Most of us know the moment well. You turn your head to the right, then to the left, and before the second salām has finished your hand is already reaching for your phone. The prayer is over, but the few minutes that follow are among the quietest gifts of the day, and the Prophet ﷺ filled them with remembrance of God.
This guide walks through the adhkār (words of remembrance) he said after the obligatory prayers, in a simple order you can learn one step at a time. Each comes with its Arabic, a transliteration, its meaning and its source, so you know what you are saying and why. Where scholars differ on the details, the main positions are set side by side.
At a glance
Why the minutes after salām matter
The Qur’an ties the end of prayer directly to remembrance: “When you have completed the prayer, remember God standing, sitting, or lying on your sides” (Qur’an 4:103). The prayer is not meant to end with a slammed door. It is meant to spill over into the rest of the day. (If the prayer itself often feels rushed, our guide to khushūʿ in salah pairs well with this one.)
One of the most moving reports about these adhkār begins with a complaint. Some of the poorer Companions came to the Prophet ﷺ and said that the wealthy had gone ahead of them: they prayed and fasted just as the poor did, but they also had money to give in charity and to free slaves. He did not tell them to find money. He taught them to glorify, praise and magnify God thirty-three times each after every prayer, something that would let them catch up with those ahead of them (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 843, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 595). When the wealthy heard of it and did the same, he said: “That is the grace of God, which He gives to whom He wills” (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 595).
There is something deeply fair in that. These words cost nothing. They need no money, no strength, no special knowledge. Anyone who has just prayed can say them, and that is exactly the point.
1. Seek forgiveness, then greet the Source of Peace
Thawbān reported that when the Prophet ﷺ finished his prayer, he would ask God’s forgiveness three times and then say the words below (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 591). One of the narrators, the scholar al-Awzāʿī, was asked how the forgiveness was sought, and he answered: you say Astaghfirullāh, astaghfirullāh.
أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ، أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ، أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ
اللَّهُمَّ أَنْتَ السَّلاَمُ وَمِنْكَ السَّلاَمُ تَبَارَكْتَ ذَا الْجَلاَلِ وَالإِكْرَامِ
Astaghfirullāh (three times). Allāhumma anta as-salām wa minka as-salām, tabārakta dhal-jalāli wal-ikrām.
“I ask God’s forgiveness. O God, You are Peace and from You comes peace. Blessed are You, Possessor of majesty and honour.”
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 591
It can seem strange to ask forgiveness straight after doing something good. But that is the lesson. No prayer is perfect: the mind wanders, a verse is rushed, a bow is shorter than it should be. Seeking forgiveness right away keeps worship humble, and stops us from treating the prayer as a favour we have done for God. Then the very first praise is of God as as-Salām, one of His names in the Qur’an (59:23). You can read about it alongside the others in our guide to the 99 Names of God.
2. Declare that God alone gives and withholds
Al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah dictated a letter to Muʿāwiyah describing what the Prophet ﷺ used to say at the end of every obligatory prayer (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 844, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 593):
لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لاَ شَرِيكَ لَهُ، لَهُ الْمُلْكُ وَلَهُ الْحَمْدُ، وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ، اللَّهُمَّ لاَ مَانِعَ لِمَا أَعْطَيْتَ، وَلاَ مُعْطِيَ لِمَا مَنَعْتَ، وَلاَ يَنْفَعُ ذَا الْجَدِّ مِنْكَ الْجَدُّ
Lā ilāha illallāhu waḥdahu lā sharīka lah, lahul-mulku wa lahul-ḥamd, wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr. Allāhumma lā māniʿa limā aʿṭayt, wa lā muʿṭiya limā manaʿt, wa lā yanfaʿu dhal-jaddi minkal-jadd.
“There is no god but God alone, with no partner. His is the dominion and His is the praise, and He has power over all things. O God, no one can withhold what You give, and no one can give what You withhold, and the wealth of the wealthy cannot benefit him against You.”
The last phrase is worth slowing down for. Al-jadd means fortune, wealth or high standing. Al-Bukhārī records under this hadith that al-Ḥasan explained it as wealth. Said after every prayer, it quietly resets your sense of where things come from. The job, the deadline, the person you are worried about: none of them can give or hold back anything that God has not decreed.
3. The hundred: glory, praise and greatness
This is the heart of the adhkār after prayer, and the one the poor Companions were taught. You say:
- سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ Subḥān Allāh — “Glory be to God”, 33 times
- الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ al-ḥamdu lillāh — “All praise is for God”, 33 times
- اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ Allāhu akbar — “God is greatest”, 33 times
- To complete the hundred — Lā ilāha illallāhu waḥdahu lā sharīka lah, lahul-mulku wa lahul-ḥamd, wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr
About this form, the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever does it after every prayer, “his sins will be forgiven even if they are like the foam of the sea” (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 597). Many scholars explain that the sins meant here are the minor ones. That is still a remarkable promise for two minutes of your time.
There are other authentic forms too. In one, you say Allāhu akbar 34 times instead of adding the closing line, making a hundred that way; the Prophet ﷺ called these phrases ones whose sayer “will never be disappointed” (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 596). And in a shorter form, he taught ten of each after every prayer (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6329). So on a day when you truly have to leave, thirty is still a sunnah, not a failure.
The prayer ends with salām. The remembrance carries it into the rest of your day.
