The Hanbali Position of Placing the Hands Below the Navel
The mu'tamad (relied upon) position of the Hanbali madhhab is that it is recommended to place the hands below the navel [see sharh muntaha al iradat 1/186]. It is also permissible to place them below the chest, however it is disliked to place them on the chest itself [sharh al umdah 2/662].

There are four different narrations from Imam Ahmad as to where it is best to place the hands:

1- Below the navel. Imam Ahmad himself stated that the hands should be placed below the navel. Al Muzani narrated from him that he said: "(the hands should be placed) slightly below the navel". Abu Talib asked him where to place the hands and he said: "on the navel or below it" [Bada'i' al Fawa'id 3/91]. Imam Ahmad's son mentioned the narration from Ali regarding placing the hands below the navel [Masa'il Abdillah 260]. This narration is the relied upon narration in the madhhab, as mentioned before.
2- Below the chest above the navel. This was narrated by his student Abu Dawud [Masa'il Abi Dawud 220] and his son Abdullah said he saw Ahmad doing so [Masa'il Abdillah 260].
3- The option of placing below the navel or below the chest. This opinion was narrated from him by his student al Kawsaj [Masa'il al Kawsaj 211].
4- Releasing the hands by the side (sadl). This was mentioned by Ibn Muflih Al Hanbali in Al furu' [2/168]

There is no narration from Imam Ahmad that mentions the hands should be placed on the chest itself. Rather, Abu Dawud narrated from him that he said: "it is disliked for the hands to be placed on the chest" [Masa'il Abi Dawud 221]. This was also narrated by Al Muzani [Bada'i' al Fawa'id 3/91].

Ibn Muflih (student of Ibn Taymiyyah) said: "And it is disliked to place them on the chest.
Imam Ahmad explicitly mentioned this, despite him narrating the hadith (of placing on the chest) himself" [Al furu' 2/169]. So it is evident that Imam Ahmad was aware of this hadith, however he had a different interpretation of it (which will be presented below), or viewed it to be weak.

This was also the opinion of Sheikh ul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah. He mentioned in sharh ul umdah that the hands can either be placed below the navel or above the navel, but that it is disliked to place them on the chest itself [Sharh al umdah 2/662]. Ibn ul Qayyim also seems to incline to the view that it is better to place the hands below the navel, and he mentions narrations from Imam Ahmad disliking placing them on the chest [Zad ul Ma'aad 1/222]. Muhammad bin Abdil Wahhab also mentioned the opinion of placing them below the navel [Mukhtasar al Insaf wa ash Sharh al Kabeer pg 117]. Placing them below the navel was also the opinion of several early najdis [see Ad Durar as Saniyyah 4/283]. It is strange then, that most of those who reject this opinion today attribute themselves to these scholars.

As for placing the hands on the chest, then it is not known from any of the salaf that they
would so, rather we only have narrations from some of them disliking it. Ibn Abi Shaybah (3953) narrated from Sa'eed bin Jubayr - one of the tabi'in - that he saw a man placing one hand on the other in salah, so he separated his hands. This athar could be used as evidence for sadl, however it is narrated from Imam Ahmad that he was asked about this narration and he said that Sa'eed only did this as the man was placing his hands on the chest. The only possible narration that could perhaps be used by the proponents of this opinion to prove that one of the salaf would place his hands on his chest in qiyam is a narration from ishaq bin rahawayh, where his student Al Kawsaj states: "he (Ishaaq) would place his hands on his breast or below his breast" [Masa'il al Kawsaj 3547].

The response to this is from three angles:
1- The context of the narration from Ishaaq bin Rahawayh indicates that it is referring to placing his hands at the level of his chest when raising his hands to make dua in the witr prayer, not when generally standing in salah. The full narration says: "Ishaaq held that witr could be made up after subh as long as one hasn't prayed fajr, and would raise his hands in (dua of) qunut all month, and would do qunut before ruku' and would place his hands on his breasts or below his breasts".
2- The same student - Al Kawsaj- narrates from Ishaaq bin Rahawayh in the exact same book that Ishaaq was asked about where to place the hands in salah, to which he replied: "below the navel, as this is stronger in the hadith, and closer to humility" [Masa'il al Kawsaj 211]. This is a prime example of coming to a conclusion regarding the opinion of an Imam before gathering all of what he said on the issue, and without being aware of his principles.
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