Nasai

1268. Commentary: One way of placing the right hand is that all the fingers are closed, and the tip of the thumb is placed at the base of the index (shahadah) finger, with only the index finger kept open.

1158. Commentary:

➊ There is no specification in the hadith regarding whether this refers to the first or second tashahhud; for this reason, the Hanafis hold the view that one should sit in this manner in every tashahhud. However, in other authentic narrations, there is a distinct manner for the final tashahhud, which is called tawarruk. See: [صحیح البخاري ، الأذان ، حدیث : 828] For details on tawarruk, see hadith: 1263 and its benefit. Therefore, this method will be applied to the first tashahhud. This is precisely what the author rahimahullah intends.

➋ When a Companion refers to an action as Sunnah in acts of worship and the like, it is in fact a statement regarding a saying or action of the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam; therefore, it is authoritative.

1161. Commentary:

➊ In the Tashahhud, the index finger of the right hand is kept extended while the rest of the fingers are kept closed. And a gesture is made with the index finger, as if pointing towards something. The gaze should remain fixed on the gesture. (Also see, Hadith: 890)

➋ If a person is acting contrary to the Sunnah, he should be corrected.

1270. Commentary: In some narrations, placing the hand on the thigh is mentioned, and in others, on the knee. Reconciliation is possible in such a way that the palm is on the thigh and the fingers are on the knee. In some narrations, this method is explicitly transmitted, as is found in Hadith 1269. Although, considering the narrations mentioning the thigh, some scholars have deemed it permissible to place the entire hand on the thigh, yet it is preferable to act upon all the narrations.

Hadith Commentary:
Vocabulary of the Hadith:
(1)
Ghurratun:
The brightness and radiance of the forehead.
(2)
Tahjeel:
The whiteness and radiance of the hands and feet.

Benefits and Issues:
The effect of ablution (wudu) in this world is that the limbs washed in ablution become clean and pure from filth and impurity, and are also cleansed from sins. However, its effect on the Day of Resurrection will be that the faces, hands, and feet of your followers will be radiant and shining, and this will be their distinguishing characteristic there. Then, the more complete and perfect a person’s ablution is, the greater will be this brightness and radiance. Therefore, one should strive to wash the arms and shins (forearms and lower legs) thoroughly in ablution, and there is no specific limit set for this; one should wash as far as one is able.

English Commentary:
1:
In the hadiths, various modes of placing the right hand on the thigh during the tashahhud are mentioned.
Among these modes, one is that there is no mention of folding the fingers.
The second is that the little finger (khinsir), the ring finger (bansar), and the middle finger (wusta)—that is, the smallest finger, the one next to it, and the middle one, all three—are kept folded, and the index finger (shahadah finger, the one next to the thumb) is left open, and the thumb is joined to the base of the index finger.
This is the knot of fifty-three.
The third mode is that the little finger (khinsir) and the ring finger (bansar)—the smallest and the one next to it—are folded, and the index finger is left open, and a circle is made with the thumb and the middle finger.
The fourth mode is that all the fingers are kept folded and the index finger is used for pointing.
Hadiths have been narrated regarding all these modes.
One may do as one wishes; all are permissible.
However, it should be clear that all these modes are from the beginning of the tashahhud, not upon saying ((أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ لاَ إِلٰهَ إِلاَّ الله)) (“I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah”), nor from saying this phrase until after it.
In no hadith is this specification established; this is an invented practice of later people.

987. Commentary:
It is understood that as soon as one sits for the tashahhud, this manner is adopted: the right hand is formed into a fist and the gesture is made—that is, the index finger is kept raised. However, there is no need to move it repeatedly, as will be mentioned further ahead.

Benefits and Issues:
➊
Pointing with the finger is done during the tashahhud.
It is not done during the sitting between the prostrations.
In this hadith, sitting in prayer means sitting during the tashahhud,
as is made clear by hadith: 912.

