Back to search

Is it permissible to supplicate for death before one's appointed time in Ramadan and during prostration?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Whoever supplicates for death upon themselves before its appointed time has transgressed in their supplication in two ways: First, a lack of faith in His (the Almighty) saying: (And if Allah were to seize mankind for their wrongdoing, He would not leave upon it any creature, but He defers them for a specified term. And when their term comes, they will not remain an hour behind it, nor will they precede it.) An-Nahl/61. Second, falling into what the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) forbade, for he forbade a Muslim from supplicating for death upon themselves. The scholars have mentioned cases in which wishing for death is permissible:

1. Wishing for death for fear of trials in one's religion. 2. Wishing for death when the causes for martyrdom are present. 3. Wishing for death for one who is confident in their deeds, out of yearning to meet Allah, the Almighty and Majestic.

As for the prohibition of wishing for death, there are two reasons for it: The first is that the horror of the ascent [to the afterlife] is severe, and the second is that a believer's life only increases them in goodness; the longer their life, the more righteous deeds they perform. So, if they wish for death, they have wished for the cessation of their righteous deeds.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy