Raising hands to supplicate for rain

📖Sahih al-Bukhari 3565, Sahih Muslim 895
Anas reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would not raise his hands for any supplication except to pray for rain. He would raise them until we saw the skin of his armpits.

This supplication is referring to something other than the regular prayer. In prayer, the Prophet ﷺ would use his hands in different positions according to the Sunnah, but here the narration is specifically about du‘ā for rain (Salat al-Istisqā’). It was not an ordinary request but something that required a divine intervention – the coming of rain. That is why the Prophet ﷺ raised his hands in such an intense and visible way, It does not apply to us in the exact same way, because the Prophet ﷺ had a unique status with Allah. His supplication was more readily accepted than ours. However, it still remains a Sunnah for Muslims to raise their hands in du‘ā, and we are encouraged to do so. But unlike the Prophet ﷺ, we are not guaranteed that our requests will be fulfilled immediately; instead, they may be answered later, differently, or withheld with wisdom.

Quranic Context:

📖Quran 40:60
And your Lord says, “Call upon Me; I will respond to you. Indeed, those who disdain My worship will enter Hell humiliated.”

• Quran 51:56
  And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.
• Allah does not need our worship – He is free of need. Worship benefits us, not Him. It purifies the heart, disciplines the soul, and reminds us of our purpose.
• Quran 35:15
  O mankind, you are those in need of Allah, while Allah is the Free of need, the Praiseworthy.
• Rejecting prayer is not about Allah losing anything – it’s about us showing arrogance. That arrogance is what makes a person fall into disbelief.
• Sunan Ibn Majah 1079
  The covenant that stands between us and them is the prayer. Whoever abandons it has committed disbelief.

But Islam is also just and merciful:

• If someone truly does not know how to pray, or lives in a place where knowledge didn’t reach them, Allah judges them with fairness.
• If someone has a mental condition or incapacity, then they are not held accountable.

📖Sunan an-Nasa’i 3432
The Prophet ﷺ said: “The pen has been lifted from three: from the sleeper until he awakes, from the child until he reaches puberty, and from the insane until he regains his reason.”

So the ruling applies to those who know, understand, and yet arrogantly refuse prayer.

Finally, pride is the root of disbelief:
📖Quran 7:206
Indeed, those who are near your Lord are not prevented by arrogance from His worship, and they exalt Him, and to Him they prostrate.

📖Quran 2:186
When My servants ask you concerning Me, indeed I am near. I respond to the call of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me and believe in Me that they may be rightly guided.

This shows that supplication is always valuable, but its acceptance depends on Allah’s wisdom. For the Prophet ﷺ, acceptance was more faster in many cases. For us, it remains an act of worship and a means of closeness to Allah, whether the result comes instantly or later.