Remembrance After the Prayer

These are selected passages from Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy upon him—who said:

“In the sound collections it is reported that, before leaving his place of prayer, the Prophet ﷺ would seek refuge three times and then say:

Allahumma anta al-salām, wa minka al-salām, tabārakta yā dhā al-jalāli wa-l-ikrām
(O Allah, You are Peace and from You comes peace; blessed are You, O Possessor of Majesty and Honor.)

“It is also authentically related that he ﷺ would say:

Lā ilāha illā Allah waḥdahu lā sharīka lahu, lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-ḥamd, wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr.
Allāhumma lā māniʿa limā aʿṭayt, wa lā muʿṭiya limā manaʿt,
wa lā yanfaʿu dhā-l-jaddi minka al-jadd,
wa lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billāh,
wa lā naʿbudu illā iyyāh,
mukhliṣīna lahu al-dīn wa-law kariha al-kāfirūn.
(There is no god but Allah alone, without partner; His is the dominion and His is the praise, and He has power over all things. O Allah, none can withhold what You give, nor grant what You withhold; the fortune of the fortunate avails nothing against You. There is no might and no power except through Allah. We worship none but Him, devoting the religion sincerely to Him even though the disbelievers may detest it.)

“He used to teach them to say subḥān Allah (Glory be to Allah) thirty-three times, al-ḥamdu lillāh (Praise be to Allah) thirty-three times, and Allāhu akbar (Allah is the Greatest) thirty-three times—making ninety-nine—and to complete the hundred with:

Lā ilāha illā Allah waḥdahu lā sharīka lahu, lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-ḥamd, wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr
(There is no god but Allah alone, without partner; His is the dominion and His is the praise, and He has power over all things).”

There is no doubt that invocations and supplications are among the noblest acts of worship, and that the prophetic formulas are the finest remembrance and prayer a believer can adopt. Any other formula may be merely disliked, may be forbidden, or may even contain elements of shirk that most people fail to notice.

Remembrance is one of the best forms of worship. ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said, “The remembrance uttered after leaving the prayer is like wiping a mirror after it has been polished,” for the prayer itself polishes the heart. These post-prayer remembrances are not obligatory; whoever wishes to stand before saying them is not to be censured. However, the follower should not rise until the imam has turned away from the qiblah, and the imam should not remain seated facing the qiblah after the salām except for the brief moment needed to seek forgiveness three times and to say:

Allahumma anta al-salām, wa minka al-salām, tabārakta yā dhā al-jalāli wa-l-ikrām.

Counting the glorifications on one’s fingers is a sunnah, for the Prophet ﷺ said to the women: “Glorify Allah and count on your fingers, for they will be questioned and made to speak.”