The Hanafis adduce as evidence what Saʿid ibn Mansur narrates from Waʾil ibn Hujr: “I prayed behind the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him. When he sat and recited the tashahhud, he spread his left foot on the ground and sat on it.”

They also cite the report Ahmad transmits from Rifaʿah ibn Rafiʿ: the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said to the Bedouin, “When you sit, sit on your left leg.”

Al-Tirmidhi likewise records—grading it authentic—the hadith of Abu Humayd: “The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—sat for the tashahhud, spread his left leg, and turned the front of his right foot toward the qiblah.”

Regarding the posture between the two prostrations, the Shafiʿis and Hanbalis hold that it is iftirash.

The force of these hadiths, say the Hanafis, lies in the fact that their narrators mention iftirash for the tashahhud without limiting it to the first one. Their exclusive mention of that posture, with no reference to any other, implies that it applies to both tashahhuds.

The Malikis, on the other hand, rely on the report from ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿud: “The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—used to sit tawarruk in the middle of the prayer and at its end.” Ahmad includes it in his Musnad, and al-Haythami remarks: “Its transmitters are deemed reliable.”

The Shafiʿis and Hanbalis argue that the hadiths which speak of iftirash in the tashahhud relate it—according to their transmitters—to the first tashahhud. Al-Bukhari records from Abu Humayd al-Saʿidi: “When he sat in the last rakʿah, he placed his left foot down, kept the other upright, and sat on his posterior.”

Muslim narrates from ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr: “He—peace and blessings be upon him—would put his left leg between his thigh and shin and keep his right foot upright.”

In another version from Abu Humayd, cited by Abu Hatim in his Sahih, it states: “When it came to the prostration that concluded with the salam, he drew out his left leg and sat on his left side in the posture of tawarruk.”