Question:
Is it authentic to place one’s hand upon the head after the obligatory prayer and recite:
“Bismillāh alladhī lā ilāha illā Huwa al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm”?
Source: Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri
✿ Answer:
A narration attributed to Sayyidunā Anas bin Mālik رضي الله عنه states that:
Arabic Text:
كان النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم إذا سلم من صلاته وضع يده اليمنى على جبهته وقال:
بسم الله الذى لا إله إلا هو الرحمٰن الرحيم، أذهب عني الهم والحزن
Translation:
“When the Prophet ﷺ finished his prayer by saying salām, he would place his right hand upon his forehead and say:
‘In the name of Allah, besides Whom there is no god, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. O Allah, remove my worries and grief.’”
📚 (ʿAmal al-Yawm wa al-Laylah by Ibn al-Sunnī: 113; Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ by Abū Nuʿaym al-Aṣbahānī: 2/301)
❀ Analysis of Authenticity:
This narration is false (bāṭil) and its chain is fabricated or severely weak.
① Sallām al-Ṭawīl — He is matrūk (abandoned) by the scholars of ḥadīth.
📚 (Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb by Ibn Ḥajar: no. 2702)
② Zayd al-ʿAmī — Declared weak (ḍaʿīf) by the majority.
Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar رحمه الله said:
ضعيف عند الجمهور
“He is weak according to the majority.”
📚 (Natāʾij al-Afkār: 253)
❀ Additional Chains of Transmission:
Another version is reported through Al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ of al-Ṭabarānī (3178), Kitāb al-Duʿāʾ by al-Ṭabarānī (658), Al-Kāmil by Ibn ʿAdī (6/2084–2085), and Tārīkh Baghdād by al-Khaṭīb (12/480).
These contain Kathīr bin Sulaym and Abū Salamah al-Madīnī, both of whom are severely weak (ḍaʿīf jiddan).
A similar narration appears in Tārīkh Aslam al-Wāsiṭī (p. 161):
Arabic Text:
كان النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم إذا سلم من صلاته وضع يده اليمنى على جبهته وقال:
بسم الله الذى لا إله إلا هو، عالم الغيب والشهادة، الرحمن الرحيم، اللهم اذهب عني الهم والحزن
Translation:
“When the Prophet ﷺ finished his prayer, he would place his right hand upon his forehead and say:
‘In the name of Allah, besides Whom there is no god, Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. O Allah, remove my worries and sadness.’”
However, this narration is also extremely weak:
① ʿAnbah bin ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Wāsiṭī — unknown; no biographical record exists.
② ʿAmr bin Qays, a Tābiʿī, narrates directly from the Prophet ﷺ, making the narration mursal and thus weak.
Another version recorded by Abū Nuʿaym al-Aṣbahānī in Akhbār Aṣbahān (2/104) has a fabricated (mawḍūʿ) chain:
① Dāwūd bin Muḥmir — matrūk (abandoned) and a liar (kadhdhāb).
② ʿAbbās bin Razīn al-Aslamī — unknown (majhūl).
✅ Conclusion:
All the narrations describing placing the hand upon the forehead after prayer and reciting “Bismillāh alladhī lā ilāha illā Huwa al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm…” are unauthentic.
Each chain is either severely weak, mursal, or fabricated.
Therefore, this practice has no basis in authentic Sunnah, and it should not be performed after obligatory prayers.
