La Ilaha Illa Anta Subhanaka: The Dua of Yunus That Is Never Rejected

There is a supplication in Islam that contains no request at all. Read it closely and you will find no petition in it — no provision is asked for, no healing, no rescue, not even forgiveness is named outright. It is three short statements placed side by side: a declaration that none is worthy of worship but Allah, a declaration of His glory and purity, and a confession of the caller’s own wrongdoing. And yet the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ attached to this request-less call one of the most complete promises of answered prayer that he ever gave to his ummah.

The call is the dua of the prophet Yunus, peace be upon him, known by its opening words: la ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu minaz-zalimin. He made it from a place no other worshipper has ever prayed from — inside a whale, beneath the sea, in layers of darkness. On this site we have gathered the duas of the prophets in the Quran together in one survey. This article does the opposite of a survey. It stays with this single call from beginning to end: where it was spoken, what each of its three parts says, and why the Prophet ﷺ promised that whoever makes it is answered.

1. The Prophet ﷺ Singled Out This Call

Many duas reach us as words the Prophet ﷺ himself used or taught. This one reaches us differently. He pointed back to the call of an earlier prophet, spoken in the depths of the sea, and told his own followers that the call now belongs to them — and that it carries a guarantee. The narration is reported by Sa`d:

“The supplication of Dhun-Nun (Prophet Yunus) when he supplicated, while in the belly of the whale was: ‘There is none worthy of worship except You, Glory to You, Indeed, I have been of the transgressors. (Lā ilāha illā anta subḥānaka innī kuntu minaẓ-ẓālimīn)'” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3505 — Sahih)

Notice what the Prophet ﷺ is doing here. He does not merely praise Yunus or retell his story. He quotes the exact words of the call and names the exact circumstance in which they were spoken — while in the belly of the whale. The words are handed over to the ummah as a usable supplication, not preserved as a museum piece of prophetic history. Then he adds the sentence that makes this hadith one of the most quoted in the entire literature of dua:

“So indeed, no Muslim man supplicates with it for anything, ever, except Allah responds to him.” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3505 — Sahih)

Every word of that sentence deserves weight. It is not restricted to one kind of need: it says for anything. It is not restricted to one occasion or one era: it says ever. And the response is not described as possible or likely — the sentence is built so that the answer is the rule and there is no exception to it. A call made by a prophet in the most hopeless physical situation imaginable is declared, by the last Prophet ﷺ, to be a call that Allah answers whenever any Muslim makes it, for anything at all. The rest of this article unpacks why: the scene, and then the three parts of the call itself.

2. The Scene in the Quran: A Call Made in Depths of Darkness

The Quran itself records the call, in Surah Al-Anbiya. Allah introduces Yunus by the same title the hadith uses — Dhun-Nun, the man of the fish — and He does not hide the prophet’s failing before He honours his words:

وَذَا ٱلنُّونِ إِذ ذَّهَبَ مُغَـٰضِبًا فَظَنَّ أَن لَّن نَّقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ فَنَادَىٰ فِى ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ أَن لَّآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّآ أَنتَ سُبْحَـٰنَكَ إِنِّى كُنتُ مِنَ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“And (remember) Dhunnūn (the man of the fish, … when he walked away in anger and thought that We would never put him to trouble. Then, he called (Us) in depths of darkness saying, “There is no god but You. Pure are You. Indeed I was among the wrongdoers”” (Quran 21:87)

The verse is honest about how the crisis began. Yunus walked away in anger, and he thought that We would never put him to trouble — he did not expect to be taken to account, contained, and answered by events. Then the situation closed over him completely, and from inside it he called. The Quran’s phrase for his location is worth sitting with: he called in depths of darkness. Not one darkness but depths of it — the darkness of the night, the darkness of the sea, and the darkness of the whale’s belly, gathered over one man who could see nothing, reach no one, and do nothing except call.

This is part of why the dua has carried such weight for believers ever since. Most people who reach for it are not in physical darkness, but they recognise the description. A debt that has closed over a household, a diagnosis, a sin that has been repeated until it feels like a sealed room — these are depths of darkness in their own way. The Quran chose to preserve, out of everything Yunus might have said, this single call made from that place. And the hadith in the previous section tells us that the door he found from inside the whale is open to every Muslim who calls with the same words.

