The dua we say to a newly married couple is one sentence long. The Prophet ﷺ said it to every couple he congratulated, and fourteen centuries later it is still the right thing to say when a friend tells you her nikah is done. There are also duas for your own marriage, for the night of the wedding, and for the family that comes after. Here are all of them, with the Arabic, a transliteration, and the meaning, so you have the right words whether you are the guest or the bride.
The dua for a newly married couple
This is in Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi. The Prophet ﷺ said it to the groom, and it is said today to either or both.
Arabic
بَارَكَ اللَّهُ لَكَ، وَبَارَكَ عَلَيْكَ، وَجَمَعَ بَيْنَكُمَا فِي خَيْرٍ
Transliteration
Barakallahu laka, wa baraka ‘alayka, wa jama’a baynakuma fi khayr.
Meaning
May Allah bless for you your spouse, and bless you, and may He unite both of you in goodness.
Write it in the card. Say it at the walima. Text it when you hear the news. It replaces “congratulations,” and it is better than congratulations, because it asks Allah to do something.
A note on what it replaces. In the days before Islam, people would say “bir-rifa’i wal-banin,” which meant “with harmony and sons.” The Prophet ﷺ taught the companions to leave that and say this instead. A dua for goodness between two people, with no conditions attached about what the goodness should look like.
The dua on the wedding night
The groom is taught to say this when he first comes to his wife, placing his hand on her forehead. In Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah.
Arabic
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ خَيْرَهَا وَخَيْرَ مَا جَبَلْتَهَا عَلَيْهِ، وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّهَا وَشَرِّ مَا جَبَلْتَهَا عَلَيْهِ
Transliteration
Allahumma inni as’aluka khayraha wa khayra ma jabaltaha ‘alayh, wa a’udhu bika min sharriha wa sharri ma jabaltaha ‘alayh.
Meaning
O Allah, I ask You for the goodness within her and the goodness that You have made her inclined towards, and I take refuge with You from the evil within her and the evil that You have made her inclined towards.
It is honest. It does not pretend the other person is perfect. It asks for the good in them and for protection from the rest, and it does so on the first night, before anything has gone wrong, which is the right time to ask.
The Quranic dua for your family
From Surah Al-Furqan, 25:74. This is the one to say for your own marriage, every day, for the rest of it.
Arabic
رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا
Transliteration
Rabbana hab lana min azwajina wa dhurriyyatina qurrata a’yunin, waj’alna lil-muttaqina imama.
Meaning
Our Lord, grant us from our spouses and our children the comfort of our eyes, and make us leaders for the righteous.
“Qurrata a’yun” is usually translated as “comfort of the eyes.” The image is of eyes that are cool and settled, that rest when they look at your spouse and your children. That is what a good marriage feels like from the inside, and this is the dua that asks for it.
A dua for a righteous spouse
For the one who is not married yet, or who is making dua for a child’s marriage, the Quran gives the dua of Musa (peace be upon him) when he arrived in Madyan with nothing. Surah Al-Qasas, 28:24.
Arabic
رَبِّ إِنِّي لِمَا أَنْزَلْتَ إِلَيَّ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَقِيرٌ
Transliteration
Rabbi inni lima anzalta ilayya min khayrin faqir.
Meaning
My Lord, I am in need of whatever good You send down to me.
He said it, and within the same passage of the Quran he had a wife, a home, and work. It is not specifically a marriage dua. It is a dua of complete need, said by a man who had nothing, and Allah answered it with everything, marriage included.
Dua inside a marriage
The duas above are for the beginning. What keeps a marriage is the dua you make for your spouse when they are not in the room. The Prophet ﷺ said that when a Muslim makes dua for their brother in his absence, an angel says, “and for you the same.” Dua for your husband or wife in their absence is one of the few things in a marriage that costs nothing, that the other person never has to know about, and that an angel repeats back to you.
A few places it fits naturally. In sujood, where dua is closest to being answered. In the last third of the night, if you are up. Before iftar in Ramadan, in the moment that is not rejected. And in the simplest form, the dua of contentment from the morning remembrances, said with your spouse in mind: I am pleased with Allah as my Lord, and with what He has given me.
For the couple reading this together
If you are newly married and reading this as a pair, pick the Al-Furqan dua and say it together after one prayer a day. It takes fifteen seconds. Couples who make dua together have a shared language for the hard conversations later, because they have practised asking Allah for the same thing in the same words.
Our Nikah & Noor prompt card deck was written for exactly those conversations, with fifty-two questions for couples to work through one a week. The dua is where you start. The questions are what you do with the rest of the evening.
