What are the adhkar after the prayer, and are they recited quietly or aloud?

Al-Halabi : A questioner asks regarding the adhkar after the prayer, whether they should be recited aloud, citing that some famous scholars have stated that leaving off the recitation of dhikr aloud is among the abandoned sunnahs. He mentioned the hadith of Ibn Abbas in Sahih al-Bukhari, which, as reported in the question, states that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to recite aloud, and that the Companions did so as well. What is your ruling on this question?

The Shaykh : The hadith referred to is undoubtedly authentic, narrated by Imam al-Bukhari in his Sahih. However, it is not a text regarding the continuity of reciting dhikr or takbir aloud, nor is it a text covering all types of prescribed dhikr after the prayer. Regarding the first point, it is not a text indicating that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and the Companions continued to recite dhikr aloud after the prayer. This is due to two reasons. The first reason is that the hadith contains an indication that the recitation aloud was not continuous, which is the statement of the narrator, Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him): His use of "we used to" indicates that the matter did not continue beyond that time. For this reason, Imam al-Shafi'i states in his great book, al-Umm, that this recitation aloud was for the purpose of teaching; the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) teaching some of the adhkar after the prayer. We know that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would raise his voice with some dhikr. As you know, the best dhikr is the Noble Qur'an. He would raise his voice even where lowering the voice and not reciting aloud is prescribed, such as in prayer. The scholars say that this was so that the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) would know what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was reciting in the quiet prayers. There is a hadith from Ibn Abbas himself, stating: But this does not inform them of what he was reciting. He would raise his voice in the quiet prayers, just as Abu Qatadah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) said: If the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) raised his voice for the sake of teaching in a place where only quiet recitation is prescribed, then it is even more likely that he raised his voice for the sake of teaching after the prayer. Although the default for dhikr after the prayer is also to recite it quietly, there are many, many hadiths encouraging the worshippers, outside of prayer, not to raise their voices in dhikr, even if they are in the open, even if they are in the desert. It is narrated in the two Sahihs from the hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari that they were on a journey, and he said: This was in the desert. What about the mosque, where raising the voice causes disturbance to those who may be behind by a rak'ah or more, and to those who are occupied with reciting the Qur'an or some of the adhkar, and the like? For this reason, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, having heard the voices of the worshippers raised in the mosque: And in a narration: This is from the perspective that there is no evidence in the hadith of Ibn Abbas for the continuity of the practice. As for the fact that there is no evidence in it for the inclusion of all adhkar, that is even more so, and I do not think it exists in it. I do not think that those scholars the questioner referred to, who said that raising the voice in dhikr after the prayer is among the abandoned sunnahs, I do not think that this very person, who is enthusiastic about raising the voice in dhikr to the extent of saying that it is an abandoned sunnah, would say that it is prescribed to raise the voice in every dhikr after the prayer. For example, you on one side and your neighbor on the other saying "Subhan Allah, Subhan Allah, Subhan Allah wa bihamdihi" and so on. No one says this. All that can be said is that there are some takbirs and some adhkar for which there is a text stating that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) raised his voice with them, and the reason was mentioned earlier, which is for the sake of teaching. As for every dhikr which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) advised and recommended to Mu'adh ibn Jabal when he said to him: Similarly, for people to all say "O Allah, You are Peace and from You is peace," and likewise for them to do all these things, they do not recite them aloud. But what do they recite aloud? The ten takbirs after Fajr and after Maghrib. What distinguishes these from the others? Therefore, there is no explicit statement in the hadith regarding continuity, nor regarding comprehensiveness, and with this the answer ends.