[Louthcoombutt]

Where do we place our hands when we pray Salah?



1) The Hanafis say that the males should place their right hand over the left and place them below the navel and the females should put their hands on the chest.

2) The Hanbalis are of the view that both the males and the females should put their right palms on the back of their left hands and place them below the navel.

3) The Shafis say that both the males and the females should place their right palms on the back of their left hands and place them above the navel but below the chest, as it is the Sunnah.


4) The early three Sunni Imams were born far away from Madina, but Imam Malik bin Anas was born there, he grew up he saw the elders, the literary people and the scholars of Madina offering prayers with unfolded hands, and therefore he ordered that the prayers be offered likewise. Allama Ghulam Rasool Sa’eedi writes about him in Sharh Muslim.

“According to Imam Malik the prayers should be offered with unfolded hands, he considers the folding of hands as undesirable in obligatory prayers and permissible in Nafl prayers.”
Sharh e Muslim, volume 1, page 590, by Allama Ghulam Rasool Sa’eedi, Published in Lahore