Source: This excerpt is taken from the book Nūr al-ʿAynayn fī Ithbāt Rafʿ al-Yadayn ʿinda al-Rukūʿ wa Baʿdahu fī al-Ṣalāh by the Muḥaddith of the era, Ḥāfiẓ Zubayr ʿAlī Za’ī رحمه الله.③ Third Doubt: The Ḥadīth of al-Barā’ bin ʿĀzib رضي الله عنه
يزيد بن أبى زياد عن ابن أبى ليلى عن البراء بن عازب رضى الله عنه قال: كان النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم إذا كبر لإفتتاح الصلاة رفع يديه حتى يكون ابهامه قريبا من شحمة أذنيه ثم لا يعودYazīd bin Abī Ziyād narrated from (ʿAbd al-Raḥmān) bin Abī Laylā, from al-Barā’ bin ʿĀzib رضي الله عنه that the Prophet ﷺ would raise his hands at the beginning of the prayer until his thumbs would come close to his earlobes, then he would not do it again.
(
Reference: Maʿānī al-Āthār by al-Ṭaḥāwī 1/224
,
Reference: Sunan Abī Dāwūd: 749–752
)
It is Established
The reason for his weakness is his poor memory and frequent mistakes. Those scholars who declared him trustworthy (thiqah) or truthful (ṣadūq), their statement is rejected in comparison to the majority of the ḥadīth scholars.◈ Al-Būṣīrī said regarding Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād:
وضعفه الجمهور
“And the majority declared him weak.”
(
Reference: Zawā’id Ibn Mājah: 2116
)◈ Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said:
والجمهور على تضعيف حديثه
“And the majority are upon declaring his ḥadīth weak...”
(
Reference: Badīʿ al-Sārī, p. 459
)◈ Regarding the ḥadīth found in Sunan Abī Dāwūd (2/93, ḥadīth 3153), Ashraf ʿAlī Thānvī Deobandī wrote:
یزید بن زیاد کی وجہ سے ضعیف کہا ہے۔
“It has been declared weak due to Yazīd bin Ziyād.”
(
Reference: Nashr al-Ṭīb fī Dhikr al-Nabī al-Ḥabīb, p. 244
)⚠ Tanbīh (Important Note):
The Imāms of Ḥadīth have stated unanimously that Yazīd narrated this disputed report after his ikhtilāṭ (confusion in old age), as will be mentioned ahead.② Second Answer
This narration was reported by Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād after ikhtilāṭ.
Sufyān bin ʿUyaynah said that Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād narrated to us in Makkah:عن عبد الرحمن بن أبى ليلى عن البراء بن عازب قال: رأيت النبى عليه الصلوة والسلام إذا افتتح للصلوة رفع يديه
(
Reference: Kitāb al-Majrūḥīn by Ibn Ḥibbān 3/100
— and its chain is ṣaḥīḥ up to Sufyān;
Reference: Musnad al-Ḥumaydī: 724
, another version: 741)Meaning: In this earlier narration, there is no mention of not raising the hands again (i.e., lā yaʿūd and similar wording).
Sufyān bin ʿUyaynah further said:
ثم قدمت الكوفة فلقيت يزيد بها فسمعته يحدث بهذا وزاد فيه: ثم لم يعد إذا هم لقنوه
Meaning: Then I came to Kūfah and met Yazīd there. I heard him narrating this ḥadīth and he added the wording ثم لم يعد (“then he did not do it again”). I think the Kūfans prompted him—meaning they put these words into his mouth.
(
Reference: Kitāb al-Umm by al-Shāfiʿī 1/104
)Imām al-Dāraquṭnī also said the same: Yazīd accepted prompting at the end of his life and added these words.
(
Reference: Sunan al-Dāraquṭnī 1/294, ḥadīth 118
)Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥibbān said:
لهذا خبر عول عليه أهل العراق فى نفي رفع اليدين فى الصلوة عند الركوع وعند رفع الرأس منه وليس فى الخبر ثم لم يعد وهذه الزيادة لقنها أهل الكوفة يزيد بن أبى زياد فى آخر عمره فتلقن كما قال سفيان بن عيينة أنه سمعه قديما بمكة يحدث بهذا الحديث باسقاط هذه اللفظة ومن لم يكن العلم صناعته لا يذكر له الإحتجاج بما يشبه هذا من الأخبار الواهية
Meaning: The people of Iraq relied upon this report to negate raising the hands when going to rukūʿ and when rising from it. But the report did not contain ثم لم يعد. This addition was prompted to Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād by the people of Kūfah at the end of his life, so he accepted it—just as Sufyān bin ʿUyaynah stated that he heard him earlier in Makkah narrating it without this wording. And whoever does not have knowledge as his profession should not mention using such extremely weak reports as proof.
(
Reference: al-Majrūḥīn 3/100
)From these statements of the muḥaddithīn, it becomes clear that Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād al-Kūfī al-Shīʿī narrated this report early in his life without the addition of lā yaʿūd. Later, when his memory deteriorated in old age, he accepted prompting and inserted the “not doing again” wording—therefore using this narration as evidence is not permissible.
③ Third Answer
Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād was a Mudallis.
