Ruling on making du’aa’ for healing for a kaafir father who is sick

Answer:

Praise be to Allaah. 

We put this question to Shaykh ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Jibreen, may Allaah preserve him, who answered as follows:

 She can pray for him to be guided to Islam, then if he becomes Muslim, she can pray for him to be healed. But if he persists in his kufr, he does not deserve to have du’aa’ made for him to get better. At the same time, she should still treat him kindly by doing other good things for him, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“… but behave with them in the world kindly…”

[Luqmaan 31:15]

 If he promises to become Muslim if he gets better, then it is OK to make du’aa’ for him, as happened in the case of Moosa (peace be upon him). Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And when the punishment fell on them, they said: ‘O Moosa (Moses)! Invoke your Lord for us because of His Promise to you. If you remove the punishment from us, we indeed shall believe in you, and we shall let the Children of Israel go with you.’

But when We removed the punishment from them to a fixed term, which they had to reach, behold! they broke their word!

So We took retribution from them. We drowned them in the sea, because they belied Our Ayaat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) and were heedless about them”

[al-A’raaf 7:134-136]

 But it is OK to behave kindly towards your sick father by tending to him and so on. It may have an effect on him and soften his heart so that he will become Muslim. And Allaah knows best.