—who, whenever he saw a man fail to raise his hands on going into or rising from rukūʿ, would pelt him with pebbles, as al-Bukhārī relates with an authentic chain (1). Had the Messenger of Allah ﷺ abandoned the gesture, the Companions would never have behaved in that way. Our scholars, however, have fallen into the very inconsistency they wished to avoid. They transmit the practice of *tadbīq* (placing one forearm upon the other beneath the armpits) from Ibn Masʿūd, yet later discard it in favour of grasping the knees, on the basis of other ḥadiths. Remarkably, the reports they use to overturn Ibn Masʿūd’s *tadbīq* are nowhere near as strong as the reports on raising the hands that contradict his solitary narration denying the gesture. Why did they not say, “It is inconceivable that grasping the knees could have escaped Ibn Masʿūd,” leave that practice because he left it, and retain the *tadbīq* he narrated? They did nothing of the sort; instead they accepted the opposing ḥadiths—and they were right to do so. By the same logic, they are duty-bound to accept the ḥadiths on raising the hands and set aside Ibn Masʿūd’s lone report. This is a compelling argument from which there is no escape—were it not for the stranglehold of blind imitation over most people! _________ (1) The incident is also reported by ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad in Masāʾil Abī-hi, p. 70, and by al-Dāraquṭnī, no. 108; the former adds that Ibn ʿUmar ordered the man to raise his hands. He said: “I heard my father say that ʿUqbah b. ʿĀmir remarked regarding raising the hands in prayer: ‘For every act of raising the hands, a man receives ten good deeds.’” I say: al-Ṭabarānī records it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr, 17/297/819, in the wording: “Every time a man gestures with his hands in prayer, one good deed—or one rank—is recorded for each finger,” with a ḥasan chain, as al-Haythamī likewise states (2/103). I later documented it in al-Ṣaḥīḥah, no. 3286. [Editor’s note:] This is corroborated by the divine ḥadith: “Whoever intends a good deed and then performs it will have ten to seven-hundred good deeds recorded for him,” related by al-Bukhārī and Muslim; see Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb, no. 18.