Prayer (Kitab Al-Salat)

Nadr ibn Kathīr al-Saʿdī said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāwūs prayed beside me in the Mosque of al-Khayf. After he performed the first prostration and raised his head from it, he raised his hands toward his face. I found this strange and told Wahīb ibn Khālid. Wahīb said to him, ‘You do something I have never seen anyone do.’ Ibn Ṭāwūs replied, ‘I saw my father do it,’ and his father said, ‘I saw Ibn ʿAbbās do it.’ I believe he said, ‘The Prophet used to do it.’

Nāfiʿ reported from Ibn ʿUmar that when he began the prayer, he said the takbīr and raised his hands; he did so when bowing, when saying ‘Allah hears whoever praises Him,’ and when rising after two rakʿahs. He attributed this to the Messenger of Allah. Abū Dāwūd said: The sound version is Ibn ʿUmar’s statement, not one traced back to the Prophet. Abū Dāwūd also said: Baqiyyah narrated its opening from ʿUbayd Allāh and traced it back to the Prophet; al-Thaqafī narrated it from ʿUbayd Allāh as Ibn ʿUmar’s statement, saying that when he rose after two rakʿahs he raised his hands to his chest; this is the sound version. Al-Layth ibn Saʿd, Mālik, Ayyūb, and Ibn Jurayj narrated it as Ibn ʿUmar’s statement. Only Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Ayyūb, traced it back to the Prophet. Ayyūb and Mālik did not mention raising the hands when rising after the two prostrations, while al-Layth included it in his report. Ibn Jurayj said: I asked Nāfiʿ, ‘Did Ibn ʿUmar raise the first of these higher?’ He replied, ‘No, they were equal.’ I said, ‘Show me.’ He pointed to the breasts or lower than that.

Nāfiʿ reported that when ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar began the prayer, he raised his hands level with his shoulders; when he raised his head from bowing, he raised them lower than that. Abū Dāwūd said: As far as I know, no one besides Mālik mentioned that he raised them lower.

Ibn ʿUmar said: When the Messenger of Allah rose after two rakʿahs, he said the takbīr and raised his hands.

ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib reported from the Messenger of Allah: When he stood for an obligatory prayer, he said the takbīr and raised his hands level with his shoulders. He did the same when he finished reciting and was about to bow, and when he rose from bowing. He did not raise his hands at any point in the prayer while seated. When he rose from the two prostrations, he raised his hands in the same way and said the takbīr. Abū Dāwūd said: In the report of Abū Ḥumayd al-Sāʿidī describing the Prophet’s prayer, when he rose after two rakʿahs he said the takbīr and raised his hands until they were level with his shoulders, just as he said the takbīr at the start of the prayer.

Mālik ibn al-Ḥuwayrith said: I saw the Prophet raise his hands when saying the takbīr, when bowing, and when raising his head from bowing, until they reached his earlobes.

Bashīr ibn Nahīk said that Abū Hurayrah said: ‘If I were in front of the Prophet, I would see his armpits.’ Ibn Muʿādh’s version adds that Lāḥiq said, ‘Do you not see that he was praying and could not be in front of the Messenger of Allah?’ Mūsā’s version adds: ‘That is, when he said the takbīr, he raised his hands.’

ʿAlqamah said that ʿAbd Allāh said: ‘The Messenger of Allah taught us how to pray. He said the takbīr and raised his hands. When he bowed, he clasped his hands between his knees.’ When this reached Saʿd, he said, ‘My brother spoke truly. We used to do that, then we were commanded to do this’—meaning, to hold the knees.

ʿAlqamah said that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd said: ‘Shall I not pray for you as the Messenger of Allah prayed?’ He then prayed and raised his hands only once. Abū Dāwūd said: This is an abridged version of a longer report, and it is not sound with this wording.

Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, Muʿāwiyah, Khālid ibn ʿAmr, and Abū Ḥudhayfah narrated this from Sufyān, through the same chain. They said: ‘He raised his hands the first time’; some of them said, ‘once only.’

Al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib reported that when the Messenger of Allah began the prayer, he raised his hands close to his ears, then did not repeat it.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Zuhrī narrated from Sufyān, from Yazīd, a report like that of Sharīk, but without the words ‘then he did not repeat it.’ Sufyān said: He later told us in Kūfah, ‘Then he did not repeat it.’ Abū Dāwūd said: Hushaym, Khālid, and Ibn Idrīs also narrated this from Yazīd, and they did not mention ‘then he did not repeat it.’

Al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib said: I saw the Messenger of Allah raise his hands when he began the prayer, then not raise them again until he finished. Abū Dāwūd said: This report is not sound.

Abū Hurayrah said: When the Messenger of Allah began the prayer, he raised his hands fully.

Zurʿah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: I heard Ibn al-Zubayr say, ‘Keeping the feet aligned and placing one hand over the other are part of the Sunnah.’

Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī reported that when Ibn Masʿūd was praying, he placed his left hand over his right. The Prophet saw him and placed his own right hand over his left.

Abū Juḥayfah reported that ʿAlī said: ‘Part of the Sunnah is placing one palm over the other in prayer below the navel.’

Ibn Jarīr al-Ḍabbī said: I saw ʿAlī holding his left hand with his right at the wrist, above the navel. Abū Dāwūd said: It is also reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr as ‘above the navel.’ Abū Mijlaz said, ‘below the navel.’ It is also reported from Abū Hurayrah, but that report is not strong.

Abū Wāʾil said that Abū Hurayrah said: ‘Holding the palms over one another in prayer is below the navel.’ Abū Dāwūd said: I heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal regard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq al-Kūfī as weak.

Ṭāwūs said: The Messenger of Allah used to place his right hand over his left, then clasp them firmly upon his chest while in prayer.