Turning to the right or to the left after the prayer

Question

In a local mosque there has been a Tabligh centre for ten years, and a weekly gathering is held there. On one gathering day, at the Friday prayer, because the appointed imam did not come, a stranger led the prayer. After the salam, for the tasbih and du‘a’, instead of turning to the right — thinking that turning to the left is the sunna, and that it is generally not done [here] either — he turned to the left and recited the tasbih.

Answer

Neither the regular imam nor any deputy of his is sinful for turning to the right. Since both are sunna — turning to the right and turning to the left alike — acting on either one of these ways does not constitute leaving the sunna; the proofs of this in the Shari‘a are countless. However, it is not permissible to declare one particular way obligatory (lazim)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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