Praise be to Allah.
Before talking about weak ahadeeth following are some sound ahadeeth which describe about the effect of Pointing the index finger in tashahhud on shaytaan:
(1) Ahmad narrated that Naafi' said: "When ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Umar sat during the prayer, he would put his hands on his thighs and point with his finger whilst looking at it. Then he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “It is harder on the Shaytaan than iron,” meaning the index finger."
Musnad Ahmad (6000)
This hadeeth was classed as hasan by Al-Albaani in Mishkat al-Masabih (917) and included in his book Sifat Salaat al-Nabi (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), page. 159
also commented on it in al-Silsilah al-Da'eefah (5801) and explained that the hadith is hasan.
(2) There's also a sahih hadith about pointing finger in:
Musnad Abi Ya'la al-Maushili (5767) and Musnad al-Humaidi (1/ 530)
"It makes shaytaan run away"
Humaidi raised his finger and said: "No-one will forget when he does this". Humaidi said that Muslim bin Abi Maryam said, "A man related to me that in a church in Syria, he saw images of Prophets during prayer depicted like this", and Humaidi raised his finger.
Al-Albaani in his book Sifat Salat an-Nabi (3/ 838) said:
This is very strange and useful remark, and its sanad up to the person is sahih.
End Quote.
Before talking about weak ahadeeth following are some sound ahadeeth which describe about the effect of Pointing the index finger in tashahhud on shaytaan:
(1) Ahmad narrated that Naafi' said: "When ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Umar sat during the prayer, he would put his hands on his thighs and point with his finger whilst looking at it. Then he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “It is harder on the Shaytaan than iron,” meaning the index finger."
Musnad Ahmad (6000)
This hadeeth was classed as hasan by Al-Albaani in Mishkat al-Masabih (917) and included in his book Sifat Salaat al-Nabi (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), page. 159
also commented on it in al-Silsilah al-Da'eefah (5801) and explained that the hadith is hasan.
(2) There's also a sahih hadith about pointing finger in:
Musnad Abi Ya'la al-Maushili (5767) and Musnad al-Humaidi (1/ 530)
"It makes shaytaan run away"
Humaidi raised his finger and said: "No-one will forget when he does this". Humaidi said that Muslim bin Abi Maryam said, "A man related to me that in a church in Syria, he saw images of Prophets during prayer depicted like this", and Humaidi raised his finger.
Al-Albaani in his book Sifat Salat an-Nabi (3/ 838) said:
This is very strange and useful remark, and its sanad up to the person is sahih.
End Quote.
There are also Da'eef (weak) ahadeeth regarding the effect on shaytaan (devil) of Moving the forefinger during tashahhud:
(1) Narrated by Ibn Hibban in "Thiqaat" from Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to put his right hand on his right thigh, and his left hand on his left knee, pointing with his finger without moving it, and said:" It makes shaytaan flees" He also said that the Messenger of (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was doing it.
Thiqaat Ibn Hibban (10863)
It is a da'eef hadith Sheikh Al-Albaani (may Allah have mercy on him) commented on it in his book al-Silsilah al-Da'eefah (5572) (12/ 136) as follows:
He (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) pointing with the forefinger when supplicating, and He didn't move it.
This Hadith is odd and untrue (By adding denial of moving the forefinger). Narrated by Abu Dawood and others on authority of Ziad bin Saad on authority of Mohammed ibn Ajlan on authority of Amer bin Abd Allah on authority of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr brought to The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
I said: this reference is hasan (good) If there weren't two defects in the Sanad (chain):
The first: That Ziyad bin Saad – albeit being reliable person - four trustworthy people disagree with him; all of them told it on authority of ibn Ajlan; without Saying: "and He didn't move it".
Narrated by Muslim and others.
What they said has been found in "weak Abu Dawood " (175)
The other: that three trustworthy disagreed with ibn Ajlan in this addition, and they are:
Uthman bin Hakeem, Makharma bin Bakir, and Amr ibn Dinar; they told it on authority of Amir bin Abdullah without this addition.
There is no doubt: that every one of these three is more confident and has a powerful
memory in the eyes of specialists than ibn Ajlan, So when his speech is contrary to the word of one of them; we considered it odd and untrue, so how about if all of them disagreed with him. So how about if he agrees with the story of four about him. We had mentioned their names previously.
Therefore; Ibn al-Qayyim said:
"There is a problem in the fact that this addition is correct"
Specialists in this art have no doubt that classification the Hadith as odd and untrue is done by less suspicions.
It is clear that when Imam Al-Nawawi considered it true in, did not pay attention to this
violation."al-Majmu' " (454/3).
Also did who considered it strong in the comment to "Sharh Al Suanah " (178/3)
And which confirms that is absence of such an addition in sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) talking about pointing in Tashahhud, they are many, Some in Sahih Muslim, as we will mention later, and see "Majma al-Zawa'id" (140-139 /2).
From those many sayings: What was narrated by Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him): That the Prophet, peace be upon him, when he used to sit in his prayers (in tashahhud) he used to put his hand on his knees and raised his right forefinger, but he used to stretch out his left hand on his knee.
Narrated by Muslim and others, and it is present in "Saheeh Abi Dawood" (907) quoting
from Malik on authority of Muslim ibn Abi Maryam on authority of Ali bin Abdul Rahman on authority of Ibn Umar.
A group of people followed it, quoting from Hamidi in his Musnad (648/287) on authority of ibn Abi Maryam, and in "Muslim" and others there some people followed this: Ubaidullah bin Umar on authority of Nafi' on authority of Ibn Umar, and the context belongs to him, and the addition between brackets belongs to Ibn Abi Maryam.
It was narrated by Katheer bin Zaid, but he disagreed in the reference and added denial of moving in the content.
Narrated by Ibn Hibban in "Thiqaat" in the biography of Ibn Abi Maryam - followers of
followers - from Abu Amir Ala'qdi: that Katheer bin Zaid on authority of Muslim ibn Abi Maryam on authority of Nafi' on authority of Ibn Umar:
He used to put his right hand on his right thigh, and his left hand on his left knee, pointingwith his finger without moving it, and said:" It makes the devil flees"He says also that the Messenger of Allah peace be upon him was doing it.
And I said: There is controversy about Katheer bin Zaid, and his words can hardly be
considered as good (hasan) that in the case of exclusivity, but In the case of conflict we do not pay attention to him.
So Al-Hafiz said in "Taqreeb":"He is honest, but he has bad memory".
I think that his bad memory had influenced the reference and the content of Hadith.
A-- The reference: because his disagreed with "Malik"- he has a very strong memory concerning Shaykh (Teacher) of Ibn Abi Maryam , he said he was Nafi'. But Malik says that the teacher was Ali bin Abdulrahman, but is teacher of Ubaidullah bin Umar, as mentioned before, it seems like he has a confusion between two teachers (Sheikhan)".
B-- The content : he add "he didn't move it", and it is odd and untrue, because Katheer bin Zaid is the only person who told it, contrary to what Nafi' and Ali bin Abdulrahman said in "Muslim" and the others as mentioned before.
Whish confirms that is that Katheer didn't continue doing it, Abu Ahmed Zubairi said: Katheer bin zaid on authority of Nafi' he said: Ibn Umar... ( mentioned it), and he pointed his finger, and looked towards it. Then he said: Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:
" It's harsher to shaytaan than iron. He meant the index finger "
Narrated by Ahmad (119/2), and Al-Bazar (563/ 272 /1), and said:
"The only one who mentioned it is Kather bin Zaid on authority of Nafi', there is nothing but this had been reported".
And Abu Ahmed Zubairi, can be trusted, so it appears that Katheer was – due to his bad
memory - sometimes mentions this addition, and other times he doesn't mention it. So this is the right thing - Allah willing-; because of what we have said previously.
And because moving is proven to be true from what Wa'il bin Hujr said:
"I saw him (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) moving it, supplicating with it".
And it is narrated in "Saheeh Abi Dawood" (717)
Then I saw in the "Musnad al-Ruyani"(1439/ 423/ 2) saying contrary to what narrated by Ibn Hibban.
"Moving the finger in prayer causes panic to the devil"
But who narrated this on authority of Katheer (Muhammad bin Umar), is Al-Waqidi he is a liar.
Muhammad bin Umar Al-Waqidi on authority of Katheer bin Zaid narrates this hadith:
(2) "Moving the finger in prayer causes panic to the devil"
In another place:
(3) "Moving of person's finger while sitting in prayer suppresses the devil"
Musnad al-Ruyani (1439) and Sunan al-Bayhaqi (2788)
Both of these ahadeeth are Da'eef as mentioned above about Al-Waqidi [See Taqreeb al-Tahzeeb (6175)], Al-Albaani also classed them Da'eef in:
Da'eef al-Jami' (2401) and al-Silsilah al-Da'eefah (5801) (12/ 662)
And Allah knows the best.
