Fath al-Ghafur fi Wada al-Aydi ala al-Sudur
- Author died
- 1163 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Ghurabāʾ al-Athariyyah
Fath al-Ghafur fi Wada al-Aydi ala al-Sudur (The Grant of the Forgiver Regarding Placing the Hands on the Chest) is a treatise on prayer jurisprudence and hadith criticism by the Medina-based scholar Muhammad Hayat al-Sindi (d. 1163 AH / 1750 CE), investigating the position of the hands during the standing posture of prayer.
Subject Matter and Arguments
In the work, al-Sindi examines the legal proofs regarding placing the right hand over the left versus leaving them at the sides (irsal), concluding that no authentic hadith was transmitted supporting the release of the hands in prayer.
Al-Sindi argues that the established Sunnah is placing the hands on the chest, relying on narrations such as that of Wa'il ibn Hujr recorded by Ibn Khuzaymah. To support his finding, he quotes earlier juristic authorities, including Ibn Amir al-Hajj in his commentary on Munyat al-Musalli and the author of al-Bahr al-Ra'iq, who observed that while placing the right hand over the left is established in the Sunnah, no authentic hadith specifies an exact bodily location for the hands other than the narration of Wa'il ibn Hujr concerning the chest.
A notable critical investigation in Fath al-Ghafur centers on the variant wording "under the navel" (tahta al-surrah) found in some copies of Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah under the chain of Waki' from Musa ibn 'Umayr from 'Alqama ibn Wa'il from his father. Al-Sindi declared this addition to be an erroneous scribal mistake (sahw). He reported that upon consulting an authentic manuscript of the Musannaf, the prophetic hadith appeared without the words "under the navel," followed immediately by an athar (tradition) from Ibrahim al-Nakha'i containing the phrasing "in prayer under the navel." He concluded that a copyist's eye likely slipped between the two adjacent reports, inadvertently interpolating the phrasing of the non-prophetic report into the prophetic text.
Reception, Commentary, and Editions
Al-Sindi later authored an expanded commentary on his own work, titled Minah al-Shakur fi Sharh Fath al-Ghafur fi Tahqiq Wad' al-Yadayn 'ala al-Sudur (The Bestowals of the Grateful in Explaining the Grant of the Forgiver).
His analysis of the manuscript tradition of Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah prompted scholarly debate; Muhammad Qa'im al-Sindi wrote a response in his treatise Fawz al-Kiram, arguing that the addition "under the navel" was present in multiple copies, including one in the library of the mufti Shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir, and questioned calling it an error.
The treatise was edited by Muhammad Diya al-Rahman al-A'zami, with its first edition published in Egypt (1409 AH), a second edition in Pakistan (1418 AH), and a third edition published by Maktabat al-Ghuraba' al-Athariyya in Medina (1419 AH).
Answer updated