The ruling on the imam leaving off the placing of the hands in prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
In his third question, he asks: What is the ruling on an imam who leads people in prayer but does not place his hands?
Answer:
This is a disliked act. His prayer is valid, and his prayer is valid, but he has left the recommended practice (sunnah). The sunnah is to place the hands like this: he puts his right hand on his chest. This is the placing of the hands. This is the standing. This is how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to pray when standing. When he prayed at the time of standing, he would place his right hand on his left palm, wrist, and the questioner, like this, on his chest. This is the sunnah. If he lets his hands hang down, it is a disliked act, and his prayer is valid, but he has left what is best, which is leaving the sunnah.
In his third question, he asks: What is the ruling on an imam who leads people in prayer but does not place his hands?
Answer:
This is a disliked act. His prayer is valid, and his prayer is valid, but he has left the recommended practice (sunnah). The sunnah is to place the hands like this: he puts his right hand on his chest. This is the placing of the hands. This is the standing. This is how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to pray when standing. When he prayed at the time of standing, he would place his right hand on his left palm, wrist, and the questioner, like this, on his chest. This is the sunnah. If he lets his hands hang down, it is a disliked act, and his prayer is valid, but he has left what is best, which is leaving the sunnah.
Source
فتاوى المسجد الحرام (شعبان ١٤١٧ هـ) - ٣ — archive.org (45:53)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.