BOOK OF PRAYER

Chapter: Alignment of the Fingers at the Commencement of Prayer

• I asked Abu Abdullah Ahmad ibn Hanbal, saying: [Regarding] the hadith of Sa'id ibn Sam'an, from Abu Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "When he commenced prayer, he would spread his fingers." How is the spreading of the fingers and their spacing [to be performed]?

I said to Ahmad: For Ali ibn Abdullah said: "It is the alignment of the fingers and keeping them together." He remained silent, as if he approved of it.

• And I asked Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Makhlad al-Hanzali, saying: [Regarding] the hadith of Sa'id ibn Sam'an, from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), when he commenced prayer, would spread his fingers—how is the spreading of the fingers [to be performed]? He clenched his fingers, then aligned them while keeping them together. I said to Ishaq: So if he raises his hands and does not spread the fingers, but keeps them together? He considered it deficient.

• And I asked Ali ibn Abdullah, saying: Should a man spread his fingers when he raises his hands? He said: "No, but he should keep his fingers together and align them, and he should not space them apart." I said: [What about] the hadith of Sa'id ibn Sam'an, from Abu Hurayrah? He said: "The 'spreading' means to align them; it does not mean to open them." Ali said: "I used to think in the past that it meant to open them, until I met some of the scholars of hadith, and he informed me, so I knew that it is as he said: the alignment and the keeping together."