Overall meaning:
Abū Qilābah relates that Mālik ibn al-Ḥuwayrith—one of the Companions—came to us in our mosque and said, “I have come to lead you in a prayer which I do not intend as my own act of devotion; my aim is only to teach you the prayer of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ by practical demonstration, for instruction by action is clearer and more enduring in the learner’s mind.”
The narrator then asked Abū Qilābah, “How did Mālik ibn al-Ḥuwayrith, who taught you the Prophet’s prayer, perform it?” He replied, “Exactly like the prayer of our shaykh Abū Yazīd ʿAmr ibn Salamah al-Jarmī. He would sit briefly after lifting his head from prostration, before rising to stand.”
Scholarly disagreement:
The sitting mentioned in this hadith is what the scholars call jalsat al-istirāḥah (the rest-sitting). All agree that it is permissible; the difference lies in whether it is recommended.
• Those who deemed it recommended include al-Shāfiʿī in the famous view of his school, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in one of the two reports from him, and—among his students—al-Khallāl, basing themselves on this authentic report.
• Those who considered it not recommended among the Companions are ʿUmar, ʿAlī, Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿUmar, and Ibn ʿAbbās; among the hadith scholars, al-Thawrī and Isḥāq; and among the jurists, Abū Ḥanīfah and Mālik—and this is also the more widely held view within the Ḥanbalī school. They argued that most of the hadith evidence indicates leaving it.
Al-Tirmidhī said, “This is the practice acted upon by the people of knowledge,” and Abū al-Zinād said, “That is the sunnah.”
Some scholars favored doing it only when needed—because of age or physical weakness—as a way of reconciling the various proofs. Ibn Qudāmah remarked in al-Mughnī, “This brings the narrations together and strikes a middle course between the two opinions.”
Points derived from the hadith:
- The rest-sitting is recommended; the sounder view is that it is recommended when there is a need for it.
- Its place is when rising from prostration to stand for the next rakʿah.
- Its purpose is to give the worshiper a moment of rest after the movement from prostration to standing; therefore, no takbīr (saying ‘Allāhu akbar’) or prescribed remembrance is legislated for it.