QUESTION:
What do the noble ulama say concerning whether the hands should be unfolded after the fourth takbīr in Salāt al-Janāzah together or whether the right hand should be released when giving salām to the right and the left hand at the time of giving salām to the left? What is the correct method?
ANSWER:
بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب
Folding the hands during qiyām (standing posture) in prayer is a Sunnah, wherever there is the recital of something transmitted from the Sunnah. If there is no transmitted recital then the Sunnah is to leave the hands by the sides i.e. not to fold them. In the funeral prayer there is no transmitted recital after the fourth takbīr thus folding the hands after the fourth takbīr is not Sunnah rather the hands should be unfolded and released to the sides.
It is stated in Khulāsat al-Fatāwā:
“The hands should not be folded after the fourth takbīr because there does not remain any transmitted recital that the hands should be folded [for it]. Thus the correct view is to unfold the hands and then give the two salāms.”
[Khulāsat al-Fatāwā Volume 1 page 225]
In Majma’ al-Anhur it is mentioned:
“Shams al’A’immah al-Halawānī (may Allāh shower him with mercy) said: ’In every qiyām in which there is no transmitted recital the Sunnah in it is to release the hands by the sides and in every qiyām in which there is a transmitted recital the Sunnah in it is to fold the hands. Shams al-A’immah al-Sarkhasī and al-Sadr al-Kabīr Burhān al-A’immah and al-Sadr al-Shahīd (may Allāh shower them with mercy) all used to give fatwā according to this.”
[Majma’ al-Anhur Volume 1 page 141]
Sadr al-Sharī’ah Badr al-Tarīqah Muftī Amjad ‘Alī al-A’zhamī (may Allāh shower him with mercy) was asked:
“Should one open their hands and give salām or with their hands folded? Or are both ways permitted?
He replied saying:
One should unfold their hands and then give salām. This conjecture that keeping the hands folded during the takbīrāt is Masnūn (established from the Sunnah) therefore the hands should remain folded during salām is incorrect. In the former there is a lengthy transmitted recital, to analogise that upon the latter is to analogise upon that which is different.”
[Fatāwā Amjadiyyah Volume 1 page 317]
Allāh (Most Transcendent) Knows Best and His Messenger (ﷺ)
Answered by: Muhammad Tāriq Ridā al-Attārī al-Madanī (Specialist in al-Fiqh al-Islāmī)
Affirmed by: Muftī Abū Muhammad ‘Alī Asghar al-Attārī al-Madanī
16th Sha’bān al-Mu’azham 1439 AH (3rd May 2018)
Source: Dār al-Iftā Ahl al-Sunnah (Da’wat e Islami)
Translated by: Mawlana Ibrar Shafi
Read the original Urdu answer here: [Q-ID0636] When finishing the Janazah prayer should both hands be dropped to the side together?