➋
In the tashahhud, the left hand should be placed in the same manner
as it is during the sitting between the prostrations.
One method for the right hand is described in this hadith:
that the thumb is joined with the middle finger to form a ring,
and the index finger is used to point.
In this case, the two smallest fingers are kept closed. (Sunan Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Salat, Subsection: Chapters on Bowing and Prostration,
Chapter: Pointing in the Tashahhud, Hadith: 987)
The second method is that the thumb is placed on the lower phalanx of the index finger,
and the remaining three fingers are closed.
In the hadith, this is described as the number fifty-three.
See: (Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Masajid, Chapter: Description of Sitting in Prayer,
Hadith: 580)
Among the Arabs, there were specific gestures for numbers, and according to those, the number fifty-three is formed in this way.
That is why this posture is described with this term.

➌
What is meant by supplicating with the finger is that during supplication, the finger is raised and pointed.

➍
This pointing should be done from the beginning to the end, that is, until the salutation (salam) is given.

➎
It is not necessary to move the finger or to keep moving it while pointing. Some people only raise the finger at (illa Allah)
and then put it down.
This is completely baseless, and some people keep moving it continuously.
This is also not correct.
In some narrations, the words (yuharrikuha)
do appear, but their meaning is also (yad‘u biha or yushiru biha),
that is, to supplicate or to point with it.

Takhrij al-Hadith: [وأخرجه مسلم 580/116، من حديث ما لك به .]
Jurisprudential Points:
➊ Unnecessary movements in prayer are prohibited. If it is absolutely necessary to remove pebbles, then remove them only once.
➋ Pointing with the index finger during every tashahhud in prayer is Sunnah, and this gesture continues from the beginning of tashahhud until the end of the prayer (salam). At the end, during supplication, continuously moving it is established from an authentic and well-preserved hadith. See [سنن النسائي :1269، وسنده ميں محفوظ مختصرصحيح نماز نبوي ص 22 حاشيه فقره:39]
➌ At the time of pointing, the index finger is to be slightly bent. See [سنن ابي داود 991، وسنده حسن روحه ابن خزيمه 716، وابن حبان (الاحسان :1943)]
➍ The narration in which it is mentioned that the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) did not move his index finger [سنن ابي داود : 989 وسنن النسائي: 1271] is weak due to the tadlis (i.e., the use of "an") of Muhammad ibn ‘Ajlan, who was a mudallis.
➎ One should always, to the best of one's ability, remain engaged in enjoining good and forbidding evil.
➏ The hadith of the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) is a proof, provided it is established with a sound (hasan) chain of narration.
➐ Unnecessary acts in prayer are prohibited. Only those matters are permissible for which there is evidence in the Shari‘ah or a valid legal excuse.
➑ Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (rahimahullah) taught people the method of sitting in tashahhud: he raised his right foot, spread out his left foot, and sat on his left thigh, not on his feet. Then he explained that this method was shown to him in practice by ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar, who had seen his father (Sayyiduna Ibn ‘Umar, radi Allahu anhuma) doing so. [الموطأ 90/1 ح 199 وسنده صحيح]

Takhrij:
«أخرجه مسلم، المساجد، باب صفة الجلوس في الصلاة، حديث:580.»©Explanation:
➊ In this hadith: «عَقَدَ ثلَاَثًا وَّخَمْسِینَ» While sitting in the tashahhud, when he (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) would gesture, he would place his thumb at the base of the adjacent finger and keep the remaining fingers closed.
We should do likewise, so that the Sunnah is fulfilled.
➋ All the Imams are agreed upon the gesture with the index finger during the tashahhud.
Mulla Ali Qari, the renowned Hanafi scholar, has written two independent treatises on the raising of the index finger, in which he has brought authentic ahadith to establish that raising the index finger is Sunnah, and he has strongly refuted what is written in Khulasat al-Kaydani and others, where it is declared haram; this refutation is worth reading.
In the famous Hanafi books of jurisprudence such as Durr al-Mukhtar, al-Shami, and Sharh al-Wiqayah, it is also mentioned in this manner.

Benefit:
Sufyan said: Yahya ibn Sa‘id used to narrate this (hadith) on the authority of Muslim, so I met Muslim and he narrated the hadith to me, and in it he further stated that the pointing of the index finger for testimony melts the Shaytan.