The Ruling on Letting the Hands Hang Down in Prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
What is the ruling on letting the hands hang down in prayer? Is there a hadith regarding this, or is it merely the opinion of Imam Malik?
Answer:
The established Sunnah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is to clasp the left hand, specifically the left palm, with the right palm and place them on the chest. This is the Sunnah. As for letting the hands hang down, it is contrary to the Sunnah; letting the hands hang down is contrary to the Sunnah. However, if one prays with his hands hanging down, his prayer is valid, because he has left a Sunnah and not an obligatory part of the prayer. His prayer is valid, but he misses out on the reward of following the Sunnah.
Imam Malik did not receive the hadith about clasping the left hand on the chest. Either the hadith did not reach him, or he let his hands hang down due to a preventing factor. Some scholars said that he needed to let his hands hang down or leave them hanging, so he did so out of necessity and a preventing factor that stopped him from clasping them. Allah knows best.
In any case, following the Sunnah: if the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is clear, then no one else’s opinion is to be followed.
What is the ruling on letting the hands hang down in prayer? Is there a hadith regarding this, or is it merely the opinion of Imam Malik?
Answer:
The established Sunnah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is to clasp the left hand, specifically the left palm, with the right palm and place them on the chest. This is the Sunnah. As for letting the hands hang down, it is contrary to the Sunnah; letting the hands hang down is contrary to the Sunnah. However, if one prays with his hands hanging down, his prayer is valid, because he has left a Sunnah and not an obligatory part of the prayer. His prayer is valid, but he misses out on the reward of following the Sunnah.
Imam Malik did not receive the hadith about clasping the left hand on the chest. Either the hadith did not reach him, or he let his hands hang down due to a preventing factor. Some scholars said that he needed to let his hands hang down or leave them hanging, so he did so out of necessity and a preventing factor that stopped him from clasping them. Allah knows best.
In any case, following the Sunnah: if the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is clear, then no one else’s opinion is to be followed.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم إسبال اليدين في الصلاة؟ وهل ورد حديث في ذلك؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.