[جامع التحصیل فی احکام المراسیل للحافظ العلائی (ص 113، رقم 62) علوم الحدیث للحاکم (ص 105) قصیدہ فی المدلسین لابی محمود المقدی شعر 6، رسالہ السیوطی فی المدلسین (67) وابو زرعہ ابن العراقی (71) والذہبی فی ارجوزته، طبقات المدلسین لابن حجر (المرتبة الثالث 3/112) ]Imām al-Dāraquṭnī and al-Ḥākim and others declared him to be a mudallis.
All narrations from Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād that mention the negation of rafʿ al-yadayn (i.e., ثم لم يعد and similar wordings) do not contain any clear declaration of hearing (taṣrīḥ al-samāʿ). In the narration of Shuʿbah there is taṣrīḥ al-samāʿ, but in it there is no mention of negating rafʿ al-yadayn.
Therefore, it is known that this narration is weak due to the ʿanʿanah of a mudallis.
Remember: the ʿanʿanah of a mudallis goes against the authenticity of a ḥadīth.
④ Fourth Answer
There is consensus of the muḥaddithīn that this ḥadīth is weak, and the “not doing” wording was added by Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād.
Ibn al-Mulaqqin said:فهو حديث ضعيف باتفاق الحفاظ
“This is a weak ḥadīth by agreement (consensus) of the ḥadīth masters.”
(
Reference: al-Badr al-Munīr 3/487
, also see
Reference: Nayl al-Awṭār 2/180
)For example, the following muḥaddithīn explicitly declared this ḥadīth weak:
① Sufyān bin ʿUyaynah
② al-Shāfiʿī
③ al-Ḥumaydī
④ Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal
⑤ Yaḥyā bin Maʿīn
(قال يحيي بن معين فى رواية الدوري (ج 3 ص 364) حديث البراء ان صلى الله عليه وسلم كان يرفع يد به لس واضح الا سنا)
⑥ al-Dārimī
⑦ al-Bukhārī
⑧ Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr
⑨ al-Bayhaqī
⑩ Ibn al-Jawzī (
Reference: al-Badr al-Munīr 3/487
)⑪ al-Bazzār (
Reference: quoted in ʿUmdat al-Qārī by al-ʿAynī 5/273
and
Reference: al-Talkhīṣ al-Ḥabīr 1/421
)Not a single muḥaddith or imām declared this ḥadīth to be ṣaḥīḥ or ḥasan.
⑤ Fifth Answer
There is also consensus that the words “لم يعد” are mudraj in Yazīd’s narration.
Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said:واتفق الحفاظ على أن قوله ثم لم يعد مدرج فى الخبر من قول يزيد بن أبى زياد و رواه عنه بدونها شعبة والثوري وخالد الطحان وزهير وغيرهم من الحفاظ.
“The ḥadīth masters agreed that the statement ثم لم يعد is mudraj in this report from the words of Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād. Shuʿbah, al-Thawrī, Khālid al-Ṭaḥḥān, Zuhayr and other ḥadīth masters narrated it from him without this statement.”
(
Reference: al-Talkhīṣ al-Ḥabīr 1/221
)Also review the fourth answer and al-Mudraj ilā al-Mudraj (al-Suyūṭī, p. 19, ḥadīth no. 4).
⑥ Sixth Answer
Review the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth answers given earlier regarding the narration attributed to Sayyidunā Ibn Masʿūd رضي الله عنه. The same objections apply to this ḥadīth as well.
Summary
This ḥadīth is weak, and it is not explicit in proving its intended meaning.⚠ Tanbīh
Muḥammad Ibn Abī Laylā narrated this report with the chain:عن أخيه عيسى عن الحكم عن عبدالرحمن بن أبى ليلى عن البراء بن عازب
(
Reference: Sunan Abī Dāwūd 1/479, ḥadīth 752
)Imām Abū Dāwūd said:
هذا الحديث ليس بصحيح
“This ḥadīth is not ṣaḥīḥ.”
The critical defect is that Muḥammad Ibn Abī Laylā had heard this ḥadīth from Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād. Imām Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal narrated from Muḥammad bin ʿAbdullāh bin Numayr (a trustworthy imām) that he saw in Ibn Abī Laylā’s book that he was narrating this ḥadīth from Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād.
(
Reference: Kitāb al-ʿIlal by Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal 1/143, no. 293
)On top of that, Muḥammad Ibn Abī Laylā himself is weak—so much so that al-Ṭaḥāwī al-Ḥanafī also declared him:
مضطرب الحفظ جدا
“Extremely unstable in memory.”
(
Reference: Mushkil al-Āthār 3/226
)Al-Zaylaʿī said: “Weak.”
(
Reference: Naṣb al-Rāyah 1/318
)Anwar Shāh Kashmīrī said:
فهو ضعيف عندي كما ذهب إليه الجمهور
“It is weak according to me as well, just as the majority held.”
(
Reference: Fayḍ al-Bārī 3/168
)Therefore, this supporting narration is rejected. The whole matter ultimately revolves around the teacher of Muḥammad Ibn Abī Laylā—Yazīd bin Abī Ziyād—who is a weak Kūfan Shīʿī mudallis.
