#433: Holding the Hands (Qabd) after rising from the Rukū`u

QUESTION

” As-Salaamu Alaykum.Pls can I be educated on holding hands on the chest or releasing them after rising from ruku’u. Which is the practice of the prophet (saw) or his companions. Pls help with backings of hadith if possible. Thanks.”

ANSWER

Wa alaykum salaam warahmatuaah wabarakaatuh

Alhamdulillaah, firstly it is important to know that holding the hands on the chest before the ruku’u is among the matters in Salaat about which majority of the Ulamā have agreed.

Not holding the hands on the chest (sadl) is only mostly favoured by some of the foremost Ulamā in the Maliki school but the narrations from Maalik imply that holding the hands on the chest (qabd) was favoured by him. This was mentioned by Al-Haafidh Ibn Abdul Barr in At-Tamhid.

As for Qabd after rising from the ruku’u, then the Ulamaa have differed upon that into three verdicts:

The first which is the fatwa of Imām Ahmad Ibn Hanbal – the Imaam of sun ah – and many of the Ulamaa is that the believer has a choice of either the Qabd or the Sadl. This is what was attributed to him in ‘Al-Insaaf’.

The second, which is the verdict of Imaam Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusi in ‘al-Muhalla’ is that what is sunnah is to hold the hands (Qabd). This verdict was upheld by many of the Hanbali Imaams to include Qaadi Abu Ya’ala – rahimahullaah.

The same fatwa is favoured by Imām Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami Ash-Shaafi’i where he answered in his ‘Fataawa’:

“What the statement of An-Nawawi in ‘Sharhu Al-Muhadhdhab’ points to is that he placed his hands (on his chest) just as he does before the ruku’u. And this was the methodology adopted by me in my Sharh on ‘Al-Irshaad’ and in other places. And Allāh subhanahu wata’aala knows best the correct.”

Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Saalih Al-Uthaymin and Shaykh Abdulaziz Ibn Baaz – rahimahumallaah – both held this view.

Third: that there is no justification to observe the Qabd after ruku’u.

This is the verdict of many of the Ulamā in the middle era and in this era. It is the choice of Shaykh Muhammad Nasiruddin Al-Albaani – rahimahullaah – in ‘Sifatu As-Salaati An-Nabi’ where he held that it is a bid’a.

Of the three verdicts mentioned what is closest to correctness – and Allāh knows best – is the third since there is nothing authentically reported of the Rasūl – salallaahu alayhi wasallam – that he did or encouraged that it be done.

The Fiq’hi Precept states that “every act that is Ibaadah is not sanctioned but what is authentically reported to be sanctioned”.

This is the most correct view – inshaaAllāh – but we do not label Qabd after the ruku’u as bid’a as Shaykh Al-Albaani held. And that is because the matter was debated by the earliest Ulamā themselves.

Allāhu A’alam

Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran.

📚 IslamNode