If you have been waiting for a spouse for longer than you expected, or carrying the weight of a relationship that is broken, or feeling the particular ache of loneliness that is hard to explain to anyone else, this post is for you.
There is a specific reason people in exactly this situation turn to Tahajjud. And it is not superstition or wishful thinking. It is grounded in what Allah has told us about when He is most accessible, and what He has promised about those who ask.
Why People Turn to Tahajjud for Love
Love, marriage, and relationships sit in a part of life that most of us cannot control or engineer our way out of. You can work harder to get a job. You can study more to pass an exam. But a righteous spouse does not arrive through effort alone. A mended relationship cannot always be forced back into health by will.
This is precisely why so many people reach for Tahajjud when they are waiting for something in their personal lives. Not because it is a transaction, but because the experience of sitting with Allah in the last part of the night, and handing over something you cannot solve yourself, is unlike anything else.
Is It Permissible to Ask for a Spouse in Dua?
Yes, without any hesitation.
Allah Himself included this dua in the Quran as an example of what the righteous ask for:
“Our Lord! Bless us with ˹pious˺ spouses and offspring who will be the joy of our hearts, and make us models for the righteous.”
(Quran 25:74, Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran)
Asking for a spouse is not small. It is not embarrassing. It is not beneath the dignity of dua. If the Quran puts this prayer in the mouths of the righteous, then asking for it at Tahajjud is exactly where it belongs.
You can also ask for an existing relationship to be healed. For a marriage to be strengthened. For feelings that have grown cold to be renewed. These are not things outside of Allah’s power. He is the One who put love between hearts to begin with.
“And one of His signs is that He created for you spouses from among yourselves so that you may find comfort in them. And He has placed between you compassion and mercy.”
(Quran 30:21, Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran)
Why the Last Third of the Night Is the Best Time to Ask
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“Our Lord descends to the lowest heaven in the last third of every night and says: ‘Who is calling upon Me, so that I may answer him? Who is asking of Me, so that I may give him? Who is seeking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?’”
Allah is not asking this question at noon, or at the end of a busy day when your mind is scattered. He is asking it in the deep quiet of the night, when the rest of the world is asleep and you have chosen to be awake.
He is asking: who needs something from Me?
If you are waiting for a spouse, if you are carrying pain in a relationship, if you are lonely in a way that no one around you fully understands, that question is being asked for you, tonight, in the last third of the night.
The answer is to be there.
What to Say
You can use the Quranic dua from 25:74 directly, in Arabic or in your own words. You can also speak plainly.
There is no requirement to make your dua formal or polished. The Prophet ﷺ taught us to ask Allah for all our needs, including the specific ones.
A dua you might make at Tahajjud for a spouse:
“O Allah, You wrote my provision and my companion before I was born. I trust Your timing even when I do not understand it. I ask You, by Your knowledge of what is best for me, to bring the right person into my life. Grant me someone who will help me draw closer to You, and make me a source of peace for them.”
A dua for a relationship that needs healing:
“O Allah, You placed love and mercy between hearts. The love in this relationship has become difficult to find. If this relationship is good for my deen and my life, restore it and strengthen it. If it is not, grant me the clarity to see that, and the courage to trust You with the outcome.”
The Prophet ﷺ also taught a comprehensive dua upon waking for the night prayer, which covers all needs and is detailed in the post on what to say in Tahajjud. (Bukhari 1120) Begin with it if you are unsure where to start.
Consistency Over a Single Night
One night of Tahajjud is a beginning, not a transaction.
The people whose stories are told in The Power of Tahajjud did not receive what they asked for after a single night. Some prayed for weeks. Some for months. The prayer changed them along the way, in how they understood what they were asking for, in how much they trusted Allah with the answer, in how they held the waiting.
If you are praying for love and it has not arrived, keep going. The fact that you are still asking is itself a sign of faith.
A Note on Tawakkul
Tawakkul means trusting Allah with the outcome after you have done what you can.
In matters of the heart, this is the hardest kind of trust. Because what you want is not a result you can produce yourself. You are dependent entirely on Allah’s timing and wisdom.
But here is what is true: Allah knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what you need in a companion and what would break you. He knows what your heart can carry. His answer, whether it comes in the form you expected or a different one entirely, is shaped by that knowledge.
Tahajjud is where you practice releasing the outcome. You ask. You trust. You go back to sleep. And you wake and ask again.
That is not passivity. That is the most active form of faith there is.
Read the real stories of people who brought their loneliness, their longing, and their prayers for love to the last third of the night in The Power of Tahajjud.