17:23-24-Prayers for the believers who are still alive

17:23-24-Prayers for the believers who are still alive

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When we pray for a living parent, a relative or friend, we usually implore God to cure them of an illness or assist them in adversity. This kind of prayer, which implores God's Mercy on them while they are still alive, is encouraged in the Quran and is heard by God:

And lower the wings of humility for them through mercy and say, "My Lord, have mercy on them just as they raised me when I was small." 17:24

Some have interpreted this verse so as to extend its scope to include our loved ones who have died, however, if we examine this verse and the verse just before it, we find good indication that God is inviting us to pray for our parents while they are still alive. Let us read verse 23:

Your Lord has decreed that you shall not worship except Him and to treat your parents kindly. If one of them or both of them reach old age with you, do not say to them, "Uff" (word that expresses annoyance), nor shall you scold them, but say generous words to them. 17:23

The words "say generous words to them" can only mean while they are still alive, it is not possible to speak kindly to a dead person!

Once they are dead, they will receive their judgement in accordance to their work on earth and in accordance to God's Mercy, nothing we do can change that.

We also read that the angels offer prayers for those (living) on earth and not those who died:

The heavens almost shatter from above them, and the angels glorify their Lord with praise and ask forgiveness for those in the earth. Indeed, God is the Forgiver, the Merciful. 42:5

The significance of the words "for those in the earth" is quite clear.
Prayers for the living believers are encouraged by God for a number of reasons:

1- Prayers for the living believers are not related to the judgement they will receive from God on Judgement Day. This judgement is exclusively reserved for the Almighty and we are told in the Quran that it is based primarily on people's deeds and the purity of their faith while they were on earth. Consequently, by praying for living believers, we are not imploring God to alter the judgement they receive on the Day of Judgement.

2- Prayers for the living believers are an expression of our worship of God. To implore God is to trust and accept His absolute authority to answer our prayers. It is also an acceptance that God alone has the absolute authority to alleviate hardship off the ones we pray for. The link between imploring God and worshipping Him is made evident in the following Quranic words:

Your Lord said, "Implore Me and I will respond to you. Surely, those who are too arrogant to worship Me will enter Hell humiliated." 40:60

The words "Implore Me" and "Worship Me" in this verse confirm that ‘Imploration’ is indeed an essential expression of worship.

And if My servants ask you about Me, I am near; I answer the caller's call if he calls upon Me. Therefore, they shall respond to Me and believe in Me so that they may be rightly guided. 2:186

As per the words in 9:113 above, believers are prohibited from asking forgiveness for the non-believers. We have also seen in 17:23-24 that God instructs us to pray for God's mercy upon our living parents. An important observation we derive from the words in 17:23-24 is that God did not specify that our parents must be believers in order to be entitled to our prayers. This important observation indicates that even though we are not allowed to pray for God's forgiveness upon disbelievers, even if they are our parents, yet we are allowed to pray for God to have mercy on our parents and loved ones, during their life time, if they are going through some suffering.
This allowance runs parallel in concept with the subject of the Zakat. God defined for us the categories of people entitled to receive our Zakat, however, God did not specify that our Zakat should be paid only to the believers among those categories. The ones who insist that the Zakat can only be paid to believing people in need are therefore advocating a rule that was never authorised by God.

Courtesy.quran.islamsite.