A fabricated story has gained some credence among some Muslims who say that Imam Malik’s arms had been damaged, may Allah be merciful to him, in the punishment inflicted on him by the governor of Madinah, and that he was thus unable to fold his arms over his chest in prayer, and that the Malikis mindlessly imitate him. However, if the Imam’s arms were so hurt that he could not fold them across his breast, then when he went into prostration he would have not been able to support himself and would have fallen over, but to my knowledge not one single narrator has ever reported such a thing.Â
What is called ‘sadl‘, letting the arms hang by the sides in prayer, is transmitted by Abdarrahman ibn al-Qasim who accompanied Malik for almost 20 years until the time of his death, whom Malik himself respected highly, and whose integrity as a transmitter is acknowledged by the great muhaddithin. An-Nasa’i said he was reliable (thiqah), as did Ibn Ma’in and Abu Zur’ah. Al-Bukhari narrated a hadith from him and so he is one of the narrators of the sahih hadith. To cast aspersions on him is to cast aspersions on the entire science of narrators and the sahih hadith. That he would make a mistake over such a matter is a ridiculous assertion. Those who repeat it should either produce sound narrations concerning it from reliable transmitters, and if they do that, they will have to match the integrity and reliability of Abdarrahman ibn al-Qasim, or they must know that it is fabricated story and that by narrating it they place themselves in the position of those who narrate fabrications, i.e. as unreliable scholars.