366. Should I Raise My Hands After Salaah To Make Duaa?

By Asma bint Shameem 

You MAY raise your hands after Salaah to make duaa, here and there, occasionally.

But to do it EVERY SINGLE TIME after Salaah, thinking it’s PART of the Salaah or that your Salaah is not complete without it, or thinking that you’re sinful or wrong if you don’t do it, is NOT the correct understanding. 

And is NOT from the Sunnah. 

The Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam did NOT RAISE his hands to make duaa after every single Salaah. 

The duaas and adhkaar that he Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam REGULARLY said after Salaah did NOT involve raising the hands. 

Rather these adhkaar are to be said WITHOUT raising the hands 

You see, duaa is an act of worship. 

And ANY act of worship is “tawqeefi”, which means that it has to have EVIDENCE from the Qur’aan and authentic Sunnah. 

If there’s evidence for it, we do it. 

And if there’s no evidence for it, we don’t do it. 

So if we look at the practice of the Prophet Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam from the authentic Sunnah, we will see that there are times when the Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam DID make duaa AND raise his hands like in Qunoot or in the prayer for rain, or in the prayer for the Eclipse, or in Arafah, on top of Safa and Marwa, etc. 

So we should ALSO raise our hands on such occasions 

And there are times when the Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam did NOT raise his hands when he made duaa. 

For example when making duaa during Tawaaf, or when saying the morning and evening adhkaar, during Sa’ee while going between Safa Marwa, etc. 

And this ALSO includes the time when he Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam ENDED his PRAYER. 

He did NOT raise his hands and make duaa *every single time* after Salaah. 

So we should also not raise our hands at these times, following his example. Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam.  

 Shaykh Sa’d Al-Humayd explains  this issue very well. 

He said:

“It is important to note that duaa’ is an act of worship, and every act of worship should only be done on the basis of evidence (daleel). 

The basic principle here is that the hands should be raised when making duaa’, except when the duaa’ is part of another act of worship, in which case raising the hands is regarded as an ADDITIONAL action (and should not be done). 

Examples of such acts of worship include salaah, khutbah, Tawaaf, sa’ee, etc. 

Salaah includes duaa’ at the beginning of the prayer, in rukoo’, when standing up from rukoo’, in the two sajdahs and in the sitting between the two prostrations – but whoever raises his hands in these places is considered to have committed an act of bid’ah (reprehensible innovation). 

The same applies to raising the hands when making duaa’ on the minbar, except in the case of istisqaa’ (praying for rain). 

And the same applies when making duaa’ when doing tawaaf or sa’ee.  

When there is evidence to show that it is permissible to raise the hands in certain situation, then there is no dispute. 

Any duaa’ which has not been narrated in a report and which is not part of another act of worship is regarded as GENERAL du’aa.

In this case there is nothing wrong with raising the hands. 

It was narrated that the Prophet Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam spoke of a man who raised his hands to the sky and said, “O Lord, O Lord,” whilst his food was haraam, his drink was haraam, his clothing was haraam, he had been nourished with haraam, so how could his du’aa’ be answered?  

And the Prophet Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam said: 

“Allaah feels shy to let His slave raise his hands to Him and bring them back empty.” – and other ahaadeeth.  

With regard to raising the hands after a naafil prayer, IF that is NOT a du’aa’ that is REGULARLY offered, such as when a man is faced with some emergency, and he calls upon Allaah at that moment, there is nothing wrong with that. 

But if he REGULARLY makes duaa’ and raises his hands after praying an OBLIGATORY prayer, there is NO  CLEAR EVIDENCE to support doing so.” (Islamqa Fatwa # 11543)

And the scholars of the Standing Committee said:

“Making du’aa’ after the obligatory prayers is not Sunnah *if it is done by raising the hands*, whether that is done by the Imaam alone or a member of the congregation alone, or it is done by them both together. 

Rather that is bid’ah, because it was not narrated that the Prophet Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam or any of his companions (may Allaah be pleased with them) did that. 

*With regard to making duaa’ without doing that (raising the hands etc.), there is nothing wrong with it, because there are some ahaadeeth concerning that.”*

(Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 7/103)

And Allaah knows best