What is the ruling on this supplication: “O Allah, I do not ask You to change the decree, but I ask You for gentleness in it”?
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Question:
The questioner will ask: What is the ruling on this supplication: “O Allah, I do not ask You to change the decree, but I ask You for gentleness in it”? Some people say it with good intentions, so what is the ruling on saying “the decree”?
Answer:
I do not restrict this to that specific supplication, but one should ask Allah for pardon, forgiveness, and a good ending. As for this one, no; rather, one should ask Allah to pardon him, to accept his good deeds, and to expiate his bad deeds. This supplication is not considered good. Do not say, “I do not testify to changing the decree, but to the gentleness,” but say, “I ask You for pardon, I ask You for forgiveness, I ask You for success and guidance,” and other such good supplications.
The questioner will ask: What is the ruling on this supplication: “O Allah, I do not ask You to change the decree, but I ask You for gentleness in it”? Some people say it with good intentions, so what is the ruling on saying “the decree”?
Answer:
I do not restrict this to that specific supplication, but one should ask Allah for pardon, forgiveness, and a good ending. As for this one, no; rather, one should ask Allah to pardon him, to accept his good deeds, and to expiate his bad deeds. This supplication is not considered good. Do not say, “I do not testify to changing the decree, but to the gentleness,” but say, “I ask You for pardon, I ask You for forgiveness, I ask You for success and guidance,” and other such good supplications.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ ابن باز Alsheikh Binbaz»، 43 ما حكم هذا الدعاء اللهم إني لا أسألك رد القضاء ولكني أسألك اللطف فيه؟ للإمام ابن باز — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.