Ayatul Kursi: Meaning, Virtues and When to Recite It
Ayatul Kursi, the Throne Verse, is the 255th verse of Surah Al-Baqarah. Many Muslims learn it by heart as children and recite it every day, before sleeping and after the prayers. The Prophet ﷺ called it the greatest verse in the Book of Allah.
It is a single verse, but nearly every phrase in it is about Allah: who He is, what He owns, what He knows and how far His power reaches. This article goes through it phrase by phrase, looks at where it sits in the Quran, and gathers the authentic reports about its virtues.
ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ٱلۡحَيُّ ٱلۡقَيُّومُۚ لَا تَأۡخُذُهُۥ سِنَةٞ وَلَا نَوۡمٞۚ لَّهُۥ مَا فِي ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِۗ مَن ذَا ٱلَّذِي يَشۡفَعُ عِندَهُۥٓ إِلَّا بِإِذۡنِهِۦۚ يَعۡلَمُ مَا بَيۡنَ أَيۡدِيهِمۡ وَمَا خَلۡفَهُمۡۖ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيۡءٖ مِّنۡ عِلۡمِهِۦٓ إِلَّا بِمَا شَآءَۚ وَسِعَ كُرۡسِيُّهُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضَۖ وَلَا يَـُٔودُهُۥ حِفۡظُهُمَاۚ وَهُوَ ٱلۡعَلِيُّ ٱلۡعَظِيمُ
Allāh - there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursī extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great. (Al-Baqarah 2:255, Saheeh International)
Why it is called Ayatul Kursi
The name comes from the verse itself. Near its end, Allah says that His Kursī "extends over the heavens and the earth". Āyah means verse, so Āyat al-Kursī is simply "the verse of the Kursi". The name was already in use in the Prophet's ﷺ time, and it appears in the hadith quoted below.
Kursī is usually translated as "Footstool" or left untranslated, and in English the verse is often called the Throne Verse. Strictly, the Kursi and the Throne (al-ʿArsh) are two different things, as explained further down.
Its place in the Quran
Surah Al-Baqarah is a Medinan surah, revealed after the Prophet ﷺ migrated to Medina, and it is the longest surah in the Quran. Ayatul Kursi sits in the third juz, between two verses that help explain it.
The verse before it, 2:254, warns of a Day "in which there is no exchange and no friendship and no intercession". Ayatul Kursi then answers the obvious question: intercession belongs to Allah alone, and no one can intercede with Him "except by His permission".
The verse after it, 2:256, begins "There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become distinct from the wrong." Having described Allah so clearly, the Quran leaves the choice to believe with each person.
No particular incident is widely reported as the occasion of its revelation, unlike many other verses of Al-Baqarah. It stands as a statement of who Allah is.
The meaning, phrase by phrase
ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ٱلۡحَيُّ ٱلۡقَيُّومُۚ
"Allāh - there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining." The verse opens with the declaration at the heart of Islam: nothing deserves worship except Allah. It then names Him with two of His names. Al-Ḥayy, the Ever-Living, has a life with no beginning, no end and no weakness. Al-Qayyūm, from the root q-w-m ("to stand"), is the One who exists by Himself, needing nothing, while everything else depends on Him to exist and to keep existing.
لَا تَأۡخُذُهُۥ سِنَةٞ وَلَا نَوۡمٞۚ
"Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep." Sinah is the heaviness that comes before sleep; nawm is sleep itself. Denying both means there is not even a moment's lapse in His care of creation. Every created thing that lives grows tired and must rest; Allah does not.
لَّهُۥ مَا فِي ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِۗ
"To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth." Everything is His: what we can see and what we cannot, including ourselves. Nothing is owned alongside Him, only lent for a time.
مَن ذَا ٱلَّذِي يَشۡفَعُ عِندَهُۥٓ إِلَّا بِإِذۡنِهِۦۚ
"Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission?" The question is rhetorical: no one can. Unlike a king who can be swayed by those close to him, no prophet, angel or saint can speak on someone's behalf before Allah unless He allows it.
يَعۡلَمُ مَا بَيۡنَ أَيۡدِيهِمۡ وَمَا خَلۡفَهُمۡۖ
"He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them." His knowledge covers all of His creation: what is in front of them and what is behind them. Commentators have explained this as the present and the future, or what has passed and what is to come. Either way, nothing is hidden from Him.
وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيۡءٖ مِّنۡ عِلۡمِهِۦٓ إِلَّا بِمَا شَآءَۚ
"And they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills." Created beings know only what Allah lets them know, through revelation or the understanding He gives them. Even the greatest human knowledge is a small portion He has allowed.
وَسِعَ كُرۡسِيُّهُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضَۖ
"His Kursī extends over the heavens and the earth." The whole of the heavens and the earth fits within the Kursi. Scholars have discussed what the Kursi is:
- The best-known report from Ibn ʿAbbās, the Companion most famous for explaining the Quran, describes the Kursi as the place of the two feet, adding that no one can estimate the size of the Throne. Ibn Kathīr and many others held this view.
- Another report from Ibn ʿAbbās explains the Kursi as Allah's knowledge, and al-Ṭabarī preferred that view in his commentary.
A narration from Abū Dharr compares the seven heavens beside the Kursi to a ring thrown into a desert, and the Kursi beside the Throne to the same. On either view, the point of the phrase is the vastness of Allah's dominion.
وَلَا يَـُٔودُهُۥ حِفۡظُهُمَاۚ
"And their preservation tires Him not." The verb yaʾūduhu means to weigh down or burden. Keeping the heavens and the earth in existence and in order, every moment, costs Him no effort at all.
وَهُوَ ٱلۡعَلِيُّ ٱلۡعَظِيمُ
"And He is the Most High, the Most Great." The verse closes with two more of His names. Al-ʿAliyy is high above His creation, in His essence, His power and His status. Al-ʿAẓīm is great beyond anything we can picture. Taken together, the verse has moved from His life, to His ownership, to His knowledge, to His power, and ends with His greatness.
Its virtues
The greatest verse in the Quran
The Prophet ﷺ once asked Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, one of the Companions best known for reciting the Quran, which verse of the Book of Allah was the greatest. Ubayy first replied that Allah and His Messenger knew best. When asked again, he answered with Ayatul Kursi. The Prophet ﷺ struck him on the chest and said, "May knowledge be a delight for you, Abū al-Mundhir." (Sahih Muslim 810)
Protection through the night
Abū Hurayrah was once put in charge of guarding the charity collected in Ramadan. On three nights a man came and took handfuls of food, and each time Abū Hurayrah caught him and let him go after he pleaded need. On the third night the man offered to teach him words that Allah would benefit him with: when you go to bed, recite Ayatul Kursi, and a guardian from Allah will stay with you and no devil will come near you until morning. When Abū Hurayrah told the Prophet ﷺ, he said, "He told you the truth, though he is a liar," and explained that it had been a devil. (Sahih al-Bukhari 2311)
After every obligatory prayer
Abū Umāmah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever recites Ayatul Kursi after every obligatory prayer, nothing stands between them and entering Paradise except death. This hadith is reported by al-Nasāʾī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā, and al-Albānī graded it authentic.
Allah's greatest name
In a hadith reported by Ibn Mājah, the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah's greatest name, by which supplications are answered, is found in three surahs: Al-Baqarah, Āl ʿImrān and Ṭā Hā. One of the narrators, al-Qāsim, said he looked and found it to be al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm, which appears in Ayatul Kursi, at the start of Āl ʿImrān and in Ṭā Hā 20:111. This is one of several views scholars hold about which name is the greatest.
When to recite it
Based on the reports above, Muslims commonly recite Ayatul Kursi:
- Before sleeping, as in the hadith of Abū Hurayrah.
- After each of the five obligatory prayers, as in the hadith of Abū Umāmah.
- In the morning and evening remembrances, where it is included in well-known collections of daily adhkar such as Ḥiṣn al-Muslim.
It is a verse to understand as well as to recite. Knowing what each phrase says turns a familiar recitation into a reminder, several times a day, of who Allah is.
Read and listen
You can read Ayatul Kursi on its own page in the Uthmani or IndoPak script, with English or Urdu translation, and play Mishary Alafasy's recitation of it. To read it in context, open Surah Al-Baqarah at verse 255.
Sources
- The Quran, Al-Baqarah 2:254-256, in the Saheeh International translation
- Sahih Muslim 810 and Sahih al-Bukhari 2311
- al-Nasāʾī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā, and Sunan Ibn Mājah
- The commentaries (tafsīr) of al-Ṭabarī and Ibn Kathīr on Al-Baqarah 2:255
The wording of the hadith above is summarised rather than translated word for word; follow the links to read the full narrations. For questions of religious practice, please ask a qualified scholar.