Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Is it disliked or an innovation to send blessings on the Prophet (Allah bless him & give him peace) aloud after the Adhan?
This is an issue differed upon among scholars. Some consider it praiseworthy to send salawat out loud, and others consider it blameworthy if made a habit. The issue goes back to what is considered a reprehensible innovation.
However, Ibn Abidin took the position that sending the salawat out loud is recommended and deemed it a praiseworthy innovation, mentioning that Allama `Umar ibn Nujaym chose this opinion in his Nahr al-Fa’iq, a commentary on Imam al-Nasafi’s Kanz al-Daqa’iq.
This is certainly the inherited practice in Syria and other Arab lands, including Jordan, and the Hanafi scholars in these lands see nothing wrong with it, because the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) ordered us to send blessings on him after the Adhan. People had left this sunnah, so the scholars encouraged that the muezzin give the salwaat out loud so those who hear fulfill the prophetic order.
At the same time, the position of some scholars that it is reprehensible is a scholarly difference of opinion. We respect their opinion, acknowledge that this is a long-standing issue that the scholars differed upon, and do not make an issue out of it. It is dangerous for the layman to attack scholars, for their flesh is poisonous.
Imam `Ala’ al-Din al-Haskafi said in his authoritative Durr al-Mukhar,
“The [loud] sending of blessings [on the Prophet] after the Adhan was started in the month of Rabi` al-Akhir, 781 AH… and it is a praiseworthy innovation.”
Imam Muhammad Amin Ibn Abidin, the top authority for fatwa positions in the Hanafi school, confirmed this in his Radd al-Muhtar, explaining in a related issue that,
“Inherited practices [f: accepted by generation after generation of scholars without disagreement] cannot be disliked…”
And Allah alone gives success.
Walaikum assalam,
Faraz Rabbani.