issued from the pulpit, he is greeting a congregation; therefore answering him is a communal obligation.
Question: As for the Friday prayer, as you have indicated, should the response be made silently, between a person and himself?
Answer: Yes, it should be silent.
Reciting the Most Beautiful Names of Allah after the prayer
Question: In the mosque where we pray, after completing the daily portion of Quran recitation, the congregation reads the Most Beautiful Names of Allah, and then they all repeat the Name “Yā Latīf” one hundred and twenty-nine times. Is this practice sanctioned, or is it an innovation?
Answer: Making a habit of reciting the Most Beautiful Names of Allah after the obligatory prayers, and repeating the phrase “Yā Latīf” a specific number of times and in a particular manner, are all newly invented practices in Islam. The best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ, and the worst of matters are those that are newly introduced; every innovation is misguidance.
Accordingly, these invented litanies—such as reciting the Most Beautiful Names of Allah after certain prayers, chanting “Yā Latīf” aloud a set number of times, and similar formulas for which there is no evidence in the Book or the Sunnah, nor in the practice of the righteous early generations—are innovations that must be abandoned, shunned, and warned against.
As for the Most Beautiful Names of Allah themselves, the Exalted says, “Allah has the Most Beautiful Names, so call upon Him by them” (al-Aʿrāf 7:180). Supplicating to Allah by His Names and attributes and seeking nearness to Him through them is legislated, but assigning a fixed time for this, or restricting it to after an obligatory prayer, is not permissible unless there is a proof establishing that specification—and no such proof exists. Allah knows best.