Wa alaykum salam wa rahmatuLlahi wa barakatuHu,

In Sahih al-Bukhari v. 1, p. 210 #828, on the authority of Abu Humayd al-Sa’idi who said,

كنت أحفظكم لصلاة رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم رأيته…فإذا جلس في الركعتين جلس على رجله اليسرى ونصب اليمنى وإذا جلس في الركعة الآخرة قدم رجله اليسرى ونصب الأخرى وقعد على مقعدته

“I have preserved for you the Prophet’s (sallaAllahu alayhie wa sallam) prayer, I saw him…then, when he would sit from two rak’ahs he would sit on his left foot and raise his right. When he sat in the final rak’ah, he would bring forth his left foot [from under the shin], raise the other, and sit on his posterior.”

In Fath al-Bari v. 2, p. 354, Hafiz Ibn Hajar mentioned that this hadith is very strong evidence in the favor of Imam Shafi’i who differentiated between the sitting postures in the first and final tashahhud. Thus, it may be understood that the Prophet Muhammad (sallaAllahu alayhie wa sallam) sat in iftirash in the first sitting and tawarruk in the last.

In Sahih Ibn Hibban v. 5, p. 184, the wording of Abu Humayd’s hadith is,

وجلس على شقه الأيسر متوركا

“And he would sit on his left shin in the position of tawarruk.”

In al-Sunan al-Kubra v. 2, p. 72, Bayhaqi also narrated it. It is found in Musnad Ahmad too v. 5, p. 424. Tirmidhi v. 2, p. 105 related it and said, “hadith hasan sahih.”

The hadith of Abu Humayd in Sahih al-Bukhari is explicit in differentiating between how the Prophet sat in the two sittings; in the first he sat in iftirash and in the second in tawarruk.

And Allah knows best.

Shafiifiqh.com Fatwa Dept.