The innovation of placing the hands on the knees after rising from bowing.

The Shaykh : And this brings us to some of the writers today, in response toThe Shaykh : Al-Albani, who had explicitly stated this while he was saturated with this rule in terms of understanding, though he had not yet become saturated with it in terms of expression. As for jurisprudence and knowledge, he had indeed become saturated with it. One of the effects of this was that he stated, about forty years ago, that placing the hands on the knees after raising the head from bowing is a religious innovation. Then our companions raised a commotion against us: how can he sayThe Shaykh : that this is a religious innovation when the text is there and the text is there? Is that hidden fromThe Shaykh : They may think it was hidden from him, but it is from the hadiths he included in what he calls the "Principle of the Description of Prayer." The hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujrah, in which he says: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), when he stood for prayer, placed his right hand over his left. When he stood, they argued with this general text. So I say: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) continued to pray for about twenty years, praying openly before the people as an imam, and they observed him with precise attention. Even if we assume they were always praying behind him, they still observed him with precise attention. Ibn Abbas, as I recall, said: We knew his recitation by the movement of his beard. We knew his secret recitation, which had no loudness, by the movement of his beard. There is something we benefit from. In any case, this is the brother of this one; this is Abdullah, and this is Abdullah. The point is that one of the Companions said: We knew the recitation of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in the secret prayer—I think he mentioned the midday prayer—by the movement of his beard. Look, if the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had placed his hands on his knees after raising his head from bowing, would that have been hidden from them? Is it conceivable? Let us return to the rule and the principle. Is it conceivable, with the large number of narrators of the description of the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), especially that one who challenged ten of the Companions and said, "I know the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) better than you," that none of these or those absolutely narrated that they saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) place his hands on his knees when he raised his head from bowing? This is also an example of how we can determine that he did not place them. He was studying the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), especially my study, for which Allah the Exalted blessed me and guided me to follow the hadiths of prayer by the hundreds of books, most of which were surrounded at that time by [context], yet we do not find in them a single good hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he raised his head from bowing, placed his right hand over his left. They do not find for them any evidence except arguing with the general text. And here is a distinction I hope you will pay attention to. Our discussion is about the general text that came from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), as we said earlier: As for this hadith, it is not a text of the Messenger. This hadith is not a text of the Messenger of which we can say that its speaker was given the summaries of eloquent words. It is not so; rather, it is a man from among the Companions of the Messenger, by head and eye. This is the first point. If we say that this hadith contains a general indication, do you think that was the intention of this speaker? I am certain and resolute that this meaning they cling to and argue with his words did not cross his mind. I am certain of this. Why? Because the hadith of Wa'il in Sahih Muslim contains some clarification of another form. From this clarification, we take that this Companion did not have in his mind this placing of the hands, which I said and still say is a religious innovation. How? In Sahih Muslim, Wa'il ibn Hujrah (may Allah be pleased with him) describes the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and says: When he entered the prayer, he said the takbir and placed his right hand over his left. When he bowed, he said the takbir and raised his hands. And when he raised his head from bowing, he said: Allah hears the one who praises Him, and raised his hands. Likewise, likewise. Why did he not say "and raised his hands likewise," even though they are close in wording and action? Likewise, then he mentioned: When he prostrated, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) also said the takbir. And he continued describing the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with the detail and elaboration that was possible for him at that time. So this general text that this Companion said is what some of the usuliyyin (scholars of legal theory) sometimes say about a general text, which may be in the Qur'an or from the words of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). They say in such cases that the generality was not intended due to the presence of circumstances surrounding the issue. They say that this generality is not intended. In the Qur'an, there is a verse mentioning the wind by which some of the past peoples were punished. The Lord of the Worlds describes it, Blessed and Exalted is He, saying: This destruction does not include everything in the general sense, but rather means the things they were living with and enjoying. The point is that there may be some expressions, whether in the Noble Qur'an or in the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), that contain generality... This destruction does not include everything in the general sense, but rather means the things they were living with and enjoying. The point is that there may be some expressions, whether in the Noble Qur'an or in the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), that contain generality, but this generality is not intended. The argument that this generality is not intended returns to the circumstances. Our circumstance in what we are dealing with is our following of the biography of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in what he was doing regarding prayer, fasting, Hajj, 'Umrah, and the like. If no text is transmitted from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he did it, and as Ibn Taymiyyah also said, I remember something: when the wills are gathered for such matters and then it is not transmitted, that is evidence that it did not occur, because if it had occurred, it would have been narrated. If such a form that we were discussing is not narrated, then arguing with the generality here, especially since it is not from his words (peace and blessings be upon him), is arguing with a part that the speaker did not intend. Especially since we mentioned earlier in the narration of Muslim, which fully implies that Wa'il (may Allah be pleased with him) did not have in his mind the issue of placing the hands and raising the head at bowing. When I heard this argument from some of them, I remembered that there is a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, and from the narration of the Imam, and from his narration from Imam Malik, and Imam Malik himself established a chapter on placing the right hand over the left in prayer, meaning that. And through the path of al-Bukhari from Sahl ibn Sa'd al-Sa'idi, they said: They were ordered to place the right hand over the left in prayer. Prayer is more important than standing. If we place it, we say to them: We also place it in what we are sitting in, for example, between the two prostrations. And the prostration may be long and very long, in the night prayer. This means for the one who stands in night prayer and lengthens the recitation, bowing, and prostration, and what is between them. Do they place their hands? What is their answer? It is our answer. What is their answer? It is our answer. In truth, this is a compelling evidence. They do not find any escape at all except to say what we say: this is a part that the practice of it was not transmitted, and likewise there is a part that the practice of it was not transmitted.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, if Allah preserves you, do you notice the location of the secret in this argument? Why did you choose between the two prostrations here? It seems some of the brothers do not notice the secret. I had heard this until I read it in some of your letters.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : The location of the secret in your choice of this place is that no description of the movement of the hands to a place was transmitted in it.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : So now, the generality of the text obliges them to place the hands here, because the text says "in the prayer." Ah, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes, we mentioned this on some occasions.

