Is it an innovation (bid'ah) for the imam and the congregation to regularly raise their hands and make collective supplication after the obligatory prayers? And if this collective supplication is made not daily but only after the Friday prayer, will its ruling be the same? Please give detailed guidance in the light of the Qur'an and Sunnah and the understanding of the Salaf.

After the five daily obligatory prayers, or only after Jumu'ah, the imam and the congregation gathering in one form and making permanent and regular collective supplication a routine is not established; adopting it believing it to be an essential part of the prayer or a Sunnah is bid'ah idafiyyah (a non-prescribed method).

1. The method of the Prophet ﷺ and the Companions: the Prophet ﷺ led the five daily prayers and Jumu'ah in Madinah for about ten years; what is established with certainty and tawatur after the prayer is the individual adhkar (istighfar three times, «اللَّهُمَّ أَنْتَ السَّلَامُ وَمِنْكَ السَّلَامُ...» (O Allah, You are al-Salam and from You is all peace...), Ayat al-Kursi, the tasbihat 33/33/33). It is not established from any authentic hadith that after the salam he ﷺ would raise his hands towards the congregation and make regular collective supplication and the Companions would say amin — had it been an act done five times daily before thousands of Companions, it would have been mentioned abundantly in the hadiths.

2. Only after Jumu'ah: still not correct — attaching to a specific day, from one's own side, a form which the Prophet ﷺ and the Companions did not specify is not correct. Jumu'ah certainly has an hour of acceptance, but the preponderant time is after 'Asr until sunset, or during the khutbah and prayer; collective supplication over the microphone immediately after Jumu'ah is established neither from the Prophet ﷺ nor from the Rightly-Guided Caliphs.

3. The position of the imams: Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him: the Prophet ﷺ and the caliphs did not make collective supplication with raised hands together with the congregation after the prayer — not after Fajr, not after 'Asr, not after any prayer; his supplication was within the prayer; permanent collective supplication after the prayer is an innovation (Majmu' al-Fatawa: 22/513). Imam ash-Shatibi (al-I'tisam): he declared this practice "bid'ah idafiyyah" (a relative innovation).

4. The best place for supplication: supplication is the essence of worship; its best and prescribed place is within the prayer — in prostration and in the tashahhud before the salam. Individually, occasionally raising the hands and supplicating in solitude after the adhkar or after sunnah/nafl prayers is no harm — the defect is only in making a permanent collective form and regularity.

Summary: the regular collective supplication of the imam over the microphone and the congregation's obligatory amin is not established from the Sunnah; the prescribed method is to attend to the individual adhkar and tasbihat after the salam.

Translated from the original Urdu fatwa.