3. The First Part: None Is Worthy of Worship Except You

The call begins with the greatest sentence a tongue can say:

“There is none worthy of worship except You” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3505 — Sahih)

The Quran’s own wording of the same opening runs:

“There is no god but You” (Quran 21:87)

Consider the setting in which this sentence was first spoken. Yunus did not say it on a pulpit or in a gathering of believers. He said it when every visible means of rescue had vanished. There was no boat, no shore, no companion — nothing between him and destruction except the One he was calling. In that moment his call did not begin with his problem. It began with Allah: with who Allah is, and with the confession that there is no god, no refuge, and no rescuer besides Him. Tawhid, the declaration of Allah’s oneness, is the foundation of every answered dua, and Yunus placed it first — before his confession, before any request, before everything.

There is a lesson in that order for anyone who supplicates. A heart that begins by settling who its Lord is — that He alone is worthy of worship, that He alone is turned to — has already answered the most important question of the dua before the need is even mentioned. Yunus’s circumstances were screaming that he was finished; his opening words declared that Allah alone decides that. Whoever makes this call today makes the same declaration over his own darkness: the situation is real, but it is not god. Allah is.

4. The Second Part: Glory to You, Pure Are You

The second movement of the call turns from Allah’s oneness to Allah’s perfection:

“Glory to You” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3505 — Sahih)

“Pure are You” (Quran 21:87)

Subhanaka — glory to You, purity belongs to You — declares that Allah is utterly free of every defect, every injustice, and every mistake. Placed where Yunus placed it, this is a profound sentence. A prophet sat inside a whale because of a chain of events he had set in motion himself, and the second thing out of his mouth was not a complaint about his situation. It was the declaration that Allah is pure — that nothing unjust or wrong can be attributed to Him, that whatever has befallen the caller, Allah is above all blame for it.

This ordering protects the supplicant’s heart. Distress constantly tempts a person to think badly of his Lord: to feel singled out, punished unfairly, or forgotten. Yunus shut that door before it opened. By declaring Allah pure and glorious in the middle of the darkness, he assigned the wrong to its correct address — himself — and kept his Lord’s perfection untouched. That is why the very next words of the call are a confession. Glorification and confession belong together: once a man has said, truthfully, that Allah is pure of all wrong, the only place left for the wrong to sit is with him.

For the one who repeats this dua today, this part is not a decorative praise inserted between the meaningful bits. It is the caller’s verdict on the whole affair, spoken in advance: Allah has done no wrong; glory and purity are His. A dua that begins this way cannot curdle into accusation, and a heart that prays this way is already halfway out of the darkness, because it has stopped arguing with its Lord.

5. The Third Part: Indeed, I Have Been of the Transgressors

Then comes the sentence that most people in trouble find hardest to say:

“Indeed, I have been of the transgressors.” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3505 — Sahih)

The Quran’s wording of the same confession is:

“Indeed I was among the wrongdoers” (Quran 21:87)

No excuses are attached. Yunus does not explain that he was angry, or provoked, or that his people had rejected him for years — though the Quran itself tells us he had walked away in anger. Inside the call, none of that appears. There is no defence, no context, no mitigation: I have been of the transgressors; I was among the wrongdoers. A prophet of Allah, in the worst moment of his life, took the entire blame upon himself in a single clause and placed it before the Lord he had just declared pure of all wrong.

This is the part of the dua that turns it into the perfect call for anyone whose trouble is connected to his own sin — which, if we are honest, describes a great deal of human distress. The call does not ask the sinner to stay away until he has repaired himself. It teaches him to come exactly as he is, carrying one honest sentence. Confession here is not humiliation; it is the doorway. The one who says these words to Allah has stopped hiding, and Allah’s response to the one who stops hiding is the subject of the promise we have already read. If your need today is specifically the lifting of guilt, read it alongside our guide to seeking Allah’s forgiveness and the Sayyid al-Istighfar, the master prayer of repentance — Yunus’s confession and those prayers belong to the same family.

