Ruling on Wiping the Face After Duʿā’

Shumara al-Sunnah, Jhelum

✿ Question:​

What is the ruling on wiping the face with hands after making duʿā’?

✿ Answer:​

It is permissible (jā’iz) to wipe the face with the hands after completing a duʿā’.

✿ Narrations from the Salaf:​

➊ Abū Naʿīm Wahb bin Kaysān al-Madanī رحمه الله said:
"I saw Ibn ʿUmar and Ibn al-Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with them) making duʿā’ and wiping their faces with their palms afterwards."
[Al-Adab al-Mufrad by Bukhārī: 609, chain is ḥasan]

➋ Al-Firyābī narrated:
"Isḥāq bin Rāhawayh told us, al-Muʿtamir bin Sulaymān said: I saw Abū Kaʿb Ṣāḥib al-Ḥarīr making duʿā’ while raising his hands. After finishing, he wiped them over his face. I asked him, 'From whom did you learn this?' He replied, 'From al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.'"
[Fatḥ al-Wiʿā’ fī Aḥādīth Rafʿ al-Yadayn biʾl-Duʿā’ by al-Suyūṭī, p. 101, chain is ṣaḥīḥ]

Imām al-Suyūṭī رحمه الله (d. 911 AH) classified this narration as ḥasan (sound).

✿ Conclusion:​

Wiping the face with the hands after duʿā’ is a permissible and documented practice from several early scholars and companions of the Prophet ﷺ. It is neither an obligation nor an innovation.