Touching the ears at the opening takbir

Question

Question: in “Sharh al-Wiqaya”, in the margin, Mawlana ‘Abd al-Hayy ﵀ wrote: [ar]وَهُوَ لَيْسَ بِسُنَّةٍ مُسْتَقِلَّةٍ، فَإِنَّهُ لَا دَلِيلَ عَلَيْهِ فِي رِوَايَةٍ[/ar] “It is not an independent sunna, for there is no evidence for it in any narration.” Hence, if someone touched his ears when raising the hands (raf‘ al-yadayn), will this be contrary to the sunna, while doing it without touching is the sunna? What does this mean?

Answer

Immediately after the passage quoted in the question there is also this passage: [ar]وَلَعَلَّ مَنِ اسْتَحَبَّهُ إِنَّمَا اسْتَحَبَّهُ تَحْقِيقًا لِلْمُحَاذَاةِ وَدَفْعًا لِلْوَسْوَسَةِ[/ar] “Perhaps those who deemed it mustahabb did so only in order to make sure of the alignment [of the hands with the ears] (muhadhat) and to ward off obsessive doubts (waswasa).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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