Is It Considered a Sinful Supplication to Call Someone Saying ‘Ya’ or ‘O’ as in ‘O Kevin, Help Me Carry This Box’?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

Is It Considered a Sinful Supplication to Call Someone Saying ‘Ya’ or ‘O’ as in ‘O Kevin, Help Me Carry This Box’?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

The word ‘ya’ and other such words are called prepositions of calling (huruf al-nida). They are used for any situation where one is calling another. They are not specific to supplications. [Ibn Ajurrum, al-Muqadimma al-Ajurrumiyya]

Allah Most High Himself uses these prepositions in the Quran. It is incorrect to say that Allah Most High is supplicating to His creation.

Hope this helps

Allah knows best

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he 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 several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.