If a man places his hand on his chest during prayer and people disapprove of him and are repelled by him, is it permissible for him to leave that practice and agree with the people by placing it under the chest for the sake of the call?

The Shaykh : The first question here: the questioner says, "Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings. We ask you to clarify the following issue: I place my hand on my chest during prayer, and people are repelled by me and do not understand this issue. Is there any sin on me if I do what is contrary to this, like the people, to draw near to this call, and the people place their hands under the chest? Second, I never sit with people after prayer so that they may supplicate, and most people are repelled by this. Is there any sin on me if I sit and supplicate with them, because the scholars among us say, 'Why do you not seek forgiveness and supplicate, and we will supplicate for you?' Give us a ruling, and may Allah reward you with good for all of this. And this, in our belief, is to draw near to the people. True is Allah the Mighty, where He said to His noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) If we, the Salafis who call to the Book and the Sunnah, had followed the people in their innovations and their many contradictions of the correct Sunnahs, there would not have been a call on the face of the earth that is a Salafi call. Rather, this following of the people, which the questioner expressed as intending to draw near to the people so that they in turn draw near to the call, was one of the causes that delayed the Salafi call for long centuries, and the people came to live in a loathsome imitation, not knowing the Sunnah, and consequently not knowing the innovation. For most people, as the Exalted said, do not know. And the few of them who followed the society in which they lived allowed the innovations to multiply and proliferate, and the Sunnahs continued to die until the innovation became a Sunnah and the Sunnah became an innovation. And we have reached this time in which we are confronted with the principle that has occurred, for example, in the famous phrase "She threw her illness at me and slipped away". We, who call to following the Book and the Sunnah, are branded with the title of innovators, while they are submerged to their chins in innovations. They are the people of the Sunnah. Therefore, we must proclaim the truth and be frank with the people about what they are upon. And Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear. Perhaps you, the questioner, or I, the one answering, may not be able to proclaim the truth in many cases out of fear of fitnah. But to do their work, to follow them, and to support them in their error, this has no basis in the Shari'ah at all. Therefore, it is not permissible for one who believes that the Sunnah is placing the hands on the chest to place them under the chest, under the navel. And it is not permissible for one who knows that adhering to supplication with the congregation after the five prayers, as the majority of people do today, is an innovation. It is not permissible for one who knows this to join them and follow them, because he supports the innovation with his action and contradicts the Sunnah. Therefore, we must be patient with this call by which Allah the Exalted has blessed us, by which He made us know, for most people are ignorant of it, or even hostile to it. It is not permissible in any way for us to join them and follow them in their contradiction of the Sunnah. But I have a small note: there is no objection, at times, for the Sunni who holds fast to the Sunnah to sit in the mosque after prayer and recite the prescribed adhkar and remembrances, while the others bring in some remembrances that are not prescribed and some that are prescribed, but they have attached to them what is not prescribed, so it became an additional innovation, as Imam al-Shatibi says. In his sitting, there is a double effect: first, the majority who contradict the Sunnah, either by bringing in some adhkar that have no basis or by adding to them what has no basis, are reminded that this Sunni or Salafi is doing what came in the Sunnah, evidenced by his remaining after prayer in the mosque and his bringing in the adhkar and remembrances. They then become aware, if they wish to be aware, that this man is not one of the hurried people who care only about performing the obligatory prayer and then leaving for their work. His standing after the imam's taslim might be interpreted by this interpretation, which is first contrary to the reality, and second, is not suitable for the Salafi call. So if he remains in his place at times and brings in the prescribed adhkar, he blocks their path to accusing him of being one of the hurried people, as we mentioned. And the second thing those people benefit from him is that he contradicts them in what they are upon of customs. If he is not able to proclaim that this is the Sunnah and what you are upon is an innovation, at least there will be some people who follow him in his distinctness from them, because he does not participate with them in their remembrances and in their raising of their voices. Some of them may be moved and ask him, "Why do you sit and glorify and remember Allah alone?" This becomes a door opened for him to teach the people the Sunnah and warn them of innovation. And in brief, let the questioner remember that if every Salafi who knew the truth concealed it from the people, there would be no mention at all of this call in these Levantine lands. If Allah the Exalted had singled me out for something of the beginning of the call in the present age, it was not because we followed the people, but because we hastened to apply the Sunnah, even if all the people were angry with us, whether they were relatives or strangers. Perhaps some of you will be surprised, though the others know this news, that among the things I announced is that I have boycotted, until this moment, the Umayyad Mosque, so I do not pray in it, because I learned that mosques built on graves, whether they are fabricated graves like the grave of Yahya (peace be upon him) or true graves, it is not permissible to pray in these mosques. Many people adopted this idea and became aware and became cautious about praying in the mosque built on a grave. If we imagine such an issue, and there are tens, if not hundreds, or thousands of issues that the one who knew them concealed, how would the others know their ruling? This is in addition to the responsibility before Allah Blessed and Exalted when the scholar conceals his knowledge of the issue. Allah the Exalted says Therefore, it is not permissible for the Muslim to conceal knowledge, so how can he follow the people in the opposite of knowledge? This is what we say in answer to the previous question. But this does not mean that we must not employ wisdom and good manner in the call. That is another matter. Manner and wisdom are commanded in the Qur'an, as is well known. But it is not wisdom at all to follow the people in their error and their misguidance; rather, this is contrary to the texts of the Book and the Sunnah.