A new Muslim supplicating to Allaah to guide his Hindu family
Fatwa No: 92670

Question

im a new muslim and i really want my family to revert to islam, they are blind believers of hinduism and i cant fight then all , is there and dua /prayer i can do for them ..that Allah forgives them or enlightens them. im in need please help me.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

 

First of all, all perfect praise be to Allaah, Who guided you to Islam and we ask Him to make you firm and steadfast on His Religion until the day you meet Him.

You should endeavour to learn your religious obligations, like how to perform ablution, the prayer and other matters which apply to the validity of acts of worship in general, and you should study the correct creed from the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of the Prophet .

As regards the ruling of supplicating to Allaah to guide your family, then this is permissible. Indeed, it is confirmed that the Prophet supplicated to Allaah to guide the non-Muslims, and he supplicated for the tribe of Daws. He said: "O Allaah! Guide the tribe of Daws and bring them forward to me as Muslims." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] Furthermore, the mother of Abu Hurayrah was a disbeliever and she refused to become a Muslim and said bad things about the Prophet however, the Prophet supplicated to Allaah to guide her and she became a Muslim.

With regard to supplicating to Allaah to forgive the non-Muslims while they are still alive, then the scholars differed in opinion about this issue; some of them permitted it whereas some others prohibited it. The correct view is what Al-Haythami from the Shaafi'ee School of jurisprudence, said: "It is forbidden to ask Allaah to forgive a non-Muslim if he dies as such, however, supplicating for forgiveness is permissible if one means to ask for forgiveness when the person supplicated for becomes a Muslim, or if one means to ask Allaah to make the means of the person becoming a Muslim possible, …Nonetheless, supplicating for a non-Muslim should not be in a manner which glorifies him or considers him as great, as in such case it is not permissible."

It is confirmed that the Prophet narrated that a Prophet supplicated to his people saying: "O Allaah! Forgive my people, as they do not know (the truth)." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] Some scholars interpreted the supplication in this narration that the people for which it was said were alive and it was expected for them to become Muslims, so this was in order to soften their hearts with good words and encouraging them to become Muslims by forgiving them. As regards a person who already died, then it is no longer expected from him to become a Muslim, therefore, according to the consensus of the scholars it is not permissible to supplicate Allaah to forgive him; it is Imaam An-Nawawi who reported this consensus.

Finally, we ask Allaah to guide your family in the same way he guided you to Islam. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 90989, 90921 and 88546.

Allaah Knows best.

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