One brother on my Facebook - where I asked this same question - replied with this:
"
The reason why those that follow the Maliki madhab pray with their ams at their side is because it is the way that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) prayed. This is the relied upon majority opinion within the Maliki madhab. There is also a minority opinion for praying with your hands at your side in the Shaf'i and Hanbali madhabs.
The story that Imam Malik only prayed with his hands to his side is a lie and doesn't even make any sense. . "
He then provided me with two links:
www.lamppostproductions.com/files/articles/SADL_1.pdf
www.lamppostproductions.com/files/articles/SADL_2.pdf
The thing is, my shaykh says the reasons the Maliki have for doing this are all in error. He states that in the days of Imam Malik they had very few hadith to go off. He said "They would have to travel for a month to get one single hadith". Basically the bottom like I guess is that it's the Muslim's preference. I prefer to follow the ahadith that says he s.a.w. prayed with his hands folded.
Most of the points that are mentioned about the so called "weakness" can be refuted. It should be noted that the Hadeeth is mentioned in their own imaam's muwatta. As for the pdf that is "refuting" the placing of the right hand over the left hand, then the author brings about "weaknesses" in the ahadeeth. One of which is a hadeeth narrated by Bukhaari..
Sahl ibn Sa’d said:
the people used to be instructed to place the right hand over the left forearm when praying. (narrated by al-Bukhaari, no. 840)
And the author mentions that weakness number one is that it is not an explicit saying or action of the Prophet. And weakness number two is that it is a statement of a companion and the companion does not say that the Prophet gave this order.
It should be known that when a Sahaabi says "We were commanded/instructed" then this comes under the "statement (or commandment)" of the Messenger of Allaah :saw2:. Ibn Hajr rahimahullaah mentions in his book Nukhbat ul Fikr: "
ثم الإسناد: إما أن ينتهى
إلى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم،
تصريحا،
أو حكما، من: قوله، أو فعله، أو تقريره(The chain’s ascription (isnād) explicitly or implicitly goes to the Prophet: consisting in his statements, or his actions, or his tacit approval"
So basically what that means is that a Marfoo` report (a report that is attributed to the Messenger of Allaah :saw2
is of two types: 1) Marfoo` as sarihan (Directly/Explicitly marfoo`) and 2) Marfoo` al hukman (Indirectly/implicitly marfoo`)
Shaykh `Uthaymeen explains this in his book "Mustalah al Hadeeth" and I am paraphrasing...
What Marfoo` as Sarihan means is that, it is a narration directly related to the Prophet of Allaah concerning his sayings, his actions, his tacit approvals and descriptions of his manners and features.
As for Marfoo` al hukman, then this means that it is a statement or action of the sahaabah which takes ruling of being marfoo` (attributed to the Messenger of Allaah :saw2
. And there are numerous narrations of this type. Also this is when when a Sahaabi narrates something which has no room for ijtihaad (example if mentioned about story from the past, future, rewards, punishments, shari`ah ruling etc). So when a Sahaabi mentions "We were commanded/instructed to do so and so" or "we were prohibited from doing so and so" then this means it is a command from the Messenger of Allaah :saw2:. If one was to argue that you cannot accept such a narration to be from the Messenger of Allaah :saw2: then many narrations from the saheeh`ayn will have to be rejected. For example:
`Abdullaah ibn `Abbaas radiAllaahu anhu narrated:
"The people were commanded to perform the tawaaf of the ka`bah as the last thing before leaving makkah, except the menstruating women who were exempted." [Saheeh al Bukhaari]
Anas ibn Maalik radiAllaahu anhu narrated:
"A time limit has been prescribed for us for clipping the moustache, cutting the nails, plucking the hair under the armpits and shaving the pubes and it should not be neglected for more than 40 nights" [Saheeh Muslim]
Thus it is clear that this command that Sahl ibn Sa`d radiAllaahu anhu states is attributed to the Messenger.
Finally, they did not mention anything about this hadeeth... It was narrated from Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “We Prophets have been commanded to delay our suhoor and to break our fast straight away, and to place our right hands over our left hands when praying.” (narrated by Ibn Hibbaan in al-Saheeh, 3/13-14).
Sorry if I got you confused by bringing things from outside the topic.
Wa salaamu 'alayk
