Authentic Ahadith on Placing Hands on the Chest in Salah
This excerpt is taken from Shaykh Zubair Ali Zai (رحمه الله)’s book Hadiyyat al-Muslimeen: Important Issues of Salah with the Complete Prophetic Prayer (ﷺ).
Placing Hands on the Chest
«عن سهل بن سعد رضى الله عنه قال: كان الناس يؤمرون أن يضع الرجل يده اليمنى على ذراعه اليسرى فى الصلوة»
Narration: Sahl ibn Saʿd (رضي الله عنه) said:
“People were commanded (by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ) that a man should place his right hand on his left arm in prayer.”
[Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 1/102, ḥadīth 740]
✦ فوائد (Benefits)
① This ḥadīth shows that hands should be placed on the chest in prayer — because when the right hand is placed over the left forearm, both hands naturally rest upon the chest.
Another narration states that the Prophet (ﷺ) placed his right hand over the back of his left palm, wrist, and forearm.
[Sunan al-Nasāʾī with Ḥāshiyah al-Sindī, vol. 1, p. 141, ḥadīth 890; Abū Dāwūd, vol. 1, p. 112, ḥadīth 727]
Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Ibn Khuzaymah (1/243, ḥadīth 48) and Ibn Ḥibbān (al-Iḥsān, 2/202, ḥadīth 485).
Confirmation of placing hands on the chest also comes from the narration:
يضع هذه على صدره .. إلخ
“He (ﷺ) would place these (hands) on his chest…”
(Musnad Aḥmad, vol. 5, p. 226, ḥadīth 22313 — wording from here; Taḥqīq of Ibn al-Jawzī, vol. 1, p. 283, ḥadīth 477; vol. 1, p. 338) — chain is ḥasan.
② The narration in Sunan Abī Dāwūd (ḥadīth 756) about placing hands below the navel is weak due to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq al-Kūfī.
Imām al-Nawawī said:
“ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq is unanimously weak.”
[Naṣb al-Rāyah by al-Zaylaʿī, vol. 1, p. 314]
Nīmowī al-Ḥanafī said:
“It contains ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq al-Wāsiṭī, and he is weak.”
(Ḥāshiyah Āthār al-Sunan, ḥadīth 330)
Even in al-Hidāyah (Awwalīn), vol. 1, p. 102, note 17, it is stated that this narration is unanimously weak.
③ The notion that men place their hands below the navel while women place theirs on the chest has no basis in any authentic or even weak ḥadīth.
Differences such as:
- Men raising elbows in sujūd and women keeping them close to the ground,
- Men placing hands below the navel and women on the chest,
are innovations of the people of opinion (Ahl al-Ra’y).
From the start of the prayer to the salām, the Prophet (ﷺ) taught one prayer method for both men and women — except for matters of clothing and covering (e.g., a woman must not pray bareheaded or with ankles exposed).
The Ahl al-Ḥadīth accept only differences proven by clear authentic evidence, rejecting baseless or weak practices.
④ The narration from Anas (رضي الله عنه) about placing hands below the navel is severely weak due to Saʿīd ibn Zarbī.
See Mukhtaṣar al-Khilāfiyyāt of al-Bayhaqī, vol. 1, p. 342; compiled by Ibn Farḥ al-Ashbīlī; also al-Khilāfiyyāt manuscript, vol. 37b, and works on narrator criticism.
⑤ Some cite Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah for the “below the navel” wording, but the original manuscripts and printed editions of Ibn Abī Shaybah contain no such phrase.
It was inserted by Qāsim ibn Quṭlūbughā — declared a liar by al-Biqāʿī.
[al-Ḍawʾ al-Lāmiʿ, vol. 6, p. 186]
⑥ According to Ḥanafī fiqh, both men and women should place their hands below the navel.
[al-Fiqh ʿala al-Madhāhib al-Arbaʿah, vol. 1, p. 251]
