Is it a bid’ah to say dua and read the Quran after performing a prayer?

After the muezzin says Subhana... wahhab, I say a dua myself since I do not know the dua to be said after a prayer. After the dua, I read the chapter of al-Ikhlas three times, and the chapters of al-Falaq and an-Nas; I send them to the Prophet (pbuh) and my dead relatives. Is it permissible to do so? Or, is it regarded as bid’ah?

Dear Brother / Sister,

You can say dua as much as you want and read chapters from the Quran after prayers. There is no drawback to it; they cannot be called bid’ahs.

It is sunnah to say astaghfirullah three times, Allahumma antassalam…, subhanallah, alhamdulillah and Allahu akbar thirty-three times each, to read ayatul-kursiyy, and even the chapters of al-Falaq and an-Nas; they are definite by the hadiths of the Prophet (pbuh).

However, they were not uttered aloud by a muezzin during the time of the Prophet (pbuh); everybody read them silently. When people who did not know Arabic and prayer started to accept Islam afterwards, the appointed people of the mosque started to read them a bit aloud in order to teach them. Then, people got used to it and it became the duty of the muezzin to remind them. People started to think that it was like that originally. However, it is more appropriate for those who know to say tasbihat on their own after performing the fard prayer. There is no drawback to saying them aloud in order to remind those who do not know them.

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