Answer
Wa `alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
- Prophet Muhammad gave us prime example in visiting the sick from among non-Muslims and setting an ideal example for them and helping them find the true path.
- When visiting a non-Muslim patient, a Muslim is permitted to make dua for him or her the same way he makes dua for a Muslim.
Responding to your question, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Ash-Shinqiti, Professor of Political Ethics and Religions History at Qatar University, states:
Imam Al-Bukhari reports that Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say this dua (Arabic for: supplication) for people who are sick, whether he was visiting the sick person or the person was brought to him.
Adh-hibi al-ba’sa, Rabba an-nas, ishfi wa anta ash-shafi, la shifaa’ illa shifa’uka, shifa’an la yughadiru saqaman (Arabic for: Remove the affliction, O Lord of Humankind, and send down cure and healing, for no one can cure but You; so cure in such a way that no trace of illness is left).
The hadith does not distinguish between a Muslim and a non-Muslim. And since we know from other authentic hadiths that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) visited some non-Muslims who were sick (including a Jewish boy, as Al-Bukhari himself reports), we suppose he made the same dua for them.
I don’t understand why some Muslims want to have two moral systems: one for them and one for non-Muslims, and are willing to discriminate against non-Muslims even in praying for healing a sick human being, while the message of the holy Qur’an is universal, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent as (a mercy to humankind) (Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:107)
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.