8 – Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn said: “Shaking hands after the salām that closes the prayer has no basis—neither in any explicit text nor in the practice of the Lawgiver or the Companions. Had it been prescribed, it would have been mass-transmitted, and the early generations would have been the most entitled to it. If, however, one happens to meet another person immediately after the prayer and shakes hands for that reason, and not because of the prayer itself, that is permissible.”

Disagreement among the jurists
The scholars unanimously agree that giving salām inside the prayer and ending the prayer with it is legislated, yet they differ over its precise legal ruling:

• The Mālikīs and Shāfiʿīs hold that the first salutation is obligatory, while the second is recommended and not binding.

• The Ḥanafīs hold that the word “salām” must be pronounced twice—once to the right and once to the left—whereas the remainder of the phrase “upon you and the mercy of Allah” is sunnah. Accordingly, the double salutation is wājib (obligatory but below the level of farḍ). One may technically exit the prayer by salām, by ordinary speech, or by any other act that nullifies the prayer, but doing so incurs reprehensible prohibition (karāhah taḥrīmiyyah). If the prayer is concluded under such a ruling, it must be repeated.

• The well-known Ḥanbalī view is that both salutations are compulsory; the first does not dispense with the second except in the funeral prayer, the prostration of recitation, and the prostration of gratitude, for these rites are designed to be light, and so one salutation suffices—though adding the second is permissible.

Al-ʿUqaylī said: “The chains of transmission affirming Ibn Masʿūd’s report about the two salutations are sound, and nothing authentic is reported from him about a single salutation.”

Al-Ṭaḥāwī and others explicitly stated that the two salutations have reached the level of tawātur from the Prophet ﷺ.

Al-Baghawī and others remarked: “The second salutation is a reliable addition that must be accepted, while the single salutation is not authenticated in the transmitted reports.”

The Shāfiʿīs and Mālikīs argue that only one salutation is obligatory, citing the general purport of