243 – From Mālik ibn al-Ḥuwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him): “He saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) praying, and whenever he was in an odd-numbered unit of his prayer, he would not rise until he had sat upright.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī (1).
Vocabulary of the ḥadith
– “an odd (witr) unit of his prayer”: that is, when rising to stand for the second rakʿah, or when rising from the third to the fourth in a four-rakʿah prayer; this is what is called the “resting sitting.”
Points derived from the ḥadith
- The report indicates that this sitting is recommended: when the worshipper rises from the first rakʿah, or from the third rakʿah, he should first sit up straight between the final prostration and the standing, then rise to perform the second or fourth rakʿah.
- The scholars call this posture jalsat al-istirāḥah (the sitting of rest). The word istirāḥah means seeking rest, as though the worshipper feels some fatigue and sits until it subsides.
- According to those who deem it recommended, it is a brief, gentle sitting. Al-Nawawī said: “The resting sitting is a light sitting in which one’s motion comes to a clear standstill.”
Scholarly disagreement
Imām al-Shāfiʿī, in the well-known view of his school, held that the resting sitting is recommended, whereas the other three imams maintained that it is not. Al-Shāfiʿī’s proof is the present ḥadith, which al-Bukhārī and others narrated from