6. The Promise: For Anything, Ever, Allah Responds

Return now to the closing sentence of the hadith, and read it slowly:

“So indeed, no Muslim man supplicates with it for anything, ever, except Allah responds to him.” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3505 — Sahih)

The promise is remarkable for what it does not contain. It names no list of approved requests — it says for anything. It sets no season, no special night, no quota of repetitions — it says ever, and the negation runs without exception: no Muslim supplicates with it except that Allah responds. The breadth makes sense once the three parts of the call are understood. A supplication that begins by declaring Allah’s oneness, continues by declaring His purity, and ends by confessing the caller’s own wrong has already gathered everything a dua needs. It needs no request of its own, because the one who says it has put himself in the exact posture — reliance, reverence, and repentance — in which requests are answered. Whatever specific need he then carries to Allah, in these words and beyond them, falls under a promise that was deliberately left unlimited.

Two things should be understood correctly. First, the promise belongs to the call itself, not to a mechanical sound. To supplicate with it means to say these words as Yunus said them: knowingly, meaning them, owning the confession they contain. A tongue that repeats the confession while the heart refuses it has not yet made Yunus’s call. Second, Allah’s response is His response — He answers as He wills, in the way and at the time His wisdom chooses, and the promise guarantees the response, not our preferred shape of it. Within those two understandings, the sentence stands as the Prophet ﷺ left it: unqualified, and meant to be leaned on. It is one of the clearest windows in the Sunnah into the mercy of Allah toward those who call Him.

7. Making This Call Your Own

You do not need to be inside a whale to use the dua of Yunus. The hadith itself transfers it to every Muslim, for anything, ever. Reach for it in the situations that resemble his: when a matter has closed over you and no human door is open; when grief or anxiety sits on the chest like a weight — and here it pairs naturally with the dua for anxiety and sadness; when the trouble is of your own making and the first thing you owe Allah is the confession this call contains; when you have a need you have carried for a long time and want to present it behind words Allah has already praised and promised to answer.

Say it slowly, in the Arabic if you can, understanding each of its three parts as you pass through them: there is none worthy of worship except You; glory and purity are Yours; I have been of the transgressors. Repeat it. Then ask for your need by name, in your own words, as Yunus’s heirs are invited to do — for the promise covers the asking that this call introduces. And do not measure the darkness around you before deciding whether to call. The whole point of this dua’s history is that it was answered from a place darker than yours.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the dua of Yunus?

It is the supplication the prophet Yunus made while inside the whale, as the Prophet ﷺ quoted it: “There is none worthy of worship except You, Glory to You, Indeed, I have been of the transgressors.” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3505 — Sahih) In Arabic it is known by its opening words: la ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu minaz-zalimin.

2. What do the words of this dua mean?

The Quran gives the meaning in its own translation of the call: “There is no god but You. Pure are You. Indeed I was among the wrongdoers” (Quran 21:87). The call has three parts: a declaration that there is no god but Allah, a declaration that He is pure and glorious above every fault, and a confession by the caller that the wrongdoing was his own.

3. What did the Prophet ﷺ promise about this dua?

He promised an answer without exception: “So indeed, no Muslim man supplicates with it for anything, ever, except Allah responds to him.” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3505 — Sahih) No kind of need is excluded and no occasion is excluded; the response of Allah is stated as the rule for whoever supplicates with these words.

4. Where in the Quran is the dua of Yunus recorded?

It is recorded in Surah Al-Anbiya, verse 87. Allah describes Yunus as the man of the fish who “walked away in anger … called (Us) in depths of darkness” (Quran 21:87) — from inside the whale, beneath the sea. The verse preserves the exact call he made from that darkness.

5. For what needs can this dua be said?

For any need at all — the hadith’s own words are “for anything, ever” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3505 — Sahih). It is especially fitting in distress, grief, and hardship, and when the caller knows his own sin is part of his trouble, because the call itself contains the confession: “Indeed I was among the wrongdoers” (Quran 21:87).