Duas for Righteous Children

Every believing parent carries a quiet hope: that his or her children will grow up righteous — firm in prayer, sound in character, and a comfort in this world and the next. Long before a child is born, and long after that child has grown, the strongest thing a parent can do is turn to Allah and ask. And the Quran itself teaches us how to ask. It preserves the very words with which prophets and righteous servants prayed for their children, recorded in Allah’s own Book so that we can repeat them with complete confidence.

In this article we gather four of those Quranic duas. There is the prayer of Zakariyya, who asked his Lord for a goodly progeny. There is the prayer of Ibrahim, who asked that prayer be established in himself and in his offspring. There is the prayer of the servants of the Most Merciful, who ask for spouses and children who will be the comfort of their eyes. And there is the prayer of the believer who, at forty years of age, still asks Allah to set righteousness in his progeny. Each dua is given below in its Arabic text, with its English translation, exactly as it appears in the Quran. If you would like to explore more of the prayers that Allah recorded from His prophets, you can read our collection of the duas of the prophets in the Quran.

1. What These Four Duas Have in Common

Although these four prayers come from different places in the Quran, they share a beautiful pattern. First, every one of them asks Allah directly. A righteous child is not presented as something a parent can manufacture by effort alone; it is a gift that is requested from the Giver. Zakariyya asks for a progeny “from Your own (power)” (Quran 3:38), locating the source of the gift with Allah Himself.

Second, none of these prayers asks merely for a child. Each one asks for a quality in the child. Zakariyya asks for a goodly progeny. Ibrahim asks that his offspring be steadfast in prayer. The servants of the Most Merciful ask that their children be a comfort of their eyes and that they themselves be made heads of the God-fearing. The believer in Surah Al-Ahqaf asks Allah to “set righteousness, for my sake, in my progeny” (Quran 46:15). The focus, in other words, is never on numbers, wealth, or worldly success for our children; it is on their goodness and their nearness to Allah.

Third, these prayers span the whole of a parent’s life. One is spoken by a man asking to be given a child at all. One is spoken for descendants in general. One belongs to the daily speech of righteous families. And one is spoken at the age of forty, by a man looking back at his parents and forward to his progeny in a single breath. Whatever stage of parenthood you are in, the Quran has placed a prayer for your children within your reach.

Finally, look at how these prayers end. Zakariyya ends by affirming something about Allah — “Verily, You are the One who listens to the prayer” — so his asking rests on who Allah is. Ibrahim ends with the short plea, “And, Our Lord, grant my prayer,” handing the outcome back to his Lord. The believer in Surah Al-Ahqaf ends with himself: “Of course, I repent to you, and truly I am one of those who submit to You.” Request, trust, and self-reform: the Quran’s prayers for our children carry all three together, and a parent who borrows their words borrows their endings too.

2. Zakariyya’s Dua for a Goodly Progeny (Quran 3:38)

The first dua belongs to the prophet Zakariyya. The verse opens by telling us that he turned to his Lord in prayer, and then it gives us his exact words:

هُنَالِكَ دَعَا زَكَرِيَّا رَبَّهُۥ ۖ قَالَ رَبِّ هَبْ لِى مِن لَّدُنكَ ذُرِّيَّةً طَيِّبَةً ۖ إِنَّكَ سَمِيعُ ٱلدُّعَآءِ

“Thereupon, Zakariyyā prayed to his Lord. He said: “O my Lord, grant me from Your own (power) a goodly progeny. Verily, You are the One who listens to the prayer.”” (Quran 3:38)

Notice how much is packed into this short prayer. Zakariyya asks for the child to come “from Your own (power)” — he does not rely on means or on his own situation; he presents his request to the One whose power is behind every gift. And what he asks for is not simply offspring, but “a goodly progeny”: a child characterised by goodness. From the very first moment of asking — before the child exists — his concern is the child’s righteousness.

Then he closes with a statement of complete confidence: “Verily, You are the One who listens to the prayer.” The dua does not end with anxiety or hesitation. It ends with an affirmation about Allah: He listens to the prayer of the one who calls Him. For any parent, or any person still waiting and hoping for a child, these are words worth memorising and repeating exactly as they stand: a request for a goodly progeny, made to the Lord who listens to prayer.

3. Ibrahim’s Dua: Prayer Established in His Offspring (Quran 14:40)

The second dua is the prayer of Ibrahim, and it teaches parents a memorable order of priorities:

رَبِّ ٱجْعَلْنِى مُقِيمَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِى ۚ رَبَّنَا وَتَقَبَّلْ دُعَآءِ

“My Lord, make me steadfast in Salāh, and my offspring as well. And, Our Lord, grant my prayer.” (Quran 14:40)

The first thing to notice is that Ibrahim begins with himself: “My Lord, make me steadfast in Salāh, and my offspring as well.” Before he asks anything for his descendants, he asks for his own steadfastness in prayer. A parent who wants praying children is shown, in this verse, asking first to be a praying person. The prayer for the children grows out of the prayer for oneself.

The second thing to notice is what he asks for his offspring. Faced with everything a father could wish for his descendants, the request this verse records is one thing: that they be steadfast in Salah. Prayer is placed at the head of the list, as the foundation on which a righteous life is built. Whoever establishes prayer in his children has asked for the root of their religion.

Finally, the dua ends with the words “And, Our Lord, grant my prayer” — a simple, humble closing that hands the whole request back to Allah. Ibrahim’s offspring were not only his children; the word covers descendants beyond them. When you repeat this verse, you are praying the same words for your children, and for generations you will never see.

4. The Dua of the Servants of the Most Merciful (Quran 25:74)

The third dua is not attributed to one prophet but to a whole company of people: the servants of the Most Merciful, whom the Quran describes, among their other qualities, as “those who say” this prayer:

وَٱلَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَٰجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّـٰتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ وَٱجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا

“Our Lord, Give us, from our spouses and our children, comfort of eyes, and make us heads of the God-fearing.” (Quran 25:74)

This is the one dua in our collection that brings the whole family into a single sentence. It begins with the spouses: “Give us, from our spouses and our children, comfort of eyes.” The prayer is for the home as a whole — that husband and wife, and the children given to them, should be a source of comfort to one another’s eyes: a sight that brings rest and joy rather than grief.

Then comes a request many parents forget to make for themselves: “and make us heads of the God-fearing.” The servants of the Most Merciful do not only ask that their families be righteous; they ask to be placed at the front of the God-fearing, as examples to be followed. A parent repeating this dua is asking Allah to make him or her worthy of being imitated by the very children whose righteousness is being requested.

Because this description is given in the words “those who say”, the dua is presented as their regular speech — something said again and again, not once in a lifetime. It is short, complete, and ready to become part of a parent’s daily prayers.

5. The Dua at Forty: Righteousness Set in My Progeny (Quran 46:15)

The fourth dua comes from a verse that joins two generations together. It begins with what Allah has enjoined concerning parents:

وَوَصَّيْنَا ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ بِوَٰلِدَيْهِ إِحْسَـٰنًا ۖ حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُۥ كُرْهًا وَوَضَعَتْهُ كُرْهًا ۖ وَحَمْلُهُۥ وَفِصَـٰلُهُۥ ثَلَـٰثُونَ شَهْرًا ۚ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُۥ وَبَلَغَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً قَالَ رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِىٓ أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَىَّ وَعَلَىٰ وَٰلِدَىَّ وَأَنْ أَعْمَلَ صَـٰلِحًا تَرْضَىٰهُ وَأَصْلِحْ لِى فِى ذُرِّيَّتِىٓ ۖ إِنِّى تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَإِنِّى مِنَ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ

“And We have enjoined upon man to do good to his parents. His mother carried him with difficulty and delivered him with difficulty.” (Quran 46:15)

The verse goes on to describe a person who reaches maturity and the age of forty, and at that point in life he turns to Allah with this prayer:

“My Lord, grant me that I offer gratitude for the favour You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and that I do righteous deeds that You like. And set righteousness, for my sake, in my progeny. Of course, I repent to you, and truly I am one of those who submit to You.” (Quran 46:15)

Everything in this dua deserves a parent’s attention. The speaker first asks for gratitude — gratitude for the favour bestowed on him and on his parents — so the prayer looks upward to the previous generation before it looks downward to the next. He asks for righteous deeds that Allah likes. And only then, standing on that ground, he asks: “And set righteousness, for my sake, in my progeny.” The Arabic picture carried by the translation is of righteousness being established within his descendants as something settled and lasting, granted for his sake.

