Dua for Rain (Istisqa)
Where this dua comes from
The hadith behind this is a vivid one: a man interrupted the Friday sermon to tell the Prophet ﷺ that livestock were dying and families were going hungry from lack of rain, and asked him to pray. The Prophet ﷺ raised his hands and said this three times, and — as the narration in Bukhari describes — rain fell so heavily over the following week that the same man, or another, later stood up during a subsequent sermon asking for it to stop, since roads had become impassable and buildings were at risk. This dua underlies Salat al-Istisqa, a specific prayer for rain performed communally during drought, but the phrase itself is also used informally any time relief from dry conditions is needed, without requiring the formal prayer.
When to recite
During drought, or in the specific prayer for rain (Salat al-Istisqa).