When are du'as most likely to be answered?

The times of response

The sound hadith name particular times:

• The last third of the night. Allah descends to the nearest heaven and says: "Who is calling upon Me, that I may answer him?" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1145)
• In prostration. "The nearest a servant is to his Lord is while he is prostrating, so make abundant supplication" (Sahih Muslim 482).
• Between the adhan and the iqamah. "The supplication between the adhan and the iqamah is not rejected" (Jami' al-Tirmidhi 212).
• The hour on Friday. There is an hour on Friday in which a Muslim who asks Allah for good is given it (Sahih al-Bukhari 935).
• The day of 'Arafah. "The best supplication is the supplication on the day of 'Arafah" (Jami' al-Tirmidhi 3585).

The supplication made for someone else

The Prophet ﷺ said that whenever a believer supplicates for his brother in his absence, the angel says,

"And for you the like" (Sahih Muslim 2732)

A narration in Sunan Abi Dawud (1535) calls it the quickest supplication to be answered, though its chain is weak.

Three supplications that are answered

Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Three supplications are answered, there is no doubt about them: the supplication of the parent, the supplication of the traveller, and the supplication of the one who has been wronged."— Sunan Abu Dawud 1536

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali رحمه الله, commenting on this in Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, draws out why each of these carries such weight. The traveller's supplication is answered because travel itself is a cause of response — and the longer the journey, the nearer it comes to being answered, since long absence from home breaks the self and humbles it, and brokenness is among the greatest causes of response. The wronged person's supplication is answered because it rises from an injustice no one else can redress. The parent's supplication is answered because of the depth of the tie between parent and child.

The state of the one asking

Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymin رحمه الله, asked about the obstacles to a supplication being answered, explained that they cannot truly be counted, because some are hidden — such as the heart quietly ruling out that Allah will answer at all. Among the outward ones he named: a supplication that contains injustice, such as praying against someone who has not wronged you, or praying for the severing of family ties, or the one asking being a person who consumes the unlawful.

He quoted the Prophet ﷺ describing a man who had done everything that normally brings an answer:

"The man who travels far, dishevelled and dusty, stretching his hands to the sky: 'O Lord, O Lord' — while his food is unlawful, his drink is unlawful, his clothing is unlawful, and he was nourished on the unlawful. How then can he be answered?"— Sahih Muslim 1015

Ibn 'Uthaymin's point is that this man had gathered the outward causes of response, yet the unlawful he was built on blocked it — and that this applies whether the unlawful came through cheating, lying, interest, injustice or anything else of the kind.

Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Rajihi, asked about the causes of a supplication being answered, named two: the presence of the heart, and the purity of what one eats. He cited the narration in which the Prophet ﷺ told Sa'd, "Make your food good, and you will be one whose supplication is answered" — its chain is very weak, but the sound hadith above bears out its meaning.

When the answer comes

These are causes, not guarantees of timing. The scholars describe them as the conditions under which a supplication is most likely to be answered — the traveller's, the parent's and the wronged person's are described in the hadith as answered beyond doubt, while the rest of what is named here concerns the state of the one asking and what he asks for. A supplication containing injustice, or made while living on the unlawful, is the clearest case of one held back.

Key takeaways

• The times named in sound hadith are the last third of the night, prostration, between the adhan and the iqamah, the hour on Friday and the day of 'Arafah.
• A Muslim's supplication for his brother in his absence is met by the angel's "and for you the like."
• The parent, the traveller and the wronged are named in an authentic hadith as having supplications that are answered without doubt.
• Long travel and outward humility — being dishevelled, raising the hands — are among the causes Ibn Rajab lists for a supplication being answered.
• Unlawful food and earnings are among the strongest barriers to a supplication being answered, even when every outward cause is present.
• Presence of heart and purity of what you eat are the two causes Shaykh al-Rajihi names.

Further reading

• Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam — the chapter on the tenth hadith, on the causes and etiquette of supplication.
• Ibn 'Uthaymin, Fatawa Nur 'ala al-Darb — on the obstacles to a supplication being answered.

And Allah knows best.