When the chest is tight
Sūrahs and duʿās for anxiety and stress
Anxiety is heavy, and the Qur'an and the Prophet ﷺ left wording for exactly that weight: āyāt of comfort to read, duʿās to say, and remembrance to keep through the day. Everything below carries its source, and the Arabic is shown exactly as the muṣḥaf has it.
These are not a replacement for treatment or for talking to someone. They are what to say while you carry it — alongside any help you are receiving.
Start here — three duʿās, with their sources
When worry and sadness will not lift
اللّٰهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْهَمِّ وَالْحَزَنِ، وَالْعَجْزِ وَالْكَسَلِ، وَالْبُخْلِ وَالْجُبْنِ، وَضَلَعِ الدَّيْنِ وَغَلَبَةِ الرِّجَالِ
Allāhumma innī aʿūdhu bika minal-hammi wal-ḥazan, wal-ʿajzi wal-kasal, wal-bukhli wal-jubn, wa ḍalaʿid-dayni wa ghalabatir-rijāl
O Allah, I take shelter with You from worry and grief, from being unable and being lazy, from stinginess and cowardice, from being crushed by debt and overpowered by people.
Anytime the weight will not shift; the Prophet ﷺ said it often. · Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6369
The call of Yūnus عليه السلام, from inside the dark
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Lā ilāha illā anta subḥānaka innī kuntu minaẓ-ẓālimīn
There is no god but You. Glory be to You. I have been one of the wrongdoers. He was answered from three layers of darkness, and this is the wording the Qur'an records.
When you feel you brought the trouble on yourself and see no way out. · Qur'an 21:87
When people are against you
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Ḥasbunā-llāhu wa niʿmal-wakīl
Allah is enough for us, and the best One to depend on. This is what the believers said when they were warned that armies had gathered against them.
When you are outnumbered, threatened or afraid of what people will do. · Qur'an 3:173
Āyāt for a heavy heart
Where a resting heart comes from
The Qur'an names the remedy directly: hearts find their rest in the remembrance of Allah. Anxiety is not a failing of faith — but remembrance is where the Qur'an points the restless heart.
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Qur'an 13:28
Ease is already promised alongside the hardship
Sūrat ash-Sharḥ — “The Relief” — was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ when the weight on him was heaviest. The statement of ease is made twice, so that no hardship can come without its ease beside it.
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No door closes on Allah's mercy
This was said to people who were sure they had gone too far to return: do not despair of Allah's mercy. He forgives everything, and the āyah leaves no exception.
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Qur'an 39:53
A way out, and provision from where you did not expect
A promise for whoever keeps Allah in mind and trusts Him: He makes a way out of the situation, provides from unimagined places, and is enough for him.
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Qur'an 65:2–3
What to recite at night
Anxiety tends to peak when the day goes quiet. The night has its own wording — recited as you lie down, so that the last words you hear are words of protection.
Āyat al-Kursī before sleeping
Whoever recites it when going to bed has a guard from Allah over him and no devil can come near him until morning — as the Prophet ﷺ confirmed. Anxiety often peaks at night; this is what to recite as you lie down.
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Qur'an 2:255; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2311
The last two āyāt of al-Baqarah
Abū Masʿūd reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever recites the last two āyāt of al-Baqarah at night, they will suffice him” — understood by scholars as protection and sufficiency for that night.
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Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, book of the virtues of the Qur'an (Abū Masʿūd)
More on the first of these: Āyat al-Kursī — meaning, benefits and when to recite.
Remembrance through the day
The āyah of the resting heart (13:28) names remembrance itself as where the heart settles. In practice that means short, repeatable words kept through the day — istighfār, ṣalawāt on the Prophet ﷺ, and the duʿās above said more than once. The zikr library shows each wording with its source, and the tasbīḥ counter keeps the count so you do not have to.