The questioner : Correct, correct. The agreement of the students of knowledge and the common people is that the hands are not placed in this position...

The Shaykh : Yes, we ask them: Was this position transmitted from the Messenger? Our answer to this is the practice of the Muslims. We, to this day, and with our thorough investigation of the description of the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), have not found a text that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he sat between the two prostrations, did as in the text I found for the tashahhud, placing the right hand on the right knee and the left hand on the left knee. I did not find that. The practice of the Muslims is sufficient for us now. We return now to what we say: what is the practice of the Muslims regarding this placing of the hands?

The questioner : Regarding al-Tuwajiri, in his book *Sifat al-Salah*, I mentioned yesterday that one of our Saudi brothers was advising me with advice similar to this. I said to him, "My brother, it is not there. The book is here; come, let us read it together." We went through your words, and I mentioned our Shaykh al-Tuwajiri, who says that we treat the two matters equally: sometimes we place [the hand] and sometimes we do not place it. This is what your words are about regarding this issue.

The Shaykh : Yes, it is necessary that some of the attendees remember that some of those who go to this position [placing the hand] argue for it based on what is narrated from Imam Ahmad. He was asked about placing the hand after raising the head from bowing, so he answered by saying, "There is no harm in it." I said, "Glory be to Allah! Does the Imam of the Sunnah say 'there is no harm' in the Sunnah? Does Imam Ahmad say 'there is no harm' in the gathering of the hands in the first standing? This is an expression we know from the jurists; they use it for something where leaving it is stronger than doing it. I think that Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him), who said this statement, was in a situation where there were people whose respect and whose knowledge he valued, and who followed the path of some of the scholars today whom we also respect and value. So he valued their knowledge and said this word, 'There is no harm in that,' meaning that it is the opinion and independent legal reasoning of some of them. As for believing that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did that, and yet he says 'there is no harm' in it, that is the furthest thing from the jurisprudence of the Imam of the Sunnah. This is what comes to my mind, or what we can say regarding this principle. And this is, in fact, a very important principle. As we said recently, it includes those who argue with some verses to introduce means in da'wah. They know with us that these means were not prescribed before, so they rely on them by claiming that the general text includes them. We argue against them with this kind of knowledge, if they are first of all people of knowledge, and secondly people of fairness.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, may Allah reward you. My teacher, here in the issues of Salih from al-Fadl from his father, Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him), in issue number seven hundred and seventy-six, it says: "How does the man do it, or how does the man place his hand after he raises his head from bowing? Does he place the right hand over the left, or does he let them hang down?" He said, "I hope that this will not be too narrow, if Allah wills."

The Shaykh : This is another phrase.

The questioner : And the madhhab, our Shaykh, as in *al-Furu'*, *al-Mubdi'*, and *al-Insaf*, what do they say? They say: If the man raises his head from bowing, then if he wishes, he lets his hands hang down, and if he wishes, he places his right hand over his left. And they transmit this from Ahmad as well.

The Shaykh : Yes, what I remember from Ahmad is "there is no harm in it" in some issues.

The questioner : The phrase "I hope that this will not be too narrow, if Allah wills" means that it is not an indication of the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : This is, as we say in Syria, "this one greets that one." Yes, both are weak in their indication. No, say it this way, please.