What is the ruling on wiping the face with the hands after supplication?
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The questioner : What is the ruling on wiping the face with the hands after supplication, and also, does one look at the place of prostration, or at the hands, or raise his gaze?
The Shaykh : I think we mentioned this yesterday.
The questioner : No, the supplication, the supplication, O Shaykh, is it during the supplication?
The Shaykh : In any case, there is no objection to answering it. Wiping the face with the hands after supplication is a matter of disagreement among the scholars. This is because all the hadiths reported on this matter are weak. However, some scholars strengthened some of them with others. For example, Ibn Hajar mentioned the hadith in *Bulugh al-Maram* and stated that it has corroborating narrations, and that their total weight indicates that it is a good hadith. Other scholars held that some of them do not strengthen each other due to their extreme weakness. Among them was Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), who said that wiping the face with the hands after supplication is a religious innovation. I see that one should not wipe his face with his hands after supplication, because wiping is an act of worship, and if it is not established by a proof that establishes the worship of Allah through it, then it is not prescribed to wipe one's face with one's hands after supplication. But then, what does he do? He is now raising his hands, so what does he do? What does he do? He is raising his hands and has finished, so what does he do? He lowers them; there is no difficulty in that. Instead of wiping, he lowers them. As for where the raising ends: if it is in ordinary supplication, the hands should be at the level of the chest. If it is in supplication of entreaty, humility, and insistence, then a person raises his hands, because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to raise his hands during the prayer for rain until the whiteness of his armpits was visible, and he sometimes exaggerated in the raising until one might think that his backs were facing the sky. Yes.
The Shaykh : I think we mentioned this yesterday.
The questioner : No, the supplication, the supplication, O Shaykh, is it during the supplication?
The Shaykh : In any case, there is no objection to answering it. Wiping the face with the hands after supplication is a matter of disagreement among the scholars. This is because all the hadiths reported on this matter are weak. However, some scholars strengthened some of them with others. For example, Ibn Hajar mentioned the hadith in *Bulugh al-Maram* and stated that it has corroborating narrations, and that their total weight indicates that it is a good hadith. Other scholars held that some of them do not strengthen each other due to their extreme weakness. Among them was Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), who said that wiping the face with the hands after supplication is a religious innovation. I see that one should not wipe his face with his hands after supplication, because wiping is an act of worship, and if it is not established by a proof that establishes the worship of Allah through it, then it is not prescribed to wipe one's face with one's hands after supplication. But then, what does he do? He is now raising his hands, so what does he do? What does he do? He is raising his hands and has finished, so what does he do? He lowers them; there is no difficulty in that. Instead of wiping, he lowers them. As for where the raising ends: if it is in ordinary supplication, the hands should be at the level of the chest. If it is in supplication of entreaty, humility, and insistence, then a person raises his hands, because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to raise his hands during the prayer for rain until the whiteness of his armpits was visible, and he sometimes exaggerated in the raising until one might think that his backs were facing the sky. Yes.