Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
There is nothing wrong in doing good deeds prior to duaa. Also, a Muslim is advised to keep on making duaa and dhikr, for duaa is the essence of worship as stated in one of the Prophet’s hadiths.
In his response to your question, Sheikh M. S. Al-Munajjid, a prominent Saudi Muslim lecturer and author, states:
There is no reason why a Muslim should not pray in Al-Masjid Al-Haram for the purpose of supplication; but it is better not to restrict his intention in the prayer to supplication alone. Rather his intention should be to worship Allah through this prayer and to hope for its reward in the Hereafter.
Moreover, prayer includes dhikr, reciting the Quran, bowing, prostrating and duaa, so the duaa should be just one part of the prayer; not the primary purpose. Al-Masjid Al-Haram is one of the blessed and venerated places in Islam, so if a person prays and calls upon Allah whilst prostrating, for example, then he will have combined the virtue of the place with the virtue of the action. If this is done during the last third of the night, he will also add the virtue of the time.
On the other hand, doing righteous deeds in the hope that duaa will be answered is something that is prescribed in the Shari`ah. Hence performing wudu and praying in Al-Masjid Al-Haram may be included among righteous deeds that may be done before making duaa in the hope that the duaa will be answered.
It was narrated from Uthman ibn Hunayf that a blind man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: Pray to Allah to heal me. He said, ‘If you wish, you may delay the reward until the Hereafter, and that is better, or if you wish, I will make duaa for you.’ He said, Make duaa. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) told the man to perform wudu and do it well, and to pray two rakahs, and to say this duaa: ‘Allahumma inni as’aluka wa atawajjahu ilayka bi Muhammadin Nabi ar-rahmah. Ya Muhammad inni qad tawajjahtu bika ila rabbiy fi hajati hadhihi li tuqda Allahumma shaffi’hu fiyya (O Allah, I ask of You and I turn my face towards You by the virtue of Muhammad, the Prophet of Mercy. O Muhammad, I have turned my face by virtue of you to my Lord concerning this need of mine so that it may be met. O Allah, accept his intercession concerning me).’ (At-Tirmidhi)
The above hadith indicates that prayer is one of the righteous deeds by virtue of which a person’s duaa may be more likely to be answered, and that it may be one of the causes of the duaa being accepted.
What has been said regarding prayer may also be said regarding fasting. The intention behind it should be to worship Allah by means of this great act of worship, and to attain the reward for it in the Hereafter, and to fear Allah and earn His pleasure. Then if he is fasting, it is recommended for the fasting person to make a great deal of duaa, for the duaa of the fasting person will be answered, especially at the time of breaking the fast.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.
Source: Excerpted, with slight modifications, from www.islamqa.info