This verse is a great comfort to parents whose children are no longer small. The prayer for one’s progeny is not confined to the years of expecting and raising children; the Quran places it on the lips of a person of forty, whose parents may be old or gone and whose children may already be grown. And the dua ends where every dua should end: with repentance and submission — “Of course, I repent to you, and truly I am one of those who submit to You.” The parent who prays for his children is also working on himself. For the other side of this verse’s teaching — our duties toward the parents it mentions — see our article on kindness to parents in Islam.

6. Praying for Your Children: Before They Are Born and All Your Life

Taken together, these four verses give a parent a complete pattern. Pray before your children are born, as Zakariyya did, asking Allah — from His own power — for a goodly progeny. Pray for your descendants as Ibrahim did, putting their steadfastness in prayer at the top of your requests, and beginning with your own. Make the words of the servants of the Most Merciful part of your regular speech, asking for a spouse and children who are the comfort of your eyes and for yourself to be made a head of the God-fearing. And keep praying as the years pass, as the believer of forty did, asking Allah to set righteousness in your progeny for your sake, with gratitude and repentance on your own lips.

A simple way to begin is to take these four passages themselves as your words. They need no additions; they are the duas Allah chose to preserve. Recite them in Arabic if you are able, read their meanings until they settle in your heart, and return to them whenever your children come to your mind — which, for a parent, is many times a day.

Once children are with us, our prayers for their safety join our prayers for their righteousness; you can find the duas for children’s protection gathered separately. And because Surah Al-Ahqaf joins the two directions of family dua in a single verse, many readers also turn to the dua for parents alongside this one. If your heart is drawn to the Quran’s short prayers that begin by calling on “Our Lord”, the Rabbana Atina dua is another beautiful place to continue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Which dua from the Quran is best for righteous children? The Quran records several such prayers, and any of them can be recited as they stand. Zakariyya prayed: “O my Lord, grant me from Your own (power) a goodly progeny. Verily, You are the One who listens to the prayer.” (Quran 3:38) And the servants of the Most Merciful say: “Our Lord, Give us, from our spouses and our children, comfort of eyes, and make us heads of the God-fearing.” (Quran 25:74) The four duas in this article cover a child not yet born, descendants in general, the whole family, and grown progeny.

Q2. What did Ibrahim ask for his offspring? He asked, before anything else, for prayer to be established in them: “My Lord, make me steadfast in Salāh, and my offspring as well. And, Our Lord, grant my prayer.” (Quran 14:40) Notably, he included himself in the first request — “make me steadfast in Salāh, and my offspring as well” — before closing with “And, Our Lord, grant my prayer.”

Q3. Can I pray for my children before they are born? Yes — Zakariyya’s prayer is itself a request to be given a child, and it already asks for the child’s goodness: “O my Lord, grant me from Your own (power) a goodly progeny.” (Quran 3:38) Ibrahim likewise prayed for “my offspring” — descendants who were still to come (Quran 14:40).

Q4. What do the servants of the Most Merciful ask for in Quran 25:74? The verse describes them as those who say: “Our Lord, Give us, from our spouses and our children, comfort of eyes, and make us heads of the God-fearing.” (Quran 25:74) Their prayer joins three requests: comfort of the eyes from their spouses, the same from their children, and to be made heads of the God-fearing themselves.

Q5. Is it too late to pray for my children once they are grown? The Quran places a prayer for progeny on the lips of a person who has reached forty years: “And set righteousness, for my sake, in my progeny.” (Quran 46:15) In that same verse he asks for gratitude for Allah’s favour upon him and his parents and for righteous deeds — showing that praying for one’s progeny continues throughout life, alongside gratitude and repentance.