بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Evidence for placing the right hand over the left and the command to do so
عَنْ وَائِلِ بْنِ حُجْرٍ، أَنَّهُ رَأَى النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم… وَضَعَ يَدَهُ الْيُمْنَى عَلَى الْيُسْرَى
Wāʾil ibn Hujr narrated that he saw the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ)…place his right hand over his left hand. (Sahīh Muslim 401 and others. Declared Sahīh by Al-Albānī in al-Irwā 352)
عن سَهْلِ بْنِ سَعْدٍ، قَالَ : كَانَ النَّاسُ يُؤْمَرُونَ أنْ يَضَعَ الرَّجُلُ اليَدَ اليُمْنَى على ذِرَاعِهِ اليُسْرَى فِي الصَّلاةِ
Sahl ibn Saʿd narrated: “The people used to be commanded [by the prophet] that a man place his right hand upon his left forearm in prayer.” (al-Awsat 3/239, Sahīh al-Bukhārī 740, and Imām Mālik in his Muwattā 1/147, chapter “on Placing the Two Hands, One upon the Other, in Prayer”)
عن ابن عباس أن رَسُولَ اللهِ، صلى الله عليه وسلم، قال: «إِنَّا مَعْشَرَ الأَنْبِيَاءِ أُمِرْنَا أَنْ نُؤَخِّرَ سُحُورَنَا، وَنُعَجِّلَ فِطْرَنَا، وَأَنْ نُمْسِكَ بِأَيْمَانِنَا عَلَى شَمَائِلِنَا فِي صَلَاتِنَا
Ibn Abbās narrated from the Prophet (ﷺ) that he said: “Indeed we, the company of the prophets, were commanded to delay our suhūr, and to hasten our breaking of the fast, and to place our right hands upon our left hands in our prayer.” (Ibn Hibbān 1770, isnād declared authentic upon the conditions of (Sahīh) Muslim by al-Arnāūt. Likewise authenticated by al-Haythamī in Majma’ al-Zawāid 2/150)
عن ابن مسعود قال : رَآنِي النَّبِيُّ ﷺ قد وضَعْتُ شمالي على يميني، فأَخَذَ يميني فوَضَعَها على شمالي
Ibn Mas’ūd narrated: “The Prophet (ﷺ) saw me having placed my left (hand) upon my right (hand), so he took my right (hand) and placed it upon my left (hand).” (Abū Dawūd 755 and others. Declared Hasan by Al-Albānī)
عن الحارِثِ بنِ غُطَيْفٍ أو غُطَيْفِ بن الحارِثِ، قال: متى رأيتُ شيئًا فنَسِيتُهُ، فإني لم أنْسَ أَنِّي رَأَيْتُ رَسُولَ اللهِ ﷺ وَاضِعًا يَدَهُ اليُمْنَى على اليُسْرَى في الصَّلاةِ
Hārith ibn Ghutayf or Ghutayf ibn al-Hārith, who said: “Whenever I saw something and then forgot it [in a variant: what I have forgotten of things], I never forgot that I saw the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ), placing his right hand upon his left (hand) in the prayer.” (Musnad Imām Ahmad 16968, declared Hasan by al-Arnāūt in his checking)
Imām Abū Bakr ibn al-Mundhir said: “So it has been established that the Prophet of Allāh (ﷺ) used to take his left (hand) with his right (hand) when he entered prayer. And thus we say.
And among those who held the view that the right (hand) should be placed upon the left in prayer were Mālik ibn Anas, Ahmad, and Ishāq. And this was related from al-Shāfiʿī. And the people of opinion (raʾī, i.e., the Hanafīs) said: It is recommended that he support his left (hand) with his right hand while he is standing in prayer.
And we have narrated from more than one of the people of knowledge that they used to let their hands hang in prayer – letting them hang loosely. And it is not permissible to make the neglect of one who neglected using the Sunnah, or forgot it, or did not know it, a proof against one who knew it and acted upon it.” (al-Awsat 3/240-241)
Shaykh ibn al-‘Uthaymīn said: “…As for al-qabd (placing the right over the left) and al-irsāl (letting the hands hang down), there is no doubt that what the Sunnah indicated is al-qabd, meaning placing the right hand upon the left. And this has been established in Sahīh al-Bukhārī from the hadīth of Sahl ibn Saʿd, (who) said: “The (people) used to be commanded that a man should place his right hand upon his left forearm in prayer.”
And this is established in more than one hadīth from the Prophet (ﷺ). And it is not possible (i.e. permitted) for anyone to deny it with its establishment from the Messenger (ﷺ). And there is no consideration for the statement of any person with the existence of that from the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ). And based on this, worship through al-irsāl has no basis. Rather, worship is only through placing the right hand upon the left.” (Fatāwā Nūr Alā Darb 2/8)
Al-Muhaddith al-Laknawī said: “And others mentioned that the hanging down (of the hands) was not narrated from the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) neither through an authentic chain nor through a weak chain.
Yes, it was mentioned in some narrations that: “He would say the takbīr (Allāhu Akbar) and then let them hang down” and this is understood to mean that he would let them hang down (with) a light hanging and then place (them), which is the doctrine (madhhab) of some of the scholars (i.e. like Imām al-Shāfi’).
