Seeking beneficial knowledge (morning)

When. In the morning, after Fajr — and it is transmitted as something said specifically at that hour rather than at any time. That placement is the point: it is asked before the day's knowledge, earning and work have happened, not as a review of them afterwards.

The words. Three requests, and each noun is qualified. Not knowledge but ilman nafi'a, knowledge that benefits — the adjective admits that knowledge can sit in a person without doing anything, or do harm. Not provision but rizqan tayyiba: tayyib is both lawful and wholesome, clean in its source and good in itself. And not deeds but amalan mutaqabbala — an accepted deed. That last one is passive: the servant does the work, and the acceptance is not his to perform. The whole supplication is built on the gap between doing a thing and having it count.

Why this order. Knowledge first, because it directs the earning; provision second, because it sustains the deed; deeds last, because they are what remains. Each of the three depends on the one before it.

The word tayyib. English 'good' flattens it. The same root describes clean earth used for purification and the pleasant word that rises to Allah. Asking for provision that is tayyib is asking about how the money arrives, not only how much.

A note. Nothing here specifies a subject of study or a line of work. It is a supplication about the quality of what one already does, which is why it fits a student, a trader and a parent without alteration.