Hence, the great majority of the Companions, the Successors and those who followed them—including the two leading imams, al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad—regard raising the hands as recommended in the three positions mentioned in this ḥadith. Ibn al-Madīnī said, “This ḥadith is binding proof for all; whoever hears it must act upon it.” Ibn al-Qayyim noted that about thirty individuals transmitted the Prophet’s ﷺ practice of raising the hands in these three places, and the Ten Promised Paradise all reported it. Al-Ḥākim remarked, “We know of no sunnah whose narration was agreed upon by the four Rightly Guided Caliphs, then by the Ten, then by other leading Companions, apart from this sunnah.”
A separate report from Imām Aḥmad—adopted by al-Majd, his grandson Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya, the authors of al-Fāʾiq and al-Furūʿ, by our own teacher ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, by one transmission from Imām al-Shāfiʿī, a number of his followers and many ḥadith scholars—states that raising the hands is also recommended in a fourth place: when one rises from the first tashahhud in a prayer that contains two tashahhuds.
Their evidence is the report in al-Bukhārī from Ibn ʿUmar that the Prophet ﷺ used to do so, and the ḥadith of Abū Ḥumayd recorded by Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī, who declared it sound: “Then, when he stood up after the two rakʿahs, he raised his hands until they were level with his shoulders.”
Mālik, in his most widely transmitted opinion, and Abū Ḥanīfah held that raising the hands is not recommended except for the opening takbīr. Their proof is the ḥadith of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib in Abū Dāwūd: “I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ raise his hands when he began the prayer and never repeat it.” The ḥadith masters, however, agree that the phrase “and never repeat it” is an insertion (idraj) made by Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, one of the narrators.
They also cite what is related from Ibn Masʿūd in Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī: “I shall lead you in the prayer of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ,” so he prayed and did not raise his hands except once. Al-Tirmidhī graded it ḥasan and Ibn Ḥazm declared it ṣaḥīḥ, but Ibn al-Mubārak did not consider it established, Ibn Abī Ḥātim counted it a mistake, and Abū Dāwūd explicitly stated that it is not sound in this wording.
The upshot is that raising the hands is recommended in four positions:
- At the opening takbīr;
- When going into bowing;
- When rising from bowing;
- When standing up after the first tashahhud.