As for counting, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr said he saw the Prophet ﷺ counting his tasbīḥ on his fingers (Sunan Abī Dāwūd 1502; graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī). Many people still count on the joints of their right hand. If you find a counter helpful, the tasbīḥ counter in Awwab’s Spirit section counts the 33·33·34 round for you, with a gentle haptic tap on each count.
4. Āyat al-Kursī, the greatest verse
Abū Umāmah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever recites Āyat al-Kursī after every obligatory prayer, nothing will stand between him and entering Paradise except death” (an-Nasāʾī, as-Sunan al-Kubrā 9848, numbered 9928 in some editions; graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ 6464). It is a single verse, the 255th of Sūrat al-Baqarah, and it is entirely about who God is. When the Prophet ﷺ asked Ubayy ibn Kaʿb which verse of the Book of God was the greatest, Ubayy answered with this one, and the Prophet ﷺ struck him on the chest and said, “May knowledge be a joy for you” (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 810).
ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ٱلْحَىُّ ٱلْقَيُّومُ ۚ لَا تَأْخُذُهُۥ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ ۚ لَّهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ مَن ذَا ٱلَّذِى يَشْفَعُ عِندَهُۥٓ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِۦ ۚ يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ ۖ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَىْءٍ مِّنْ عِلْمِهِۦٓ إِلَّا بِمَا شَآءَ ۚ وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ ۖ وَلَا يَـُٔودُهُۥ حِفْظُهُمَا ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَلِىُّ ٱلْعَظِيمُ
“God: there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of all. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who could intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills. His Kursī extends over the heavens and the earth, and preserving them does not tire Him. He is the Most High, the Most Great.”
Qur’an 2:255
If you are still learning it, try one sentence a week. By the end of two months you will have it, and you will have recited it hundreds of times along the way.
5. The three Quls
ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir said: “The Messenger of God ﷺ commanded me to recite al-muʿawwidhāt after every prayer” (Sunan Abī Dāwūd 1523; graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī). Al-muʿawwidhāt are the chapters of seeking refuge: Sūrat al-Falaq (113) and Sūrat an-Nās (114). Because the Arabic word is plural, many scholars include Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ (112) with them, which is why people often speak of “the three Quls”. Others read it as the last two only. Reciting all three covers both understandings.
Together they take less than a minute: one chapter on God’s oneness, “Say, He is God, the One” (Qur’an 112:1), and two that ask the Lord of daybreak and the Lord of mankind for protection from every harm, seen and unseen.
6. A duʿāʾ the Prophet ﷺ told a friend never to leave
The Prophet ﷺ once took Muʿādh ibn Jabal by the hand and said, “O Muʿādh, by God, I love you,” and then advised him never to leave this duʿāʾ at the end of any prayer (Sunan Abī Dāwūd 1522; graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī):
اللَّهُمَّ أَعِنِّي عَلَى ذِكْرِكَ وَشُكْرِكَ وَحُسْنِ عِبَادَتِكَ
Allāhumma aʿinnī ʿalā dhikrika wa shukrika wa ḥusni ʿibādatik: “O God, help me to remember You, to thank You, and to worship You well.”
It is a fitting place to finish. Every phrase before it was remembrance. This one admits that we cannot even remember well without His help.
Where scholars differ
Order. The narrations list these adhkār separately and do not fix a single sequence. The order above is a common and natural one, but any order is fine.
Aloud or quietly. Ibn ʿAbbās reported that in the time of the Prophet ﷺ people raised their voices with dhikr when they finished the obligatory prayer (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 841). Some scholars take this as a lasting sunnah. Others, including al-Shāfiʿī, understood it as done for a time to teach people, and prefer a quiet voice so as not to disturb others who are still praying.
Before or after the sunnah prayer. ʿĀʾishah reported that after salām the Prophet ﷺ stayed seated only as long as it took to say Allāhumma anta as-salām… (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 592). Partly for this reason, the Ḥanafī school commonly says the short remembrance, prays the sunnah, and then completes the longer adhkār. Many other scholars prefer finishing the adhkār first. Both are practised widely; ask a scholar you trust for your situation.
Tip: Don’t try to learn all of this at once. Start with the hundred this week, add Āyat al-Kursī next, then the Quls. Anchoring one new piece to a prayer you already keep is the same idea we describe in how to keep your five daily prayers.
Frequently asked questions
How long do the adhkār after prayer take?
At a calm pace, the full set in this guide takes about four to six minutes. The hundred phrases of tasbīḥ, taḥmīd and takbīr take roughly two minutes on their own. On a rushed day, the Prophet ﷺ also taught a shorter form of ten of each (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6329).
Is “God is greatest” said 33 or 34 times?
Both are authentic. In one narration you say each phrase 33 times and complete the hundred with Lā ilāha illallāhu waḥdahu… (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 597). In another, the takbīr is said 34 times (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 596). Many people alternate between them so that both sunnahs stay alive.
Are these adhkār only for the obligatory prayers?
Several of the narrations name the obligatory prayers specifically, such as al-Mughīrah’s report of what the Prophet ﷺ said at the end of every obligatory prayer (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 844), so most scholars tie this set to the five daily prayers. Some narrations simply say “after every prayer”. Remembering God after a voluntary prayer is good in any case; the set described here is the sunnah of the obligatory ones.
Can I say the adhkār after prayer while walking or driving?
Remembrance of God is not restricted to one posture: the Qur’an speaks of remembering Him standing, sitting and lying on your sides (Qur’an 4:103). Sitting in your place is the fuller sunnah, but if you must leave, finishing the adhkār on the way is far better than skipping them.