—his right hand—on his right thigh, and pointed with his index finger. He did not hold it fully upright or lay it flat; rather, he bent it slightly and moved it (1), as previously mentioned in the hadith of Wā’il ibn Hujr. He curled two fingers—the little finger and the ring finger—and formed a circle with his middle finger and thumb. He raised his index finger while supplicating, directed his gaze towards it, and laid his left palm flat on his left thigh, leaning on it.

His sitting posture was exactly as previously described for sitting between the two prostrations: he sat on his left foot and held his right foot upright. No other posture has been reported from him for this sitting.

As for the hadith of ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, narrated by Muslim in his Sahīh (2), that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sat during prayer, he placed his left foot between his thigh and lower leg and laid his right foot flat, this concerns the final tashahhud, as will be explained. It is one of the two postures reported (3) from him for that sitting (4). In the two Sahīh collections (5), Abū Humayd’s hadith describing the Prophet’s prayer (peace and blessings be upon him) states:

“When he sat after two rak‘ahs, he sat on his left foot and held the other upright. When he sat in the final rak‘ah, he brought his left foot forward, held (6) his right foot upright, and sat on his buttocks.”

Abū Humayd thus mentioned that he held his right foot upright, whereas Ibn al-Zubayr mentioned that he laid it flat. No one reported of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that this was his manner (7) of sitting in