Certain people have quoted the following hadeeth to argue that when a person rises to the next rak'ah he should support himself on clenched fists like a person kneading dough: 'When the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) would stand up in salah he would place his hands upon the ground just as an aajin does.'

They have taken the word aajin to mean 'one who kneads dough'. However, Hafidh Ibn Hajar (rahmatullaahi 'alaih) says in al-Talkhees al-Habeer: 'Ibn al-Salah (ra) has said in his notes on al-Waseet that this hadeeth is not authentic and is unknown. It is not permissible to use it in evidence. Nawawi (ra) has also said in Sharh al-Muhaddhab that this hadeeth is weak or false, it has no basis.'

Hafidh Ibn Hajar also says later: 'Ibn al-Salah has said that many non-Arabs have acted on this (clenching their fists as though kneading dough). This is tantamount to establishing a posture of salah that has no relationship to it with an inauthentic hadeeth. Even if the hadeeth was authentic this is not its meaning because aajin means an old man.' (al-Talkhees al-Habeer 1/260)

After quoting a poem to prove his point about the correct meaning of the word aajin, Ibn al-Salah (rahmatullaahi 'alaih) goes on to say that the parable to be understood from 'ajn' (the root from which the word 'aajin' is derived) is the heavy leaning on the hands (palms) for support, not the clenching of the fists. (Salah of a Believer in the Qur'an and Sunnah, Shaykh Riyadh Ul Haq)

» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 2nd November 2011

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