#527: Ruling on reciting Certain Suwar at different Ocassions of Duʿā

QUESTION

” Before I forget this question. Is it permissible as old people do *to say a particular surah after making supplication*? For example, when asking Allaah for mercy and forgiveness for our dead Muslims, they ask people to say the *Qul huwAllaahu ahad 3 times* and also *Attaahiyatu lillAahi……* Is it permissible?”

ANSWER

Alhamdulillāh,

We shall answer this question in the following points:

1. The Ulamā have agreed on the permissibility of using the recitation of the Qur’ān as a tawassul to Allāh – ta’ālā – before the making of Du’ā. To this, Ibn Abī Shaybah referred in the Musannif and Az-Zarkashī in the Burhān.

The evidence for this is the Hadīth recorded by Al-Bayhaqī that the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – used to make Du’ā after the recitation of the Qur’an. And the Hadīth that was recorded by Imām Ahmad and At-Tabarānī in Al-Kabīr from ‘Imrān Ibn Husayn that the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – said:

اقرؤوا القرآن وسلوا الله به، قبل أن يأتي قوم يقرؤون القرآن فيسألون به الناس.

“Recite the Qur’ān and ask Allāh with it, before the coming of a people that will read the Qur’ān and ask from People with it.”

This Hadīth was declared Sahih by some of the Muhaddithīn, and as Hasanun Li Ghayrihi by Al-Albānī in As-Silsilatu As-Sahīhah.

This recitation could be the entire Qur’ān or a part of it.

2. It is not permissible to, as a tradition, stick to any Prayer formula that is concocted by other people and not from the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – such as saying recite this verse 700 times to get this, etc.

What we see is that some of the Ulamā permitted it if it was made by any of the Pious Imams and has been proven to have worked for them. They held that evidence for it is the Hadīth that was recorded by Abū Dāwud, At-Tirmidhī and others from from Abdullah Ibn Buraydah, from his father that once the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – heard a man praying with the wording:

اللهم إني أسألك بأني أشهد أنك أنت الله لا إله إلا أنت الأحد الصمد الذي لم يلد ولم يولد ولم يكن له كفوا أحد

At which He – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – said:

“You have indeed asked Allah with His greatest Name with which He gives if He was asked, and if He is called therewith, He responds.”

They therefore held that it were permissible to use such supplications as long as it does not go contrary to the Sunnah

We say that in this Hadīth is no proof to sticking to formulas. But proof that one may use the wordings that were used for supplication by the Pious predecessors before us.

3. As for the recitation of Sūratu Al-Ikhlās in respect of the dead, then it should be looked into from the following angles:

A. The Ulamā differed on the deeds that are done on behalf of the Dead such as reciting the Qur’ān, if it benefits the dead or not.

The stronger position is that it does, as long as it is of the deeds that are prescribed by the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – and voluntary.

On this basis, some of the Ulamā of the past preferred reciting Suratu Al-Ikhlās three times for the dead due to the Hadīth in which the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – said that Suratu Al-Ikhlās equalled a third of the Qur’ān as was recorded by Imām Al-Bukhāri in the Sahih from Abū Sa’īd Al-Khudry – radiyallāhu ‘anhu.

The Ulamā differed in their understanding of this Hadīth and Imām Ibn Hajar Al-‘Asqalānī – rahimahullāh – referred to about five different positions on its interpretation in his Sharh on Sahih Al-Bukhāri.

Of the positions referred is that the reward of its recitation equivalents a reward of reciting a third of the entire Qur’ān. It is based on this that those inferred that three times recitation of it makes it a recitation of the entire Qur’ān for the dead.

But this position is weak as explained by Shaykhu Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah in the Majmū’atu Al-Fatāwah, explaining that the strongest position is that it equalled a third of the Qur’ān in terms of meaning since a narrative of the oneness of Allāh, and His Attributes is about a third of the entire Qur’ān.

In the suzerainity of this position as mentioned by Ibn Taymiyyah is the error in that induction made by them.

This indicates that while it is right to recite the Surah that its reward may reach the dead, in the reason for which it is recited thrice as a matter of tradition is clear weakness.

B. That the Surah is been recited by way of Tawassul. If this yis the case, there is nothing wrong about that

4. As for using the wordings of the Tashahhud to make du’ā, there is nothing wrong with that as it is a way of drawing close to Allāh by way of Extolling His Praises and Glorifying His Name.

We ask Allāh for excellence and Tawfīq in words and actions, āmīn.

Bārakallāhu fīkum.
Jazākumullāhu Khayran

25th Jumadal Ula 1439AH.

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