أستغفر الله الذي لا إله إلا هو الحي القيوم وأتوب إليه
Astaghfir Allāh alladhī lā ilāha illā Huwa
Topic
“I seek the forgiveness of Allah, other than Whom there is no god, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer, and I turn to Him in repentance.”
What it means
The phrase is a prayer for forgiveness. The speaker asks God to pardon his faults, names Him as the one besides whom there is no god, the Ever-Living (al-Ḥayy) and the Self-Subsisting Sustainer (al-Qayyūm), and ends with a pledge to return to Him in repentance. Faruqi notes that it is said on rising, on going to bed and after every salah. Seeking forgiveness (istighfār) is a regular part of Muslim devotion. The Quran urges it many times and describes God as most forgiving. The names al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm also appear together at the start of the Throne Verse (2:255).
Often misunderstood as
That repentance is something one does only after a grave sin, when this phrase is said daily by believers as a habit of turning back to God.
What the sources say
A report in the collections of Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi says that whoever says this phrase will be forgiven. Hadith scholars have discussed its chain of narration, and it is also valued for its place in daily practice.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 58, listed as ASTAGHFIR ALLAH ALLADHĪ LĀ ILAHA ILLĀ HUWA, AL ḤAYY AL QAYYŪM, WA ATUBU ILAYH.. The definition is restated here.