QA-ID-0061
QUESTION
Should the index finger be raised in tashahhud? Some people here are stopping others from doing so saying that Mujaddid e Alf Thani said that the index finger should not be raised, although this has been the practice of our scholars. Please inform us of the correct Hanafi position to follow.
ANSWER
﷽
According to the relied upon position in the Hanafī school, raising the index finger in tashahhud is certainly correct and is proven from numerous hadīth.
It is narrated from Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar by Imām Muslim (§580):
When the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ sat in Salāh [i.e. for tashahhud], he placed his hands on his knees and raised his right finger next to the thumb, making supplication with it, and he stretched his left hand on his left knee.
It is also narrated from Wā’il bin Hujr by Ibn Mājah (§912):
I saw the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ making a circle with his thumb and middle finger, and raising the one next to it (the index finger), supplicating with it during tashahhud.
Similar narrations have also been reported in Jami’ al-Tirmidhī (§293) and Sunan Abī Dāwūd (§1105).
Some Hanafī jurists have stated that indicating with the index finger falls under actions that are sunnah in salāh, while others have included it in the actions that are desirable (mustahab) in salāh. The reconciliation between the two, as stated by ibn ‘Abidīn al-Shami, is that it is a sunnah that is not emphasised (ghayr mu’akkadah) [Radd al-Muhtār 2:218].
The correctness of raising the index finger in tashahhud has been transmitted from all three of our Imams: al-Imām al-A’zam Abū Hanīfah, Imām Abū Yūsuf and Imām Muhammad, and is the favoured position according to the Hanafī research scholars.
Al-Haskafī mentions in al-Durr al-Mukhtār:
The reliable [position] is what the commentators authenticated, particularly the latter-day scholars (muta’akhhirīn) like al-Kamāl, al-Halabī, al-Bahnasi, al-Baqani, Shaykh al-Islām and others who said to indicate [with the index finger] is correct because it is the action of the Messenger of Allāh, and they attributed it to Imām Muhammad and al-Imām al-A’zam.
In fact, it is in the text of Durar al-Bihār and its commentary Ghurar al-Adhkār that to indicate with the index finger is the preferred position (muftā bihi) according to us. And it is in al-Shurunbulāliyyah from al-Burhān that the correct [stance] is to indicate with one index finger: To raise it when saying ‘lā-ilāha’ and return it when saying ‘il-Allāh.’ And by using the word ‘correct’ (sahīh), he has alerted us that the stance which mentions not to indicate with the index finger is contrary to the principles (dirāyah) and reports (riwāyah).
Allamah al-‘Aynī transmits from al-Tuhfah that the most accurate position is that indicating is mustahab whilst al-Muhīt mentions that it is sunnah [al-Durr al-Mukhtār p.70].
Ibn ‘Abidīn al-Shāmī comments on this in Radd al-Muhtār:
{And they attributed it to Imām Muhammad and al-Imām al-A’zam} Likewise, they have reported it from Imām Abū Yūsuf in al-Amālī as will be mentioned. Therefore, it is reported from all three of our Imāms [Radd al-Muhtar 2:217].
He further writes:
This [indicating with the index finger] is what the latter-day scholars relied on due to it being proven from the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ in authentic narrations; and due to the authenticity of transmission from our three Imāms. This is why he [i.e. ibn al-Humam] said in Fath al-Qadīr: ‘The first position [of not indicating] is contrary to the principles and reports’ [Radd al-Muhtar 2:218].
Al-Kāsānī writes in Badāyi’ al-Sanāyi’:
Imām Muhammad said in Kitāb al-Musabbiha: ‘It has been narrated to us from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that he would indicate with his finger. Therefore, we shall do what the Messenger of Allāh did and we act upon what he acted upon; and this is the position of Abū Hanīfah and ours’ [Badāyi’ al-Sanāyi’ 2:71].
Imām Ahmad Ridā writes in al-Fatāwā al-Ridawiyyah:
To raise the index finger in tashahhud is the preferred and relied upon position of the research scholars (muhaqqiqīn). Saghīrī has mentioned its correctness from al-Multaqat and the commentaries of al-Hidāyah, which Muhaqqiq ‘ala al-Itlāq Allāmah Kamāl al-Dīn ibn al-Humām, Allāmah ibn Amīr al-Hāj al-Halabī, Allāmah Shurunbulalī and others relied on, and whom Allāmah Alā’ al-Dīn al-Haskafī, Allāmah Sayyid Tahtāwī, Allāmah ibn ‘Abidīn al-Shāmī and others followed. Allāmah Badr al-Din al-‘Aynī mentioned from al-Tuhfah that it is mustahab while the author of al-Muhīt and Mullā Quhastānī mentioned it is sunnah [al-Fatāwā al-Ridawiyyah 6:150].
Some Hanafī books have mentioned that a person should not indicate with the index finger in tashahhud. Mujaddid Alf Thānī in his Maktūbāt has considered this position of not raising the index finger in tashahhud as the stronger position by relying upon what is mentioned in certain Hanafī books. He takes the opinion that all the reports from our three Hanafī Imāms are not found in the books of Usūl: The 6 books of Imām Muhammad that report the well-known key positions of Imām Abū Hanīfah – the zāhir al-riwāyah. Instead, he states that all the reports attributed to the three main Imāms are found in the other works of Imām Muhammad which are referred to as ‘the nawādir sources’ and should not form the basis of the Hanafī position. [Maktūbāt Mujaddid Alf Thānī, Maktūb 312]
However, the Hanafī research scholars have given preference to the position of indicating with the index finger and this is what is to be acted upon by Hanafīs. The preference given to the position that the index finger should not be raised within certain Hanafī books is not worthy of being relied on as the research scholars have not favoured this position at all and considered such a position to be contrary to the principles and transmitted reports.
Imām Ahmad Ridā summarises the matter in the following manner:
In summary, there is no doubt regarding the soundness of lifting the index finger. The narrations of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ and the statements of our mujtahid Imāms also support this. If the books of the latter-day scholars, such as Tanwīr al-Absār, Walwaljiyyah, Tajnīs, Khulāsah, Bazzāziyah, Wāqiat, Umdat al-Muftī, Munyah al-Muftī, Tabyīn Kubrā, Mudmarāt al-Hindiyyah and others have preferred (tarjīh) and verified (tashīh) the position of not raising the finger – this preference of theirs is not worthy of being relied on since the research scholars have not favoured this position at all and considered such a position to be contrary to logic and transmitted reports [al-Fatāwā al-Ridawiyyah 6:153].
Therefore, the most accurate and relied upon position in the Hanafī school is that it is desirable and sunnah to indicate with the index finger during tashahhud. Since it is the relied upon position and desirable according to the Hanafī research scholars, a person should not stop others from doing so.
والله تعالى أعلم
And Allāh Knows Best
Muhammad Kalim Misbahi
