Raising hands in dua

In Islam, raising hands in Dua (Arabic: رفع اليدين في الدعاء) is the action of using hands to invoke Allah in dua.

The view of limitation

Many scholars including especially Salafis limit this practice. According to them, basing on a lack of hadiths for other instances, with a fully authenticated chain, the practice of raising hands is specific to irregular prayers for needs and the Qunut of the Witr/Fajr prayers. This view excludes the practice of regularly raising the hands as sunnah and a mustahabb act of ibadah after fardh salah accompanying a dua. These scholars however do recognize raising hands during a dua not done after salah, saying that the Muslim should raise his hands with humility to Allah in the way instructed by Muhammad.

Raising hands in Dua

Using one index finger in Dua

Raising hands in Dua

A few cases of Raising the hands in Dua being regarded as a forbidden innovation (Bidʻah) are:^[1]

Salah (except for Qunut)
Khutbah (in specific cases)
Tawaf
Sa'iye
Ruku
Standing up from Ruku [ar]
Sujud
Sitting in salah

The view encouraging hand-raising after salah

Some scholars, while agreeing with not raising hands in Sujud, etc. extend its scope of application. Many such scholars hold the view of praiseworthiness of consistently praying dua after fardh Salah with hands raised, as a Sunnah action. For example, according to Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi there is no room for debate: "there around hadiths transmitted in support of this. One finds in Tirmidhi: “In the ritual prayer you beg. You are wretched and your are humble, and at the end you raise hands and exclaim “Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord!” Without this the prayer is a miscarriage” And this is manifestly true, being attested by a clear report. In the report they have established what the Messenger, God’s blessings and peace be upon him, did and ordered, and what he said about raising one’s hands."^[2]