Fatwa ID: 02451

Answered by: Moulana Muhammad Imad Ali

Question:

I am Aware that duas are accepted when drinking Zamzam water. However what is the correct procedure for doing this?

Should you make dua first and then drink or do you drink first and then make dua?

Also should you raise your hands as you do when supplication or do you merely read out your dua?

Answer

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Regarding your first question the etiquettes of drinking Zamzam are:

1. To face the Qiblah.
2. To mention Allah’s name.
3. To sip in three breaths.
4. To drink up till one’s fill
5. To look at the Ka’ba every time you sip. (only if you’re in Mecca)
6. To sprinkle a little water on your head, face and chest.
7. To say increased supplication.
8. To drink it for whatever you need of this world or the hereafter.
9. To say ‘O Allah, it has reached me that your Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), said, “the water of Zamzam is for that which it was drunk for. O Allah, I drink it for such and such.” Then name what you want from this world or the hereafter. Then say, “O Allah, please do this out of your bounty.”
10. To say the dua of Ibn Abbas, “O Allah, Grant me beneficial knowledge, bountiful provision and a healing from every disease.”
11. To praise Alah when finished.

With regards to your second question, one should make the supplication before drinking the Zamzam water. However, if one drank without making supplication there is no harm for him and he may recite the supplication after.

Finally, when it comes to raising hands for the dua there are two types:

1. Those duas where the words have been narrated specifically for that occasion. E.g. dua after adhan, going to the toilet, eating etc.
2. Those duas where the words are not specific for that occasion. E.g. duas after farz prayers or for repenting.

With regards to the first type of dua, one should not lift the hands, i.e. one would not lift his hands after drinking zamzam. For duas of the second category, one’s hands can be raised. (Ahsanul Fatawa. P.298 V.2)

Only Allah knows best.

Written by Moulana Muhammad Imad Ali

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham