Abu Dawud records in his Sunan: Hafs ibn ʿUmar related to us; Shuʿbah informed us, from Qatadah, from Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim, from Mālik ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “I saw the Prophet ﷺ raise his hands when he pronounced the opening takbīr, when he bowed, and when he lifted his head from bowing, until they reached the tops of his ears.”

Al-Nasāʾī likewise relates in his Sunan: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā told us; Khālid narrated to us; Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Qatadah, who said: “I heard Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim report—on the authority of Mālik ibn al-Huwayrith, one of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—that whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed he would raise his hands level with his ears at the opening takbīr, when he was about to bow, and when he lifted his head from bowing.”

Al-Dāraqutnī, in his Sunan, transmitted the same report through two routes from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī: “Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Qatadah …,” and he mentioned wording similar to what has already been cited. Thus six reliable imams have conveyed Shuʿbah’s narration, and none of them included the wording reported by Ibn Abī ʿAdī about raising the hands when going into prostration or when rising from it.

As for the report of Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, Muslim included it in his Ṣaḥīḥ: Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā told us; Ibn Abī ʿAdī narrated to us, from Saʿīd, from Qatadah, and it makes no mention of raising the hands when prostrating or when lifting the head from prostration. Al-Bukhārī—may Allah have mercy on him—said in his monograph on raising the hands: “Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ related to us; Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ narrated to us; Saʿīd narrated to us, from Qatadah, that Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim informed them, from Mālik ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him): ‘I saw the Prophet ﷺ raise his hands when he bowed and when he lifted his head from bowing, until they were level with the tops of his ears.’”