Assalaamu alaykoum wa rahmatullaah. My question is as follows: is it possible to momentarily interrupt the recitation of the Athkaar (pl. of Thikr [expressions of remembrance of Allaah]) recited after the five compulsory prayers and resume them later on? May Allaah reward you.

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

In principle, the Athkaar should be said directly after the obligatory prayers and continuously without interruption, but if there is an unintentional interruption, then it is better to complete the remaining Athkaar immediately afterwards, and one will get the reward assigned for it.

However, if one deliberately interrupts them and then completes them after a long time, then he does not get the reward allocated for them, but he rather gets the reward of general mention of Allah [and not the reward assigned to those after the prayer].

Kash-shaaf Al-Qinaa’, which is a book of the Hanbali School, reads after mentioning the legislated Athkaar after the obligatory prayers, “If one is preoccupied by something else from saying the Athkaar and then remembers and says them, it appears that he will get the reward that is assigned for them if he did so after a short time due to having a sound reason (for the delay), but if he deliberately abandons them and then resumes after a long time, it seems that he does not get the reward that is assigned for them, but he gets the reward of the general mention of Allah.”

Besides, Haashiyat Qalyoobi wa ‘Umayrah, which is one of the books of the Shaafi’i School, reads, “Ibn Hajar said, 'The reward is not missed due to a long period of interruption after the obligatory prayer or if they are recited after the Raatibah (regular Sunnah) prayer, but one only does not get the perfect reward; this is the apparent meaning when the interruption is not considered long according to customary practice such that it is no longer attributed to the prayer.’”

Allah knows best.