Prohibition of Placing the hands on the sides during As-Salat (The Prayer)

Prayer has a posture of the body that mirrors a posture of the heart. This brief chapter notes one discouraged stance: standing in prayer with a hand resting on the hip. The concern is the attitude such a pose carries, a relaxed, self-satisfied bearing that does not belong before Allah.

What to notice is how closely Islam ties the outward to the inward. Even where one places the hands while standing is shaped so the worshipper looks and feels like a humble servant, not someone standing at ease. The detailed ruling is a matter for scholars; the heart of it is reverence in how we hold ourselves before our Lord.