and others report from ʿAlī al-Maʿādī who said, “Ibn ʿUmar saw me playing with the pebbles during the prayer …” and so forth. Such fidgeting with the pebbles can only occur during the long sitting—namely, the tashahhud.

Fourth: I do not know of anyone who has espoused that view; the Muhammadan Sunnah is to follow the path of the believers, the majority of them, and not to depart from them in word or deed.

Disagreement among the jurists:

• The Ḥanafīs hold that the recommended way is to place the right hand on the right thigh and the left hand on the left thigh, bringing the fingertips to the upper edge of the knee and keeping all the fingers extended without folding any of them. Their proof is Muslim’s narration (519) from ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr: “When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sat to supplicate, he placed his right hand on his right thigh and his left hand on his left thigh, pointed with his index finger, placed his thumb on his middle finger, and clasped his left palm to his knees.” Other Ḥanafī texts mention additional descriptions in which three fingers are folded.

• The Mālikīs consider it preferable to spread the left hand over the left thigh while forming a ring with three fingers of the right—the little, ring, and middle—by curling them along the side of the palm adjoining the ring finger. The index finger is extended as one points with it, and the thumb is left in its natural position. In the old numerical code this posture represented “twenty-nine.”

• The Shāfiʿīs and Ḥanbalīs hold that the left hand should lie on the left thigh with the fingers outstretched and joined, their tips short of the knee and all facing the qiblah. The right hand is set on the right thigh, with the Shāfiʿīs folding the little, ring, and middle fingers, and forming a circle between the middle finger and the thumb according to