Is group supplication after prayer a blameworthy innovation?

Can you please tell me what is the ruling on making a du'a after the fard prayer? I have heard a few people say that it is bid'a and should not be done. Is this true? Can you tell me the hadith and other proofs for the ruling?

 

In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,

The answer to this question will be given in three parts. The first deals with supplicating (dua) after obligatory (fard) prayers, the second looks at raising the hands whilst supplicating and the third discusses the issue of supplicating collectively (in Jama’ah).

As far as the first issue is concerned, which is to supplicate after the Fard prayers, it is an established fact that to supplicate and make Dua after the various Fard prayers is an act of Sunnah. This was the practice of the blessed Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), his Companions (Allah be pleased with them) and the pious predecessors (Allah have mercy on them).

Some evidences in this regard:

1) Abu Umama al-Bahili (Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) was asked as to which supplication (dua) was most quickly accepted? He replied: “In the middle of the night and after the obligatory (fard) prayers” (Sunan Tirmizi, 5/188 with a sound (hasan) chain of transmission).

2) Mughira ibn Shu’ba (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) used to supplicate three times after every prayer. (Recorded by Imam al-Bukhari in his Tarikh al-Awsat).

3) Thawban (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), after completing his prayer, used to seek forgiveness from Allah thrice and say: “O Allah! You are peace, from you is peace, You are exalted through Yourself above all else, O Majesty and Beneficence” (Sahih Muslim, 5/89).

4) Mughira ibn Shu’ba (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), used to say after completing his prayer: “There is no god but Allah, alone without partner. His is the dominion, His is the praise, and He has power over all things. O Allah, none can withhold what You bestow, none can bestow what You withhold, and the fortune of the fortune avails nothing against You” (Sahih al-Bukhari, 11/133 & Sahih Muslim, 5/90).

5) Muadh ibn Jabal (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said to him: “I advise you O Muadh that you don’t leave the following words after every prayer: “O Allah, assist me in remembering you, showing gratitude to you and worshipping you in a good manner” (Sunan Abu Dawud, 2/115 & Sunan Nasa’I, 3/53).

The above are just some of the narrations that encourage supplicating to Allah after prayers, both obligatory and optional. There are many other such narrations which I have refrained from mentioning, as not to prolong this article.

Raising the hands whilst supplicating

Raising the hands whilst supplicating is also a Sunnah of our beloved Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace). There are general narrations that indicate that the hands should be raised whilst supplicating, and then there are narrations that specifically relate to raising the hands whilst supplicating after prayers.

Some general narrations:

1) Ali ibn Abi Talib (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “Raising the hands (whilst supplicating) is from the humbleness, regarding which Allah Most High said: “We inflicted punishment on them, but they humbled not themselves to their lord, nor do they submissively entreat” (Sunan al-Bayhaqi & Mustadrak al-Hakim).

2) Salman (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “Verily Allah is inhibited and too beneficent that when an individual raises his hands, He rejects them empty and deprived” (Sunan Abu Dawud, 2/1105 & Sunan Tirmizi, 5/217).

3) Malik ibn Yasar (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “When you ask Allah, ask Him with the palm of your hands, and don’t ask Him with the back of the hands” (Sunan Abu Dawud, 2/104, & Musnad Ahmad with a authentic (sahih) chain of transmission).

4) Umar ibn al-Khattab (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), when he used to raise his hands in supplication, he did not place them down until he wiped his face with them” (Sunan Tirmizi, 5/131).

Narrations specific to raising the hands whilst supplicating after prayer:

1) Anas ibn Malik (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “There is not a servant of Allah who raises his hands after prayer, then says: O Allah, my Lord, Lord of Ibrahim, Lord of Ishaq, Lord of Ya’qub, Lord of Jibril, Lord of Mika’il, Lord of Israfil, I ask You that answer my prayer………….except that Allah takes it upon himself not to reject his (raising) of hands empty” (Recorded by Ibn Sunni in his Amal al-Yawm wa al-Layla, P. 38).

2) Abdullah ibn Zubayr (Allah be pleased with him) saw a person raising his hands and supplicating before he completed his prayer. When he ended his prayer, he said to him: “The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) never used to raise his hands until after completing his prayer” (Recorded by Tabrani in his al-Mu’jam, and authenticated by al-Haythami in Majma’ al-Zawaid).

3) Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) raised his hands after making salam, and then whilst facing in the direction of the Qiblah, he said: “O Allah, …. liberate the weak Muslims from the hands of the non-believers” (Recorded by Ibn Abi Hatim & Imam Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir).

4) Abu Wada’ah (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “The (optional) prayer of the night should be performed in sets of two Rak’ats, meaning you recite the Tashahhud after every two Rak’ah, express devotion and humility in your supplication, raise your hands and say: “O Allah, forgive me”. Whosoever fails to do so, his prayer will be incomplete” (Sunan Abu Dawud, 2/40 & Sunan Ibn Majah, 1/419).

