Any one authentic evidence for not raising the hands (raf' al-yadayn)?

The strongest and best-known evidence is the hadith of 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him: «عَنْ عَلْقَمَةَ، قَالَ: قَالَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ مَسْعُودٍ: أَلَا أُصَلِّي بِكُمْ صَلَاةَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ؟ فَصَلَّى، فَلَمْ يَرْفَعْ يَدَيْهِ إِلَّا فِي أَوَّلِ مَرَّةٍ» (Jami' al-Tirmidhi: 257, Sunan Abi Dawud: 748, Sunan al-Nasa'i: 1026, Musnad Ahmad: 3681).

Authentication: Al-Tirmidhi: «حَدِيثُ ابْنِ مَسْعُودٍ حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ»; Ibn Hazm (al-Muhalla): completely sahih; Ahmad Muhammad Shakir: chain sahih; Shaykh al-Albani: in his verification of Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud (748) and Mishkat, the chain is sahih.

A scholarly point: Sufyan al-Thawri, the jurists of Kufa and the Hanafis, on the basis of this very hadith and the reports of 'Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, hold the view of raising the hands only in the opening takbir (takbir tahrimah) (in their view this was the last practice, the abrogating one). The majority (Malik, al-Shafi'i, Ahmad) and the hadith scholars (al-Bukhari, Abu Hatim, al-Daraqutni) prefer the discussion of hidden defects ('ilal) or the mass-transmitted (mutawatir) narrations of Ibn 'Umar and Malik ibn al-Huwayrith, may Allah be pleased with them; nevertheless, for those scholars who held the chain of Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, to be sahih, this is the clearest text for the permissibility and establishment of not raising the hands.

Translated from the original Urdu fatwa.