And upon this (understanding) is carried (to) what Ibn Abī Shaybah reported: that Ibn al-Zubayr used to let his hands hang down when he prayed.” (Sharh Muwattā 2/66)
Imām al-Mundhir said in al-Awsat (3:238): “And we have narrated from Abī Bakr al-Siddīq that he stood in prayer and placed his right palm upon his left forearm adjoining the wrist bone. (Ibn Abī Shaybah 1/427)
And from Abī al-Dardāʾ that he said: Three things are from the characteristics of goodness: hastening the breaking of the fast, delaying the pre-dawn meal, and placing the hands upon the hands in prayer.” (Ibn Abī Shaybah 1/427)
From ʿĀʾishah, who said: Three things are from prophethood: hastening the breaking of the fast, delaying the pre-dawn meal, and placing the right hand upon the left in [prayer]. (Sunan al-Dāraqutnī 1/284)
What’s been attributed to Mālik and what’s correct according to his madhdhab
Imām al-Shawkānī said: “And the hadīth (of Wā’il ibn Hujr) indicates the legislated nature of placing the palm upon the palm. And the majority (of the scholars) went to this (opinion).
And Ibn al-Qāsim transmitted from Mālik (letting the hands hang loosely). And Ibn al-Hakam disagreed with him and transmitted from Mālik (the view of) placing (the hands).” (Nayl al-Awtār 2/29-31)
Imām ibn ‘Abdul-Barr al-Mālikī said: “And Ibn Nāfi’, ‘Abdul-Malik, and Mutarrif narrated from Mālik that he said (when asked): Is the right (hand) placed upon the left (hand) in the prayer, both in the obligatory and supererogatory prayers? He said: There is no harm in that.
Abū ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-Barr said: This is the saying (i.e. position) of the people of Madīnah among his (i.e. Māliks) companions.” (al-Istidhkār 4/349)
Shaykh ‘Abdul-Karīm al-Khudayr said in explanation of Imām Māliks statement in Al-Muwatta: “chapter “on Placing the Two Hands, One upon the Other, in Prayer”, And the authentic narrations have indicated this, and it is the doctrine (madhhab) of the majority of the people of knowledge.
And no one whose opinion is given consideration adopted the saying of (letting) the hands hang down except Mālik in one narration, and the narration of hanging (the hands) down is the one adopted by his followers, the Mālikīs.
And the Rāfidah (Shī’ah) likewise went to this (opinion). This is why when Ibn Batūtah entered Naysābūr on his famous journey, he mentioned that he entered one of its mosques and prayed and let his hands hang down. The people then were upon the Sunnah, so they disapproved of that and thought he was a Rāfidī…
(Regarding the statement) “and placing the two hands, one upon the other, in the prayer, the right upon the left” Mālik said, clarifying: “He places the right (hand) upon the left (hand),” and this weakens the narration transmitted from him of hanging down the hands in the prayer.
Al-Qādī ‘Abdul-Wahhāb — and he is one of the Imāms of the Mālikī school — said: “The doctrine (al-madhhab of the Mālikī school) is placing them beneath the chest and above the navel”…
And the point of reference in the narration is placing the right hand upon the left in the prayer, and this is (narrated in Al-Muwattā) from Imām Mālik without an intermediary.
And often, what is not found in their speech is attributed to the Imāms, and the authors of the books of al-Madhāhib (schools of jurisprudence) assert what the Imāms did not state explicitly, but rather they derive it from their sayings or their principles and similar things.” (Sharh Muwattā 2/131-135)
Al-Qādī Ibn al-‘Arabī al-Mālikī said: “His saying: “placing the right (hand) upon the left (hand) in the prayer” is a Musnad (connected) and authentic hadīth from the Prophet (ﷺ), which was narrated by Shu’bah, al-Thawrī, and Sharīk.
And the narrations from Mālik in this regard have differed, so there are three narrations from him concerning it:
One of them is leaving it (not placing the hands), and the narration of Ibn al-Qāsim from him is letting them hang down in the prayer, and this is the saying of al-Layth. And he (held one) might leave it for the entirety of the prayer, because it is an act and a support that one seeks assistance with upon doing it.
The second narration: It is narrated from him that he does that (i.e. places the right hand on the left) in the supererogatory prayer but not the obligatory prayer, because it is (an act of) submissiveness/stillness and humility, and this is correct.
Muslim narrated in his Sahīh: “We were commanded to place our right hands upon our left hands in the prayer.
And that (placing the hands) was also narrated from him (Mālik). Ashhab narrated from Mālik that there is no harm in that in the obligatory and supererogatory prayers. And Mutarrif and Ibn al-Mājashūn narrated from Mālik that he deemed it good [to place the hands].
And the Iraqis among our companions (i.e. The Mālikīs) also narrated two narrations from Mālik concerning (the placing of the hands): the first is deeming it good, and the second is prohibition.
And I have not seen anyone who understood the issue better than Shaykh Abū Muhammad ‘Abdul-Wahhāb, for he said: “This (i.e. Māliks prohibition)” is not from the matters of placing the right (hand) upon the left (hand), rather it is from the matters (related to) leaning/support,” and what he said is correct.
And ‘Abdul-Wahhāb said: “The doctrine (al-madhhab) is placing them beneath the chest and above the navel,” and this is the view of al-Shāfi’ī (also).” (Masālik Fī Sharh Muwattā 2/118-119)
Related posts:
Placing the hands on the chest:
https://fawaaids.com/2024/04/16/evidence-of-placing-the-hands-on-the-chest-in-prayer/
fawaaids.com 