Azami 1946

Muslim narrated it in the Book of Prayer (430) through several routes from Abu Muawiya, from Amash, from Musayab bin Rafi, from Tamim bin Tarafa, from Jabir bin Samura, and mentioned it. Except that he ﷺ did not intend by this a prohibition of raising the hands at the ruku and when rising from it, because its explanation is given in Sahih Muslim itself, in the statement of Jabir bin Samura. He said, "When we prayed with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, we would say, 'Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah, peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah,' gesturing to both sides." The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Why are you gesturing with your hands as if they were the tails of skittish horses? It is enough for one of you to place his hand on his thigh, then greet his brother on his right and his left."He also said, "I prayed with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and when we gave the greeting we would gesture with our hands, saying, 'Peace be upon you, peace be upon you.' The Messenger of Allah ﷺ looked at us and said, 'What is the matter with you, gesturing with your hands as if they were the tails of skittish horses? When one of you gives the greeting, let him turn to his companion, and not gesture with his hand.'"His saying "shumus" is pronounced with damma on the first letter and sukun on the second, the plural of shamus, referring to an animal that is restive and will not settle down because of its unruliness and excitability.Also on this subject is what was reported from Abdullah bin Masud, who said, "Shall I not pray for you the prayer of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?" So he prayed, and did not raise his hands except the first time. Abu Dawud (748), Tirmidhi (257), and Ahmad (1/388) all narrated it from the hadith of Waki, from Sufyan, from Asim bin Kulayb, from Abdul-Rahman bin Aswad, from Alqama, who said, Abdullah bin Masud said, and he mentioned it. Tirmidhi said, "Hasan."It is reported from Ibn Mubarak, after citing the hadith of Ibn Umar, that he said, "The hadith of the one who raises his hands has been established," and he mentioned the hadith of Zuhri, from Salim, from his father, "while the hadith of Ibn Masud, that the Prophet ﷺ did not raise his hands except the first time, has not been established." End. Abu Dawud said, "This is an abridged hadith taken from a longer hadith, and it is not sahih in this wording." End.Ibn Abu Hatim said, "I asked my father about a hadith narrated by Thawri, from Asim bin Kulayb, from Abdul-Rahman bin Aswad, from Alqama, from Abdullah, that the Prophet ﷺ stood, said the takbir, raised his hands, and then did not do so again." My father said, "This is a mistake, it is said that Thawri erred in it. A group narrated this hadith from Asim, and they all said that the Prophet ﷺ began the prayer, raised his hands, then bowed and clasped his hands together, placing them between his knees, and no one said what Thawri narrated." End. Ilal (258).Likewise, Bukhari in Juz Raf Yadayn attributed the error to Thawri, for he narrated through the route of Ibn Idris, from Asim bin Kulayb, from Abdul-Rahman bin Aswad, Alqama told us, that Abdullah said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught us the prayer. He stood, said the takbir, raised his hands, then bowed and clasped his hands together, placing them between his knees." This reached Saad, and he said, "My brother has spoken the truth. Indeed, we used to do that at the beginning of Islam, then we were commanded to do otherwise." Bukhari said, "This is what is preserved according to those who examine the hadith of Abdullah bin Masud." End.It is reported from Imam Ahmad and Yahya bin Adam that both declared this hadith daif. Daraqutni (1/293) reported the statement of Ibn Mubarak, "The hadith of Ibn Masud, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ raised his hands the first time and then did not raise them again, has not been established for me, whereas the hadith of the one who raises his hands when bowing and when rising has been established for me." Ibn Mubarak said, "It was mentioned by Ubaydullah Umari, Malik, Maamar, Sufyan, Yunus, and Muhammad bin Abu Hafsa, from Zuhri, from Salim, from his father, from the Prophet ﷺ." End.It is established from this that the soundness of a chain does not necessarily entail the soundness of the hadith, due to the possibility of an anomaly existing in the text, as happened here in the narration of Thawri. And even assuming its soundness were established, the one who affirms is given precedence over the one who denies. Many hadiths have been proven sahih affirming the raising of the hands at the ruku, when rising from it, and when standing up for the third rakat. So it is not permissible to abandon acting upon these sahih hadiths, recorded in the Sahihayn and elsewhere, because of the hadith of Ibn Masud, due to the possibility of error on the part of some of the narrators, whether from Sufyan, as Abu Hatim and Bukhari said, or from his student and the one who narrated from him, namely Waki, as others said. It is also possible, as Ibn Jawzi said in Tahqiq (3/25), "that Alqama did not remember it precisely, or that this matter concerning the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was hidden from Ibn Masud, just as it was hidden from others, such as the abrogation of tatbiq." End.Zaylai (1/397) reported from the author of Tanqih (2/140-141) that he said, the jurist Abu Bakr bin Ishaq said, "There is nothing strange about Ibn Masud forgetting this. Ibn Masud forgot from the Quran what the Muslims later did not dispute over, namely the two chapters of refuge. He forgot what the scholars agreed had been abrogated, such as tatbiq. He forgot how two people should stand behind the imam. He forgot what the scholars did not dispute, that the Prophet ﷺ prayed the dawn prayer on the Day of Sacrifice at its proper time. He forgot how the Prophet ﷺ combined prayers at Arafah. He forgot what the scholars did not dispute, the placing of the elbow and forearm on the ground in sujud. And he forgot how the Prophet ﷺ used to recite, "and Him who created the male and the female" [Layl 92:3]. If it was possible for Ibn Masud to forget such things in prayer, how