What is the ruling on raising the voice in seeking forgiveness after every prayer? It includes a discussion on the innovation of gathering for dhikr, the classification of innovations into additional and real, and the mention of examples for both.

The questioner : For example, in some mosques, after every obligatory prayer...

The Shaykh : Excuse me.

The questioner : After every obligatory prayer, the congregation seeks forgiveness three times, among some people... Is this a disturbance to the worshippers?

The Shaykh : Yes, seeking forgiveness after the prayer is a sunnah (recommended practice) of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). It is reported in Sahih Muslim from the hadith of the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say when he finished the prayer: It is also reported in Sahih Muslim, perhaps from the hadith of Abu Dharr or another of the Companions, that the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to seek Allah's forgiveness three times when he finished the prayer, then say: One of the narrators of the hadith, Sufyan al-Thawri, was asked how the seeking of forgiveness was done. He said: "I seek Allah's forgiveness, I seek Allah's forgiveness, I seek Allah's forgiveness." This means that the seeking of forgiveness of the Messenger (peace be upon him) was not lengthy but concise, as you have heard. Therefore, the seeking of forgiveness in question is, first, a sunnah (recommended practice), and a sunnah (recommended practice) in a concise form. Then, it is not prescribed to gather for this seeking of forgiveness, meaning... raising the voice, because that was not the practice of the righteous predecessors. As the scholars of knowledge said: "Every good is in following those who came before, and every evil is in the innovation of those who came after". Gathering for dhikr after the prayer in particular, or at any time in general, is an additional innovation, in the terminology of Imam al-Shatibi in his great book "Al-I'tisam". Innovations are divided into two categories, and this classification must be understood by students of knowledge, because through it many problems in their minds regarding what causes disagreement among individuals or groups of Muslims are removed.
Imam al-Shatibi divides innovations into two categories: a real innovation and an additional innovation. He says in defining the real innovation: "It is that which has no basis at all in the Book or in the Sunnah". He gives as an example the innovation of the doctrine of compulsion (jabr) and the doctrine of abstention (i'tizal), denying divine decree, declaring the perpetrator of a major sin a disbeliever, and the like. This is a real innovation.
The second category, which is more important of the two, is the matter, because the first matter is clear to all people, whereas the second category is hidden from many scholars of knowledge, let alone others. The additional innovation, he says: "It is that which, when you look at it from one side, you find it prescribed, and when you look at it from another side, you find it contrary to the Sunnah". He gives examples of this, including the question that was asked: dhikr after the prayer with raised voices in congregation, and supplication after the prayer in congregation. The imam supplicates and the people say "Ameen" to his supplication. He says this and this is an additional innovation. Why? Because dhikr after the prayer is established in the Sunnah, and we have mentioned to you earlier the seeking of forgiveness of the Messenger three times and his saying: etc. But something occurred to this dhikr that was not there. By this consideration, it entered into the additional innovation. And this should not be difficult for any of you, because if we saw a person, for example, reciting aloud in the third rak'ah of the Maghrib prayer, we would hasten to rebuke him. Why? Because he contradicted the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Did he contradict the Sunnah of the Messenger in a fundamental way? No, it is a formal contradiction. The Prophet certainly recited in the third rak'ah, but how did he recite it? Secretly. So if he recites it aloud, he has contradicted the Sunnah in the loudness of the recitation. This is called an additional innovation, because as for the recitation, the recitation is a sunnah (recommended practice), but as for the loudness, the loudness is an innovation, because the sunnah in it is secrecy.
Likewise, seeking forgiveness after the prayer is a sunnah (recommended practice), but the sunnah in it is secrecy, so raising the voice in it is an innovation, but it is an additional innovation. Likewise, the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to supplicate after the prayer with a concise supplication, for example: . He also used to say: . He used to say to Mu'adh: . But the original form of this dhikr is secrecy, so raising the voice becomes an additional innovation.
So, if we want to realize in ourselves the saying of Allah the Exalted: , we must realize the complete verse: . Following the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) must be absolute and complete following, without any philosophy or private logic, where it is said, as many people say: "Brother, what is the problem?" "What is the problem if we know such and such?" "What is the problem if we raise our voices in dhikr?". It is enough for you, O Muslim, to know the answer to your question: "What is the problem with it?" The problem is that you have contradicted the Messenger (peace be upon him), whose every action is from the revelation of the sky; falsehood does not come to him from before him or from behind him.
And among the clear and clarifying examples of what we are saying, Muslims to this day, Muslims still do not call the adhan (call to prayer) for anything other than the five prayers. And perhaps I will have to specify my previous statement when I say "Muslims still," and I will say I mean their scholars, otherwise you will hear an exception to this. Muslims to this day do not call the adhan except for the five prayers. So they do not call the adhan, for example, for the prayer for rain, or for the eclipse prayer, or for the two festivals, or for the funeral prayer. Why? If an inventor, or rather an innovator, in a village where there are no scholars of knowledge said, "We call the adhan for the festival prayer," and one of the students of knowledge rebuked him, saying, "Brother, we have not heard this from the Messenger, nor from the Companions, nor from the imams, and all their books are consistent that the festival prayer has no adhan," and he answered with the same answer mentioned earlier: "What is the problem, brother? It is the remembrance of Allah, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest". In it, as Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him) said when a man came to him while he was in the Prophet's Mosque seeking his fatwa. He said to him, "I want to enter the state of ihram for 'Umrah from the Prophet's Mosque (peace be upon him), meaning not from the miqat of Dhul Hulayfah or the place that the common people today call Abi 'Ali, and this name has no basis.

He said, and I will end my speech with this. He said, "I want to enter the state of ihram from the Prophet's Mosque (peace be upon him)." He said, "I fear fitnah (trial) for you." He said, "What fitnah? This is only steps." He said, "I add to them." He said... "A fitnah greater than you thinking that you are more guided than the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) by these steps that you add to the Messenger. Either the Messenger was deficient and you corrected him, or he was heedless and misguided and you were guided to him. So what fitnah is greater than this? This word, in reality, must be recorded in the minds of all Muslims so that they know the danger of innovation in religion, even in the simplest things and the most trivial forms, as we were speaking earlier about raising the voice in seeking forgiveness after the prayer, and in the adhkar in general in which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not prescribe raising the voice. And with this, it is sufficient. Glory be to You, O Allah, and praise be to You. I bear witness that there is no god but You. I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.