The honorable Shaykh, you stated in your book *The Description of the Prophet's Prayer*: "Placing the right hand over the left hand after rising from bowing is a religious innovation"

The questioner : The honorable Shaykh, you stated in your book *The Description of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) Prayer*: "Placing the right hand over the left hand after rising from bowing is a religious innovation", and some scholars say it is a recommended practice, citing the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr (may Allah be pleased with him) and the hadith of Sahl ibn Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him). I ask for clarification on this?

The Shaykh : Answer: , and this research actually requires lengthening and reminding of a principle, which is: "That any general text that includes more than one part, and then the practice did not come for a part of this general text, is something that does not justify...", that the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr, which some of the nobles cite as evidence for the legitimacy of placing the hands after raising the head from bowing, is of this type, where its text was: So his saying: includes every standing, whether it is the first standing or the second standing after bowing, but is it established practically that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) used to place his right hand over his left after raising his head from bowing by a specific text, not a general text, as the first placement was established by a specific text?!
Answer: There is absolutely no such text, so citing the general text in that case is clearly questionable in my view.
I give you an example of how it is not correct to cite a general text for a part that has not been practiced:
If a group of people enter the mosque at the time of the midday prayer, for example, and each of them wants to pray the time's recommended practice, the pre-prayer recommended practice, and it is known even today that recommended practices are prayed individually, so one of them decided to gather these scattered people who entered the mosque, each taking a corner wanting to pray the pre-midday recommended practice, and said: O our brothers, come, let us pray in congregation, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: a general text, and indeed he (may Allah's prayer and peace be upon him) said: , and so on to the end of the hadith, would his citation be correct?
I know that no one says his citation is correct, rather this is an incorrect citation, if I do not say: erroneous. What is the evidence of the error?
The evidence is that this citation is of the type of citing a general text for a part that the Muslims' practice has not been done upon, I do not mean the later Muslims, because they practice many and very many religious innovations, and their basis for these religious innovations is exactly like this citation, you know, for example, in some Arab countries even today, additions are made to the call to prayer at its beginning and end, what they call the reminder before the call to prayer, especially on Friday, and the addition after the call to prayer of sending blessings upon the Prophet (peace be upon him).

The questioner : Do you mean aloud?

The Shaykh : It is not important whether aloud or secretly, the important thing is that it is an addition, -and the loudness is understood, and he is calling to prayer, because this opens for us another door I do not want to enter, especially since the warning came that you are explaining and lengthening the speech and the brothers have many questions-.
But I say: you are asking questions that do not tolerate brevity, because this question, I say: I said this in the book, so go back to it and the matter is ended, you need detail, and this brother says: it is in an answer to this, but does this convince the attendees?
So the point is that this example should really be understood in jurisprudence, because it is very important:
, why do we not pray the recommended practices in congregation?
Because the Messenger did not do that, so if we want to establish the legitimacy of a specific part like this example, praying the recommended practices in congregation, as long as the practice has not been done and no text has come clarifying the legitimacy of this specific act, citing the general text is not correct in this case, because we say: if this citation were correct, it would have been done, how did the Muslims' practice go in the first centuries -and we only argue with the first centuries- how did the Muslims' practice go without applying the necessary consequence of this citation, the necessary consequence of this citation is that we pray the regular pre- and post-recommended practices in congregation, because the Messenger said: to the end of the hadith, so citing the general text in a specific matter does not justify this specific matter if we do not have a specific evidence for it, and this is a long research, I return now to say:
The hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr: :
First: we note that this generality did not come from the Messenger, unlike his (peace be upon him) previous saying: so it is from his saying, but this hadith, the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr, is from the saying of Wa'il and not from the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him), and what do I mean by this detail?
I mean that anyone other than the Messenger is not precise in expressing an event or a ruling, he is not in the precision of the Messenger's reporting and expression (peace be upon him), so now a question may arise:
When Wa'il ibn Hujr said: do you think he had in his mind that there is a second placement, which is after bowing?
This is a matter that requires thinking, so if we go back to some narrations of Wa'il ibn Hujr, the answer becomes clear to us, and that is in *Sahih Muslim* where Wa'il himself described the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), he said: and so he described the prayer of the Messenger (peace be upon him), in this detail of his prayer (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), we find him repeating his saying: that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said takbir and raised his hands as he did before, but when he mentioned the first placement and mentioned that when he raised his head from bowing and said: Allah hears the one who praises Him, he did not mention this second placement, and so all the hadiths came, there is not a single hadith from a Companion that informs us that he saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) place his right hand over his left in raising the head from bowing, there are only citations by general texts, and if we know the previous principle that citing the general in a place for a specific part that we do not know has been practiced, this is a citation that opens for us many religious innovations that we have no power to refute except by this path I mentioned earlier, "A part of the parts of the general text that has not been practiced is contrary to the Sunnah", this is what can be said now.