could something similar not be possible regarding the raising of the hands?" End.Also on this subject is what was reported from Bara, "that the Prophet ﷺ, when he began the prayer, would raise his hands close to his ears, then not do so again." Abu Dawud (749) narrated it, Muhammad bin Sabbah Bazzar told us, Sharik told us, from Yazid bin Abu Ziyad, from Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Layla, from Bara, and he mentioned it. In it is Yazid bin Abu Ziyad Hashimi, their freedman, who is daif. Abu Hatim said, "He is not strong." Ibn Main said, "He is not strong." Imam Ahmad said, "His hadith does not amount to much." Ibn Hibban said, "He was truthful, but when he grew old his memory deteriorated and he changed, and he would accept whatever was suggested to him, so anomalies crept into his hadith."Daraqutni (1/294) said, "Yazid was only made to accept the phrase 'then he did not do so again' late in his life, when he had become confused, so he took it on suggestion." He also narrated it through the route of Ali bin Asim, Muhammad bin Abu Layla told us, from Yazid bin Abu Ziyad, from Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Layla, from Bara bin Azib, and he mentioned the hadith. Ali bin Asim said, "When I arrived in Kufa, I was told that Yazid was still alive, so I went to him and he related this hadith to me. He said, 'Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Layla told me, from Bara, who said, I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he stood for prayer, said the takbir, and raised his hands until they were level with his ears.'" I said to him, "Ibn Abu Layla informed me that you said, 'then he did not do so again.'" He said, "I do not remember this." I asked him again, and he said, "I do not remember it."Hafiz said in Talkhis, "The scholars of hadith agree that his statement 'then he did not do so again' is inserted into the report from the words of Yazid bin Abu Ziyad. It was narrated from him without this addition by Shuba, Thawri, Khalid Tahhan, Zuhayr, and other scholars of hadith. Humaydi said, 'Only Yazid narrated this addition, and Yazid is Yazid.' Uthman Darimi reported from Ahmad bin Hanbal that it is not sahih, and likewise it was declared daif by Bukhari, Ahmad, Yahya, Darimi, Humaydi, and more than one other. Yahya bin Muhammad bin Yahya said, 'I heard Ahmad bin Hanbal say, this is a weak hadith. Yazid used to narrate it for a period of his life without saying in it, "then he did not do so again." But when they suggested it to him, he accepted the suggestion and began to mention it.'" End.Bukhari said, "Likewise, the scholars of hadith who heard from Yazid early on, among them Thawri, Shuba, and Zuhayr, narrated it without the phrase 'then he did not do so again.'" End.Abu Dawud said, Abdullah bin Muhammad Zuhri told us, Sufyan told us, from Yazid, similar to the hadith of Sharik, without saying "then he did not do so again." Sufyan said, "He told us in Kufa afterward, 'then he did not do so again.'" Abu Dawud said, "This hadith was also narrated by Hushaym, Khalid, and Ibn Idris, from Yazid, without mentioning 'then he did not do so again.'" He then narrated it through the route of Waki, from Ibn Abu Layla, from his brother Isa, from Hakam, from Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Layla, from Bara bin Azib, who said, "I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ raise his hands when he began the prayer, and then he did not raise them again until he finished." Abu Dawud said, "This hadith is not sahih."I say, in its chain is Muhammad bin Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Layla. Imam Ahmad said of him, "He had a poor memory and his hadith was confused." Abu Zura said, "He is not strong." Ibn Hibban said, "He made gross errors and had a poor memory, so anomalies became numerous in his narration." Abu Ahmad Hakim said, "Most of his hadiths are inverted." Bukhari said in Juz Raf Yadayn (p. 122), "Ibn Abu Layla only narrated this from his memory. As for whoever related it from Ibn Abu Layla's book, he related it from Ibn Abu Layla, from Yazid, so the hadith goes back to what Yazid was made to accept by suggestion. What is preserved is what Thawri, Shuba, and Ibn Uyayna narrated from him early on," and it does not contain "then he did not raise them."Bayhaqi said in Marifa (2/419-420), "Muhammad bin Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Layla narrated it from his brother Isa, from his father Abdul-Rahman, from Bara. Muhammad bin Abdul-Rahman is weaker, according to those knowledgeable in hadith, than Yazid bin Abu Ziyad, and there is disagreement over his chain. It was said to be as above, and it was said from him, from Hakam, from Ibn Abu Layla, and it was said from him, from Yazid bin Abu Ziyad, from Ibn Abu Layla, so the hadith goes back to Yazid." Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Hanbal said, "My father used to reject the hadith of Hakam and Isa, and would say, 'It is the hadith of Yazid bin Abu Ziyad.'"Also on this subject is what was reported from Anas bin Malik in Abatil (392), and from Abu Hurairah (390), both of which are fabricated, which is why Juzqani included them in his Abatil.Sheikh Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri, the Indian Hanafi scholar, said in his book Nayl Farqadayn fi Masalat Raf Yadayn (p. 22), "Raising the hands is transmitted through mass-narration both in chain and in practice, there is no doubt about it, and it has not been abrogated, not even a single letter of it. What remains is only a discussion about which is more virtuous." He then said, "As for abandoning it, the hadiths concerning it are few, yet nonetheless it is firmly established beyond denial, and it is transmitted through mass practice, though not through mass chains of transmission, among the people of Kufa."I say, this means that the raising of the hands was established, through chain of transmission and mass transmission, in the Islamic lands, in Hijaz, Syria, Iraq, Basra, and Yemen, as mentioned earlier, and to these can be added other lands, namely Bukhara, Samarkand, the lands of Turkestan, Egypt, North Africa, and others. As for abandoning it, it was known only in Kufa, based on the hadith of Abdullah bin Masud.For more, see what I have written in Minna Kubra (1/487-493).