(Excerpt from Nūr al-ʿAynayn fī Ithbāt Rafʿ al-Yadayn ʿinda al-Rukūʿ wa Baʿdahu fī al-Ṣalāh by Ḥāfiẓ Zubair ʿAlī Zaʾī رحمه الله)
✿ ʿUlamāʾ and Ṣaḥābah Narrating Rafʿ al-Yadayn (Raising Hands Before and After Rukūʿ)
The practice of raising the hands before and after rukūʿ in prayer has been authentically narrated from the following Companions of the Prophet ﷺ:
➊ Sayyidunā ʿAbdullāh bin ʿUmar رضي الله عنهما
(📚 Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 735, 736, 738; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: 390)
➋ Sayyidunā Mālik bin al-Ḥuwayrith رضي الله عنه
(📚 Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 737; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: 391)
➌ Sayyidunā Wāʾil bin Ḥujr رضي الله عنه
(📚 Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: 401; Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah: 698)
➍ Sayyidunā Abū Ḥumayd al-Sāʿidī رضي الله عنه
(📚 Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Iḥsān: 1867)
➎ Sayyidunā Abū Qatādah رضي الله عنه
(📚 Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Iḥsān: 1873)
➏ Sayyidunā Sahl bin Saʿd al-Sāʿidī رضي الله عنه
(📚 Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān: 1868)
➐ Sayyidunā Abū Usayd al-Sāʿidī رضي الله عنه
(📚 Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān: 1868)
➑ Sayyidunā Muḥammad bin Maslamah رضي الله عنه
(📚 Juzʾ Rafʿ al-Yadayn by al-Bukhārī: 5 – Chain is ḥasan)
➒ Sayyidunā ʿAlī bin Abī Ṭālib رضي الله عنه
(📚 Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah: 584)
➓ Sayyidunā Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī رضي الله عنه
(📚 Sunan al-Dāraquṭnī: 1/292 – Chain is ṣaḥīḥ)
⓫ Sayyidunā ʿAbdullāh bin al-Zubayr رضي الله عنهما
(📚 al-Sunan al-Kubrā by al-Bayhaqī: 2/73 – Chain is ṣaḥīḥ)
⓬ Sayyidunā Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq رضي الله عنه
(📚 al-Sunan al-Kubrā by al-Bayhaqī: 2/73 – Chain is ṣaḥīḥ)
⓭ Sayyidunā Jābir bin ʿAbdillāh al-Anṣārī رضي الله عنهما
(📚 Musnad al-Sarāj: p. 62–92 – Chain is ḥasan)
◈ Aḥādīth of Rafʿ al-Yadayn are Mutawātir (Mass-Transmitted)
This detailed study confirms that the aḥādīth of rafʿ al-yadayn are mutawātir. The following esteemed scholars have explicitly declared them to be so:
➊ al-Kattānī
(📚 Naẓm al-Mutanāthir min al-Ḥadīth al-Mutawātir, pp. 96–97, ḥadīth 67)
➋ Ibn al-Jawzī
(📚 Same reference)
➌ Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī
(📚 Same reference; Fatḥ al-Bārī: 1/203)
➍ Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī
(📚 Same reference)
➎ Muḥammad Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī
(📚 Laqṭ al-Laʾālī al-Mutanāthirah fī al-Aḥādīth al-Tawātur: p. 207, ḥadīth 62)
➏ Ibn Ḥazm
(📚 Ḥāshiyah of Laʾālī al-Mutanāthirah, p. 205)
➐ al-Suyūṭī
(📚 Qaṭf al-Azhār al-Mutanāthirah: p. 95, ḥadīth 33)
➑ al-ʿIrāqī
(📚 al-Taqyīd wa al-Īḍāḥ Sharḥ Muqaddimah Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ: p. 270)
➒ al-Sakhāwī
(📚 Fatḥ al-Mughīth Sharḥ Alfiyyat al-Ḥadīth: 3/41)
➓ Muwaffaq al-Dīn Ibn Qudāmah
(📚 al-Mughnī: 1/295, Issue: 690)
⓫ Shams al-Dīn Ibn Qudāmah
(📚 al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr: 1/538–539)
⓬ Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله
(📚 al-Qawāʿid al-Nūrāniyyah: p. 48)
⓭ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Farhārī
(📚 Kawthar al-Nabī: p. 10)
✿ Important Note:
According to Imām Aṣṭakhrī, Imām al-Suyūṭī, Ashraf ʿAlī Thānwī (Deobandī), Muḥammad Yūsuf Ludhyānwī (Deobandī), and others — a ḥadīth is deemed mutawātir if it has at least ten narrators.
📚 See:
• Tadrīb al-Rāwī: 2/179
• Qaṭf al-Azhār al-Mutanāthirah: 1/21
• Bawādir al-Nawādir: p. 136
• Tuḥfat Qādiyāniyyah: Vol. 1, p. 17
✔ Therefore: The establishment of rafʿ al-yadayn is definitively proven (qatʿiyy al-thubūt). There is not even the slightest room for doubt regarding it.
