As for the expression dubur al-salāh (“the end of prayer”), it may mean either its final part or what immediately follows its final part. A person’s rear, for example, is the hindmost part of the body. The word ʿaqib is similar: it may mean the hindmost part of something, such as a person’s heel, or what immediately follows it.

Thus, supplication described as being “at the end of prayer” may mean supplication during its final part, in agreement with the other hadiths. Alternatively, it may mean what follows its final part, namely, the period after the tashahhud (testimony of faith). This has likewise been called the completion of prayer and finishing it, since nothing remains except the salām (closing salutation), which is incompatible with prayer: deliberately uttering it during prayer invalidates the prayer, whereas the other prescribed remembrances do not invalidate it. Or the expression may be unrestricted or ambiguous. In any event, it cannot be restricted to the period after the salām, because the supplications generally transmitted were offered before that. Nor is it permissible to institute a sunnah on the basis of ambiguous wording that contradicts the mass-transmitted Sunnah conveyed in explicit terms.

People take three positions on this matter concerning the period after the salām:

Some do not approve of the imam remaining seated facing the congregation, whether for remembrance of Allah, supplication, or anything else. Their evidence is the report that the early Muslims disliked the imam continuing to face the direction of prayer after the salām. They assumed that this required him to rise from his place, not realizing that his turning to face the congregation—as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to do—achieves this purpose.