At the mosque, when the prayers are finished, dhikr is done collectively, with a person saying out loud Subhanallah and everyone inside themselves saying it 33 times, then the same for Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar. Is this bidah? Isn?t it possible that some of the things that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said during his prophethood has not been conveyed fully by some of the Sahabah due to various reasons (eg. memory, etc)? I mean they are human and CAN make mistakes at times? Please provide a detailed and accurate answer.
1. This is not referred to as collective Dhikr. Collective Dhikr is referred
to a form of Dhikr where all participants say the Dhikr aloud at the same
time. In the case mentioned by you, the Imaam merely says ‘Subhaanallah’ or
‘Alhamdulillah’ once and the congregation thereafter recite the same
silently. So the Imaam’s saying so is more of a ‘reminder’ to engage in
Dhikr of this sort.
2. Yes, they were humans and could have made mistakes. However, the degree
of authenticity of the Ahaadith, etc. is based upon the chain of narrators
in terms of reliability and number. In other words, the more the narrators,
the more authenticity is added to the Hadith. So when a number of Sahaabah
narrate a particular Hadith, the authenticity of the Hadith is further
enhanced manifold.
and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best
Mufti Muhammad Kadwa
FATWA DEPT.
CHECKED AND APPROVED CORRECT: Mufti Ebrahim Desai