There are many narrations that relate to the raising of hands whilst supplicating, both general and specifically after prayers. The Great Jurist, Hadith expert and scholar, Imam al-Suyuti (Allah have mercy on him) mentions in his Tadrib al-Rawi that there are approximately 100 narrations with regards to raising the hands whilst supplicating, even though they concern separate incidents, thus reaching the level of certainty (Tawatur al-Ma’na). (See: Tadrib al-Rawi, P. 461).

Supplicating collectively

Supplicating collectively is also not foreign to the Qur’an and Sunnah. There are many proofs for the collective dua in the Qur'an and Sunnah, both inside and outside Salat.

1) Allah Most High said to Sayyiduna Musa and Sayyiduna Harun (peace be upon both of them):

“Accepted is your prayer (O Musa and Harun)!” (Surah Yunus, 89).

The reports from the Companions and Salaf concur that the modality of this supplication was that Musa (upon him be peace) supplicated while Harun (upon him be peace) said Amîn, as narrated by the Imams of Tafsir from Ibn Abbas, Abu Huraira, Abu al-Aliya, Abu Salih, Ikrima, Muhammad ibn Ka`b al-Qurazi, Rabi` ibn Anas and others. (See the Tafsirs Ibn Kathir (2/656) and al-Suyuti's al-Durr al-Manthur (3/315).

2) Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that I heard the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) say: “ No group of believers assemble, one of them supplicating while others saying Amîn, except that Allah answers their prayer” (Recorded by Tabrani in al-Mu’jum al-Kabir, 4/26 & Hakim in his al-Mustadrak, 3/347 and he classed it as authentic (sahih).

3) Anas ibn Malik (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that a villager came to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) on Friday and said: “O Messenger of Allah! The livestock are dying, the dependents are dying, and the people are dying! Whereupon the Messenger of Allah raised his hands in supplication and the people raised their hands in supplication with the Messenger of Allah….. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of supplications).

4) Abu Shaddad narrates while Ubada ibn al-Samit was present and confirmed him (Allah be pleased with them both): “We were in the house of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) when he said: “Is there any stranger among you?” He meant one from the People of the Book. We said, “No, O Messenger of Allah”. He ordered for the door to be shut and said: “Raise your hands and say Lâ ilâha illAllâh. We raised our hands for a while. Then he said: “O Allah! Truly You have sent me with this phrase and promised me Paradise for it. Truly, You do not break the trust”. Then he said: “Be glad, for Allah has forgiven you” (Recorded by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad, 4/124, Tabrani in Mu’jam al-Kabir & classed by Haifidh al-Munziri to be sound (hasan).

The above and other narrations are clear proof on the fact that to supplicate collectively is not against the Sunnah or an innovation (bid’a). This relates to supplicating inside or outside prayer.

In light of the above, it becomes clear that to supplicate collectively after prayers is not an innovation rather something that has been proven from the Sunnah. There are evidences that one should supplicate immediately after obligatory prayers, and that raising one’s hands whilst supplicating is also a Sunnah, and finally collective supplication is also established in the Sunnah.

Now, keeping these three types of evidences in mind, if one was to supplicate with the Imam and the other followers, then there is nothing wrong in doing so. We don’t need a explicit Hadith that says that to supplicate after Salat, whilst raising your hands and in congregation is Sunnah, rather, combining the three types of evidences are sufficient to prove its authenticity.

For example, The Imam supplicates after obligatory prayers because this has been clearly mentioned in the Sunnah, with raising his hands, as that has also been established by the Sunnah, and the followers joined him, as supplicating collectively has also been proven in the Sunnah, then I don’t see where the problem lies.

Moreover, if all the worshippers supplicate simultaneously after Fard prayers, then automatically there will be collective supplication.

Having said that, it must be remarked here that the status of collective supplication after obligatory prayers is Mustahab or at the most Sunnah. Many individuals seem to believe that the supplication is an integral part of Salat, thus the one who does not supplicate is doing something which is wrong.

This belief must be avoided, as to supplicate after a prayer is not obligatory. If an individual does not supplicate, then he should not be rebuked or looked down upon. People must be left free to do what they want. For this reason, some of the scholars have stated that it would be better if the supplication was left out once in a while so that the concept on ‘necessity’ is removed from the minds of people.

This supplication can be carried out loudly or silently. However, it is preferable to supplicate silently, as Allah Most High says:

“Call on your lord with humility and in private” (al-A’raf, 55).

In it stated in the Hanafi reference book, al-Bazzaziyya:

“If the Imam supplicated loudly with the followers, then there is nothing wrong in doing so, so that people learn the Qur’anic and Prophetic supplications. When they learnt them, then supplicating loudly would be wrong” (al-Bazzaziyya).

In conclusion, there is nothing wrong in supplicating and making Dua collectively after Fard prayers. However, one should not regard it as necessary or in any way part of Salat.

And Allah knows best

Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari
Darul Iftaa, Leicester, UK
www.daruliftaa.co.uk