Placing hands above navel in prayer Fatwa No: 338785
- Fatwa Date:17-1-2017
Assalaamu alaykum. I have read in a book written by a good scholar that the Arabic word Sadr (chest) refers to the portion of the body from below the throat to the belly. So if I keep my hands 2/3 of an inch above the navel during the prayer, is that then considered as keeping the hands on the chest as the Sunnah/hadith says?
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
It is easy to determine the limit of the chest and distinguish it from the belly. What is immediately above the navel is not considered to be part of the chest; rather, it is part of the belly because the navel is in the middle of the belly. The author of Lisaan Al-‘Arab (which is one of the dictionaries of the Arabic language) said, “The navel is the hole in the middle of the belly.”
What comes immediately above the navel is not included in the chest. However, there is nothing wrong with putting one’s hands there during prayer, i.e. above the navel and below the chest; this is the view of Imaam Ash-Shaafi’i .
An-Nawawi said in Al-Majmoo’, “One should put his hands below his chest and above his navel; this is the correct and adopted opinion (of the Shaafi'i school of Fiqh).”
Zakariyyah Al-Ansaari said in Asna Al-Mataalib, “One puts his hands between the navel and the chest; Ibn Khuzaymah reported in his Saheeh from Waa’il ibn Hujr, 'I prayed with the Prophet and he put his right hand on his left hand on his chest;' i.e. at the lower end of the chest, so the hands are below the chest – according to another narration which indicates that he put his hands below his chest.”
Indeed, we have already mentioned the difference of opinion among the scholars about putting the hands in prayer, and that this matter is flexible, in fatwa 283579. Some scholars are of the view that one puts his hands on his chest, some are of the view that he puts them under the navel, and some are of the view that he puts them between the chest and the navel.
Allah knows best.