and blessings be upon him—are, as a rule, presumed obligatory within the prayer unless evidence shows otherwise, as has been explained. Hence both fundamental proofs—speech and deed—concur here that the final sitting is compulsory. For that reason the overwhelming majority uphold this ruling, and it meets no serious counter-argument save analogy. (By “the two fundamentals” I mean the Prophetic statement and the Prophetic action.) Accordingly, the weakest opinion is the one that regards the two sittings as merely Sunnah. Allah knows best.
It is soundly reported from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—that he would place his right palm on his right knee, his left palm on his left knee, and point with his finger. The scholars are unanimous that this posture is among the recommended manners of sitting in the prayer. They disagreed, however, about moving the finger, because the narrations differ; what is reliably established is that he simply pointed without moving it.
Issue Five: The scholars differed over placing one hand upon the other during the prayer. Mālik deemed it disliked in an obligatory prayer but permissible in a voluntary one, while others—the majority—considered the practice a Sunnah of the prayer.
The root of their divergence is that authentic reports describing the Prophet’s prayer—peace and blessings be upon him—contain no mention of his placing the right hand over the left, even though it is also reliably reported that the people were instructed to do so. This description likewise appears in the ḥadīth of Abū Ḥumayd. Some jurists therefore maintained that the reports affirming the practice constitute an addition to those that omit it, and that such an addition must be accepted.
Others held that one should follow the reports in which this addition is absent, because they are more numerous and because the posture itself is not among the essential acts of the prayer but rather a form of seeking support. Accordingly, Mālik allowed it in supererogatory prayers and not in obligatory ones. Nonetheless, it can be said that the posture conveys humility, which is what befits the prayer most.
Issue Six: Some scholars preferred that when a worshiper is in an odd-numbered rakʿah he should not rise until he has first sat upright, while others favored that he rise directly from the prostration. The first view was held by al-Shāfiʿī and a group of scholars, and the second by Mālik and others.