The Questioner: Is it permissible for a person to make dua during wuḍūʾ (to supplicate) when washing each limb (i.e, at each step or part of wuḍūʾ), or is it impermissible and an innovation (bidʿah), as I have heard?
Shaykh Muqbil: Yes, it is an innovation, for it is not established that one says when he is washing his face, ‘O Allah, whiten my face on the Day when faces will be whitened! And do not blacken my face on the Day faces will be blackened!”, [nor] “O Allāh, give me my book in my right hand!” All of this is innovation, there are aḥadīth narrating these [supplications], but they are all weak, rather [they are all] fabricated (mawḍū), as it was meantioned in Takhreej al-Adhkār by al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar, may Allah have mercy upon him, and it was also mentioned by [Imam] al-Ṣanʿānī, may Allah haver mercy upon him, in Subul [as-Salam].
There is nothing authentically established except that one says Bismillah (In the Name of Allāh), at the beginning of the wuḍūʾ, and that he says:
أشهد ألا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له ، وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله
Ashhadu allā ilāha illā Allāh waḥdahu lā sharīka lah, wa ashhadu anna Muḥammadan ʿabduhu wa rasūluh
I bear witness that there is no diety worthy of worship in truth except Allah, alone with no partner with him, and I bear witness that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger.
For whomsoever makes wuḍūʾ thoroughly [or that he perfects it], and then says, ‘I bear witness that there is no diety worthy of worship in truth except Allah, alone with no partner with him, and I bear witness that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger.‘ except that the eight gates of Paradise will be opened for him, as mentioned in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim.
From the tape: Questions from Our Brothers in Allah in America.