What is the ruling of the Shari'ah regarding placing the hands on the chest after rising from bowing?

The questioner : Our Shaykh, if you would permit, please clarify for us the ruling of the Shari'ah and your opinion regarding placing the hands on the chest after bowing?

The Shaykh : This remains a booby trap, O Abu 'Abdullah.
— And he laughsThe Shaykh : And he requested it —
Abu Ishaq: Further clarification

The Shaykh : Because we have spoken about this issue many times, and our answer is well known: there is no text from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) that he placed his hands on his chest in the second standing. All that our Shaykhs in Riyadh and some of the people of hadith in Pakistan and India have are only general hadiths, general texts that are not sufficient to prove a practical matter that was practiced by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for nearly twenty years. No one among his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) narrated that they saw him placing his right hand over his left in the second standing. There are only general texts there. In my understanding and belief, these general texts are not sufficient to prove a Sunnah that, if it had occurred, would have been transmitted. Because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed every day in the presence of many people; it was not a hidden matter in his home that men, for example, or even most women, would not know about. This is a public matter, so no one narrated that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did that. The only proof is the hadith of Sahl ibn Sa'd al-Sa'idi in the Muwatta of Malik, and through him al-Bukhari received it . This text is absolute. The second standing in prayer is a matter of deduction, and deduction is not sufficient for it. Any deduction from a general text that the Muslims did not practice is evidence that this deduction is incorrect. Because if it were so, they would have preceded us to it. Similarly, the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr in the Sunan of al-Nasa'i and others . He stood in this second standing of the prayer. If the text is either general or absolute. But this specific hadith, in my research, is an excerpt from the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr in Sahih Muslim. In the Sahih, it is narrated from Wa'il that he described the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), saying that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said the takbir for prayer, then placed his right hand over his left, then bowed, then said "Allah hears the one who praises Him" and raised his hands, then prostrated between his two hands. Whenever he mentioned raising the hands, he said "as he did in the takbir of starting the prayer." But when he bowed and raised his head from bowing, he did not mention the second placement. If he had mentioned it, he would have said "as he did in the first standing." And it appears, and Allah knows best, that the hadith in the Sunan is a piece of this hadith. When it was separated from the context and preceding text, it gave that comprehensive meaning for the second standing. Another point arises in this topic if we want to apply this generality and take from it this ruling that no one has transmitted. That would mean there is a third place where, according to that understanding, we should place the right hand over the left, which is between the two prostrations. And one of the wonders of what happens in terms of distance from scientific verification is that they now claim their methodology of arguing with general texts and resort to the same path that I resort to in saying that we have a text that the Messenger placed [his hands] other than this absoluteness. This absoluteness includes the placement between the two prostrations, not the prostrations themselves, like the tashahhud. Well, this is an analogy. We are now asking you: do you have a text that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), when he sat between the two prostrations, placed his hands on his thighs? My knowledge, and I have specialized in the description of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) prayer, I have not found a hadith on this. And therefore I did not mention it in the description of the prayer, because I did not intend to include a deduction in it, even if it were correct. It is only the transmission of the hadith. So those who argue with this generality have nothing but that the Muslims do it this way. And this is the same answer. The Muslims have passed through these centuries, and no imam of the Muslim imams, nor any Companion, says that this placement is a Sunnah. So if I draw your attention to what Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Shatibi (may Allah have mercy on them) mention, that acting on a general text in one of its details where the practice has not been established on that part is a path to innovation in religion. Because no innovation exists, and this statement is fully manifested in the books of al-Ghamari, because everything is an innovation, and you can say there is no prohibition against it, there is no prohibition against it, and it falls under the general texts. And I give a very clear example: a group entered the mosque to pray the voluntary prayer before the midday prayer, for example. One is here and one is there, scattered. So one of them said, "Come, let us pray in congregation," and he said, "The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said ." And he said, "The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said ." And Allah, these are authentic hadithic proofs. What is our response, O Salafis, O those who hold fast in the second standing? What is your response to this argument? The same argument as theirs. My answer and the answer of every Salafi is that this has not been practiced. And if this argument were correct, they would have preceded us to it. And all the innovations that the innovators do are like this: their proofs are general proofs that have never been practiced. So I see that what is done today in this time is from this category, from arguing with general proofs where this detail has not been practiced. So:
"And all good is in following those who came before, and all evil is in the innovation of those who came after."
The Shaykh : One of them asked me less than a week ago from Saudi Arabia and said to me, "You said in the description of the prayer that this second placement is an innovation. How is this, when our Shaykhs argue with hadiths from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)?" And he erred and said, "In the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, there is a hadith that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to place his hands in the second standing." I said to him, "This has no basis in the Musnad or elsewhere. And if such a hadith were found, the matter you are inquiring about would be settled. But I think you are mistaken, and no one has heard this mentioned." Then I gave him the previous example regarding the voluntary prayers in the mosques. So he called me the next day and said to me, "I conveyed your words to Shaykh Ibn Baz, and he said that the hadith is authentic and it is obligatory to act upon the hadith." And his words are sound if the hadith were explicit in its indication. I said to him, "Well, but I clarified to you the issue that we have no argument except with generality. And I gave you the example of how we do not act on generality." He said, "I mentioned that to the Shaykh, but..."The Shaykh : He said, "This has no relation to this." I said to him, "My brother, it has no relation from all aspects. But we strike these parables for people. So I gave you an example of why we do not pray the voluntary prayers in congregation? Because it was not transmitted to us. And if an arguer argues with us with such a hadith, we say, 'This has not been practiced.' This man said to me, and here is the point, that they mentioned from Imam Ahmad that he said, 'There is no harm in placing the hands in this standing.' I said, 'First, this narration has saved us the trouble of researching it.'The Shaykh : Ibn Baz (may Allah preserve him) has explained its weakness, so we are relieved of it. Second, if this narration from Imam Ahmad were authentic, it would be a proof against those who say that the placement is a Sunnah. Because this narration from Ahmad distinguishes between the first placement and the other placement. So if he saw it as a Sunnah, he would not say 'there is no harm in it.' So he indicates by this that the issue is ambiguous, meaning there is something in it, otherwise he would say it is a Sunnah, just as he said regarding the first placement that it is a Sunnah. This is what comes to my mind now regarding this issue.
Abu Ishaq: May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And you as well. Let us pray, O Abu 'Abdullah.