Answered by Shaykh Sohail Hanif, SunniPath Academy Teacher
I am asking a question regarding saying the salam after the Salah while praying in Jam’at. The issue is, that according to the Arabs who do their Salah by the Hanafi Fiqh say that the salam (both Right and Left) is one action, so when following the imam, we should say salam after he has done BOTH the first and the second. So, you see that the Imam does the salam first on the Right then on the Left and Then would the congregation do the salam. However, some Pakistanis who follow Hanafi Fiqh in Salah say that the salams are in fact, two different actions. One is the right (first) salam and the other is the left (second) salam.
Assalamu alaykum
The scholars, like Imam Tahtawhi in his Hashiyat al-Marqi, explain that there are two main opinions regarding this, the opinion of Abu Hanifa himself and that of his two companions; Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Shaybani.
Abu Hanifa was of the opinion that all acts are to be done simultaneously with the imam with just a brief delay to ensure that one does not do something before the imam. So one would say the opening Allahu Akbar’ at the same time as the imam instead of waiting for him to finish, descend for the sajda at the same time as the imam and give each of the two salams at the same time as the imam.
The two companions were of the opinion that the follower should start an action as soon as the imam completes it, so one would, according to them, say the opening Allahu Akbar’ as soon as the imam completes it, descend for the sajda as soon as the imam is in sajda and say the closing Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah’ to the right as soon as the imam completes saying it to the right and then repeat it to the left as soon as the imam completes saying it to the left. (Hashiya al-Tahtawi, 1:350, Maktaba al-Ilm al-Hadith)
With either opinion one would not wait for the imam to say the two salams before starting with one’s own salams, even though to do so does not affect the validity of the prayer but rather entails leaving that which is superior.
And Allah knows best
Sohail Hanif