However, the author’s excuse is that this is a concise book, so he confines himself to the minimum degree of completeness, or sometimes to the minimum that is obligatory.

Then he raises his head, saying the takbir, and sits with his left foot laid flat and his right foot upright …

His statement, “Then he raises his head, saying the takbir,” means that he raises his head—and with it his hands—while saying the takbir. The phrase “saying the takbir” describes the subject of “raises.” Thus, the takbir is said while rising, because this is a takbir of transition, and all takbirs of transition are said between the two positions of the prayer: one should neither begin it before the transition nor delay it until afterward. For if he begins it before, he will include it among the remembrances of the position from which he is moving; and if he delays it, he will include it among the remembrances of the position to which he has moved. The sunnah, therefore, is for the takbir to be said during the transition (1).

His statement, “and sits with his left foot laid flat,” means that, after the first prostration, he sits with the left foot of his two feet spread beneath him like a covering. A covering lies beneath a person; that is, he places it beneath himself, sitting upon it with the foot laid flat, rather than sitting on his heels. Accordingly, its upper side is on the ground and its sole faces upward.

His statement, “with his right foot upright,” means that he places it upright—the intended meaning being the foot. He must therefore bring it out to his right, so that the right leg extends out on the right while the left is laid flat beneath him. This is how he sits between the two prostrations: he does not sit in the tawarruk posture. This manner of sitting is agreed upon.

The apparent meaning of the author’s words is that no manner of sitting other than this is sunnah in this position. Some scholars (2), however, held that he should sit on his heels with both feet upright.