Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
What is the ruling regarding the supplications that Imam Ghazali and others have mentioned, about which Imam Nawawi notes that they have no basis?
It is as though the questioner intends the supplications that are said when washing the limbs during wudu. In summary, [m: scholars] have differed regarding whether or not any of these supplications are attributable to the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace). Imam Nawawi said, “they have no basis.” Based on this, they cannot be used [m: even] for [m: merely] meritorious deeds (Ar. fada’il al-a`mal), because a condition of acting upon weak hadiths is that they should not be very weak. This is what Ibn Hajar selected in the Tuhfa.
However, some of the late scholars followed up on Imam Nawawi and said that these supplications do have a basis, as Ibn Hibban narrates them in his Tarikh. As the exacting imam, Al-Jalal Al-Mahalli, and Shaykh-ul-Islam Zakaria [m: Al-Ansari] point out in Sharh Al-Minhaj and Asna Al-Matalib ([m: respectively]), others have also narrated them, although their transmissions are weak. [h: Despite this], according to them, they are strong enough to be acted upon in the case of meritorious acts. Al-Shihab Al-Ramli and his son Shams Al-Deen [1] considered the praiseworthiness of these supplications as reliable in the Nihaya, as did Al-Khatib Al-Shirbini in the Mughni.
– Amjad Rasheed
(Translated by Sidi Moustafa Elqabbany with Sidi Hamza Karamali)
Notes
[m:
1. Shams Al-Deen Al-Ramli is the author of the Nihaya, which, along with Ibn Hajar’s Tuhfa, is a primary reference of fatwa in our school.
]