Is It Permissible to Make a Special Dua Specifically for Myself?
Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch
Question
I know we should all love for others what we love for ourselves, but what if there is a special dua that you want just for yourself and your kids? I always make dua for others, but ultimately I like to make a special, meaningful dua exclusively for myself. Is this wrong to want that dua only for me?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
If one intends to compete for the good, there is nothing wrong with wanting to excel over one’s peers. It is prohibited if it is due to jealousy. Feeling bad about another person’s fortune is jealousy.
For example, would it bother you if someone else were to get that which you specially prayed for yourself or your children-? If so, this is a perfect faith deficiency due to the Hadith you quoted.
Remember that if you make dua for others, the Angels ask for you to be given similar to it. As the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “The prayer of a Muslim for their fellow Muslim in their absence is accepted. There is an appointed Angel at their head, every time someone prays for them, they (the Angel) says, ‘Ameen and for you the like.’” [Muslim]
Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.
