✍ Excerpted from: “Ghair Masnoon Nafli Namazain” by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Ameenpuri
A so-called “Prayer for the Repayment of Debt” is found in certain narrations, but these are fabricated and unreliable. Therefore, this practice is an innovation (bidʿah) and cannot be considered part of the Sharīʿah.
Narrated from Nabīṭ ibn Sharīṭ رضي الله عنه, the Prophet ﷺ supposedly said:
علمني جبريل دعاء في الدين...
“Jibrīl taught me a supplication for debt. He said: ‘Whoever is afflicted by debt should perform ablution and offer four rakʿahs of prayer after the sun passes its zenith (ẓawāl). In each rakʿah, he should recite al-Fātiḥah, Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, and Āyat al-Kursī. After completing the prayer, he should say:
﴿اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ … تُرْزِقُ مَن تَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ﴾
Then say:
O Reliever of distress, Remover of grief, Responder to the call of the distressed, Most Merciful of this world and the Hereafter—have mercy upon me with a mercy that spares me from the mercy of others, and settle my debt.
The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Allah will provide for such a person the means to repay the debt.’ This supplication also contains the *Greatest Name of Allah (Ism Aʿẓam).”
➊ Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn al-Qāsim ibn Kathīr ibn Ṣidqah ibn Riyān is weak.
❖ Imām al-Dāraqutnī رحمه الله graded him:
“Weak.”
❖ Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Zuhrī رحمه الله said:
“He is not reliable.”
❖ Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī رحمه الله remarked:
“He has a booklet (juzʾ) in which we heard strange (munkar) narrations.”
➋ Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Nabīṭ ibn Sharīṭ is also unreliable.
❖ Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī رحمه الله said:
“He narrates from his father, who narrates from his grandfather, in a compilation full of calamities. We heard this through Abū Nuʿaym from al-Lakī. It is not permissible to use him as evidence—he is a liar.”
❖ The So-Called Prayer for Debt Repayment – A Fabricated Innovation
A so-called “Prayer for the Repayment of Debt” is found in certain narrations, but these are fabricated and unreliable. Therefore, this practice is an innovation (bidʿah) and cannot be considered part of the Sharīʿah.
Fabricated Narration:
Narrated from Nabīṭ ibn Sharīṭ رضي الله عنه, the Prophet ﷺ supposedly said:
علمني جبريل دعاء في الدين...
“Jibrīl taught me a supplication for debt. He said: ‘Whoever is afflicted by debt should perform ablution and offer four rakʿahs of prayer after the sun passes its zenith (ẓawāl). In each rakʿah, he should recite al-Fātiḥah, Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, and Āyat al-Kursī. After completing the prayer, he should say:
﴿اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ … تُرْزِقُ مَن تَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ﴾
Then say:
O Reliever of distress, Remover of grief, Responder to the call of the distressed, Most Merciful of this world and the Hereafter—have mercy upon me with a mercy that spares me from the mercy of others, and settle my debt.
The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Allah will provide for such a person the means to repay the debt.’ This supplication also contains the *Greatest Name of Allah (Ism Aʿẓam).”
Reference: Dhail al-La’ālī al-Maṣnūʿah by al-Suyūṭī, p. 201
Reference: Tanzīh al-Sharīʿah al-Marfuʿah by Ibn ʿIrāq al-Kinānī: 2/330
Ruling on the Narration: It is Fabricated (Mawḍūʿ)
Chain Criticism:
➊ Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn al-Qāsim ibn Kathīr ibn Ṣidqah ibn Riyān is weak.
❖ Imām al-Dāraqutnī رحمه الله graded him:
“Weak.”
Reference: al-Mu’talif wa al-Mukhtalif: 2/1083
❖ Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Zuhrī رحمه الله said:
“He is not reliable.”
Reference: Suʾālāt al-Sahmī, p. 149, no. 152
❖ Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī رحمه الله remarked:
“He has a booklet (juzʾ) in which we heard strange (munkar) narrations.”
Reference: Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ: 16/113
➋ Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Nabīṭ ibn Sharīṭ is also unreliable.
❖ Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī رحمه الله said:
“He narrates from his father, who narrates from his grandfather, in a compilation full of calamities. We heard this through Abū Nuʿaym from al-Lakī. It is not permissible to use him as evidence—he is a liar.”
Reference: Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl: 1/82–83
,
Reference: al-Mughnī fī al-Ḍuʿafāʾ: 1/72
Conclusion
- The narration about a specific 4-rakʿah prayer for paying off debt is fabricated and unacceptable.
- No authentic hadith exists to prove the legitimacy of such a prayer.
- Therefore, this “Ṣalāt for debt repayment” is an innovation (bidʿah) and must be avoided.
- Only those acts of worship are accepted by Allah which are proven through authentic Sunnah.
- Self-invented devotional acts hold no value in Islam.
