Seeking Assistance From Other Than Allah

How the narration became Famous

Imam ibn ‘Abdul-barr writes:

Ibn Umar’s narration became famous from Imam Zuhri’s students. Eleven students took this narration from Imam Zuhri. They are: Imam Malik, az-Zubaidi, Ma’mar, Auzaa’ee, Muhammad bin Ishaaq, Sufiyaan bin Husain, Aqeel bin Khaalid, abu Hamzah, ibn ooyainah, yoonus, and yahya. Twenty six of Imam Malik’s students narrated this Hadith from him. They are: Yahya bin Yahya, ibn Bukayr, abu Mas’ab, Sa’eed, ibn Wahab, ibn-ul-Qaasim, ibn Sa’eed, ibn abi Awais, Abdurrahman, Juwairia bint Asmaa’, ibrahim, ibnur Mubaarik, Bishr, Uthmaan, Abdullah, Khaalid, Makee bin Ibrahim, ibn Hasan, ibn mas’ab, abdul malik, ibn naafi’, abu quraa, Musaa, matraf, qutaibah, and Imam Shafi’ee. After all these people narrated this Hadith and told their students this narration, so it became very famous.

(At-tamheed, chap. on Raf’ul-yadain)

From this, it can be concluded that this narration was not famous at the time of the Sahaabah and the taabi’een. When people try to find evidence to support raf’ul-yadain, they say that there are over a hundred Hadith supporting it. In reality, there is only one Hadith which has been transmitted by Imam Zuhri, and his students have transmitted it further. So many chains were produced after Imam Zuhri.
When Imam Auzaaee debated with Imam abu Hanifah concerning raf’ul-yadain, the only Hadith Auzaaee could give as evidence for it was the one from Imam Zuhri. This demonstrates that if there were any other Hadith to support raf’ul-yadain then Auzaaee would have used one of them as evidence. Also, Bukhari and Muslim only wrote Hadith with chains leading to Imam Zuhri. If there were any other Hadith, then they would have included them.

Imam Malik – Narration of raf’ul-yadain

Imam Malik had the most knowledge of Imam Zuhri’s narrations. Let us see what his opinion about this was.

Imam Ibnul-Qasim, who was Imam Malik’s student, writes that Imam Malik says that apart from the begining of the prayer, I am unaware of performing raf’ul-yadain at any other time. I believe that the practice of raf’ul-yadain during the prayer is weak

(al-maduunah, Baab raf’ul-yadain).

Imam Malik’s saying that he was unaware of performing raf’ul-yadain does not mean that he was unaware of the Hadith. This was because he himself heard it along with ten of his colleagues and transmitted it to twenty-six of his students. The real meaning of his saying is that he was unaware of the practice of it. This was because neither Imam Zuhri, nor any of his students did raf’ul-yadain. Neither did people in Maienah do it nor the people coming for Hajj from all over the world do it. Another point to raise is that Imam Malik who is a main narrator of this Hadith did not practice raf’ul-yadain himself. The practice of raf’ul-yadain was very uncommon in Imam Malik’s time.
How can we use this narration as evidence for raf’ul-yadain when the scholars who narrated it did not act upon it, and when the two main narrators have doubts in them? (Ibn Jurayj and Imam Zuhri)
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The second evidence of people who peforming raf-ul-yadain is that Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim write, Abu Qalaaba and Nasr-bin-Asim, say that they saw Malik bin Huwairis performing raf-ul-yadain before ruku and after ruku in Salaah and he reported that the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] used to do this as well.

(Bukari and Muslim, baab raf-ul-yadain)

The people who perform raf-ul yadain give this as their evidence and say that it is a sunnah-muakkadah and that non performance of it means that the prayer is not accepted properly.
We answer this by saying that this narration cannot prove that raf-ul-yadain is sunnah-muakkadah and also you cannot prove from this narration that the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] used to perform Raf-ul-yadain all the time. Malik bin Huwairis’ narration goes against his other narration.
Imam Nasaa’ee writes that Malik bin Huwairis reported that the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] used to perform Raf-ul-yadain before and after the ruku and in the middle of the two sajdahs.

(Nasaa’ee baab Raf-ul-yadain)

From Malik bin Huwairis’ narration, there is also proof of performing raf-ul yadain between sujuud, but the people who perform raf- ul-yadain only do it before and after the ruku and not in the middle of the sajdahs. Their argument is that this action has been abrogated. This, inspite of the fact, that Malik bin Huwairis’ narration does not confirm this.
Secondly, Malik bin Huwairis was only in Madinah for a few weeks and did not stay with the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] at times, so he did not know the last actions of the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant him peace]. This suggests that he did not know whether the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant him peace] performed raf-ul-yadain or not. On the other hand, Abdullah bin Ma’sood saw the Prophet’s [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] last actions concerning raf-ul-yadain. He saw the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] perform the prayer without raful-yadain. Abdullah bin Ma’sood’s narration is more reliable than Malik bin Huwairis’ as ibn Ma'sood stayed with the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] all the time.

Proof that Malik bin Huwairis stayed in Madinah for only a few weeks

Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim write that Malik bin Huwairis came to Madinah with some other people and stayed in Madinah for 20 nights and then they really wanted to go home. So, when the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] found this out, he gave them permission to leave for Basra, where Malik was from.

(Bukhari Muslim, Baab-ul-adhaan)
From this narration there is proof that Malik bin Huwairis was only in madeenah for a short time so, he could not have known the last actions of the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] concerning raf-ul-yadain. Malik bin Huwairis’ narration about raf-ul-yadain does not prove that the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] performed raf-ul-yadain all the time; it only proves that malik bin huwairis saw him [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] perform Raf-ul-yadain in that period. This also does not prove that it is a sunnah muakkadah. If someone tries to prove from this narration that it is sunnah muakkadah to perform Raf-ul-yadain then people could also say that it is sunnah muakkadah to pick a child up during Salaah!
Imam Bukharai writes that the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] while praying Salaah picked up his grand-daughter Amama and put her down when he went to sujood.

(Bukari baab-us-Salaah)

No one can say from this narration that it is a sunnaah to pick up a child while praying, so how can some say that because Malik bin huwairis saw the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] perfomed Raf’ul-yadain in Salaah, and it is sunnah muakkadah.
There are four main narrators of the narration supporting raf’ul-yadain. They are, Abu Qalaabah, khaalid-al-hazza, Nasr bin Aasim, and Qatadaa. Of course, we believe that they had full knowledge of Hadith but they were human and had some weaknesses.
Imam dhahabi and Hafidh Asqalani write:

Abu Qalaabah’s full name was Abdullah bin Zaid, he used to live in the city of Basra. He was a great and knowledgeable man. He was against Ali (Radiall hu anhu), he had no regards Ali (Radiall hu anhu) and used to narrate Hadith from people whom he had never met before. For example: Abdullah bin Umar, Abdullah bin Abbaas, Ai’sha, and abu Hurairah. When he related Ahadith, it seemed as if he had heard the Hadith directly from the companions of the Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace], but in reality heard them from other people.

(Meezaan-ul-I’tidaal, tahdheeb-ut-tahdheeb, taqreeb, biography of Abu-Qalaabah)