.

The last third of the night

This is the best known of the best times for dua to be accepted, and the report is agreed upon. Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Our Lord, blessed and exalted, descends every night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains, and says: Who calls upon Me, that I may answer him? Who asks Me, that I may give him? Who seeks My forgiveness, that I may forgive him?"

Sahih al-Bukhari 1145; Sahih Muslim 758

Muslim also records from Jabir that the Prophet ﷺ said there is an hour every night in which a Muslim who asks Allah for good in this world and the next is given it (Sahih Muslim 757). The descent is affirmed as reported, in a manner that suits Allah's majesty, without asking how.

How do you find the last third? The night runs from sunset (Maghrib) to Fajr. As an illustration with made-up numbers: if Maghrib is at 5:30 pm and Fajr at 5:00 am, the night is 11.5 hours, a third of that is about 3 hours 50 minutes, and the last third begins around 1:10 am. The real figures change with the season and the city, so use your local prayer timetable. If a full night prayer is out of reach, waking shortly before Fajr for wudu, two rakat and a short dua still falls inside this window.

Between the adhan and the iqama

It is short, it comes five times a day, and it is usually lost to a phone screen. Anas reported that the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Dua is not rejected between the adhan and the iqama."

Sunan Abi Dawud 521; Jami at-Tirmidhi 212. Tirmidhi called it hasan; al-Albani graded it sahih.

No late night and no preparation needed. After repeating the adhan, the gap before the iqama is enough for a brief dua.

In sujood and before the salam

The instruction here could not be more direct:

"The closest a servant is to his Lord is when he is in prostration, so increase your dua."

Sahih Muslim 482 (Abu Hurayrah)

There is a second place inside the prayer. After teaching the companions the tashahhud, the Prophet ﷺ said that the one praying should then "choose whatever supplication he likes and make it" (Sahih al-Bukhari 835, from Ibn Mas'ud). So every prayer, obligatory or voluntary, carries two openings for dua.

Friday's hour

The authentic reports agree that Friday contains an hour of acceptance:

"In it there is an hour in which no Muslim servant stands in prayer asking Allah for something except that He gives it to him."

Sahih al-Bukhari 935; Sahih Muslim 852 (Abu Hurayrah)

Which hour it is, the authentic reports do not settle in one wording, and each has support:

The careful approach is to hold on to both: dua during the khutbah and prayer in a way that does not distract from listening, and a quiet sitting in the last hour before Maghrib.

Conditions that favour acceptance

Some texts tie acceptance to the person making the dua, not the hour:

In practice that makes even a short work trip a moment for dua. The last report is also a reminder to parents to choose their words, so that no dua against a child escapes in a moment of anger.

What holds acceptance back

The texts do not list the times apart from the conditions. They put them together.

Haram earnings. The Prophet ﷺ mentioned a man on a long journey, dishevelled and dusty, raising his hands to the sky saying "O Lord, O Lord", "while his food is haram, his drink is haram, his clothing is haram, and he was nourished on the haram, so how can his dua be answered?" (Sahih Muslim 1015). The hadith does not say such a dua is certainly rejected. It says acceptance is far from that state, which is warning enough.

Impatience. "The dua of any of you is answered as long as he does not grow impatient, saying: I made dua and it was not answered" (Sahih al-Bukhari 6340; Sahih Muslim 2735). Someone who prays in the last third for three nights and then stops because nothing changed has done exactly what this hadith warns about. More on persistence in how to ask for dua.

None of the texts quoted here attaches a guarantee of a particular outcome. What is answered and in what form is with Allah.

Is there a special rule for dua at Al-Aqsa?

People ask this often, and the answer needs precision. What is established about Al-Aqsa:

We did not find an authentic text that makes dua at Al-Aqsa answered faster by a set measure, or that guarantees an answer there. The multiplication of prayer in the mosque by a specific number rests on narrations that scholars disagree about, so we give no number. Its standing is firm. The times in this article apply wherever the person is. For more on that standing, see why Al-Aqsa matters.

Making dua for someone in their absence

One text bridges everything above and the situation of someone who cannot be at a particular place. Umm ad-Darda reported that the Prophet ﷺ said:

"The dua of a Muslim for his brother in his absence is answered. At his head is an appointed angel; whenever he makes dua for good for his brother, the angel says: Ameen, and the same for you."

Sahih Muslim 2733

And the report of Uways al-Qarani shows that asking another person for dua is legitimate. Umar reported that the Prophet ﷺ said of Uways: "If he is able to seek forgiveness for you, then do so," so Umar asked him: "Seek forgiveness for me" (Sahih Muslim 2542).

That is the idea behind Al-Aqsa Blessings: a personal dua made for you by name, recorded on video at Al-Aqsa and sent to your inbox within 48 to 72 hours, starting at $29.90 for one dua. It is a dua made for you by name. It does not replace your own dua at the times above, and it makes no promise of an outcome, because the answer is Allah's alone. If you want to pray for a sick relative, for provision or for family, see also dua for health, dua for rizq and dua for family. More detail: asking for dua at Al-Aqsa on someone's behalf.

A simple plan for an ordinary week

You do not need every time at once. This is enough:

Sources