ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him): that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, whenever he pronounced the opening takbīr, would raise his hands until they were level with his ears; when he bowed he would raise his hands until they were level with his ears; and when he lifted his head from bowing and said, “Allah hears those who praise Him,” he did the same. Al-Dāraqutnī has also related this in his Sunan through the chain of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz from Abū Kāmil with similar wording.

This is the version reliably preserved from Qatādah; it contains no mention of raising the hands when going into prostration or when rising from it. Further proof of the anomaly of the report that does include that addition is the narration recorded by the two Shaykhs in their Ṣaḥīḥs, from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, from Abū Qilābah: he saw Mālik ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him) pronounce the opening takbīr and raise his hands, raise his hands again when he intended to bow, and raise his hands once more when he lifted his head from bowing, and he related that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had done likewise.

This narration, whose authenticity is unanimously agreed upon, accords with what the trustworthy leading imams have transmitted through Qatādah, from Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim, from Mālik ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him), and it overturns the anomalous additions reported by those who differed. Hence, the relied-upon version of the ḥadith of Mālik ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him) is this narration and whatever conforms to it.

Moreover, the reports that mention raising the hands in prostration and when rising from it are transmitted by Qatādah in the form of ʿanʿanah, and he was a muʿdallis; this is an additional defect besides their anomalousness. Allah knows best.

Among the soundest reports I have also encountered on raising the hands when rising from prostration is what Abū Dāwūd records in his Sunan: “ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Maysarah narrated to us…”