Chapter: Remembrance After the Prayer
Supplicating and seeking forgiveness once the prayer is over contain profound wisdom and manifest benefits: they expose our shortcomings and inability to perfect the prayer, they patch whatever flaws occurred within it, and the moment right after the prayer is one of the times when supplications are answered.
In addition, they demonstrate eagerness to obey and freedom from weariness, for the worshipper is like a traveler who alights and then resumes his journey from one act of devotion to the next. Supplication increases good deeds, erases sins, and raises a person’s rank.
The First Ḥadīth
Abd-Allāh ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) reported: “Raising the voice with remembrance when the people dispersed from the prescribed prayer was practiced in the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”
Ibn ʿAbbās added, “I would know they had finished when I heard it.”
In another wording: “We did not recognize the conclusion of the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ prayer except by the takbīr.” Agreed upon.
General Meaning
Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) relates that the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions used to raise their voices with the takbīr and the remembrance of Allah after completing the five obligatory prayers. Because of this, he could tell their prayer had ended by the sound of their voices.
Points Derived from the Ḥadīth
- Remembrance after the prayer is recommended because of its many benefits and because it follows the practice of the Prophet ﷺ.
- It is permissible to raise one’s voice in that remembrance, as the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions did so.
- It is possible that Ibn ʿAbbās was young and did not attend the congregation, hearing their voices proclaiming the oneness of Allah while he was outside the mosque. Another possibility is that he did attend the congregation but was in distant rows and, with no proclaimer relaying the words, only knew the Prophet ﷺ had concluded by hearing the voices of those in the front rows.
The Second Ḥadīth
Warrād, the freedman of al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, said: Al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah dictated to me in a letter addressed to Muʿāwiyah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say at the end of every prescribed prayer:
“There is no god but Allah alone, without partner. His is the dominion and His is the praise, and He is over all things competent. O Allah, none can withhold what You give, none can give what You withhold, and the possessor of might cannot benefit from his might against You.”