I reach the bowing position, the congregants would get ahead of me and descend into bowing before I reach it; perhaps they might even reach the bowing position before I do.” This is one of the strangest forms of faulty reasoning: that you compromise your own worship, according to the view of some scholars, in order to validate the worship of others—who are not commanded to precede you, but rather commanded to follow you.

Therefore, we say: This reasoning is misplaced, and we describe the one who reasons in this manner as “ignorant with compounded ignorance,” for he is ignorant and does not know that he is ignorant.

Thus, we say: Say the takbir from the moment you begin to descend, and take care to finish it before reaching the bowing position. But if you reach the bowing position before finishing it, there is no blame upon you. The view that the prayer is invalidated by this entails hardship, and it cannot be put into practice except with difficulty.

The correct view, then, is that if one begins the takbir before descending into bowing and completes it afterward, there is no blame; and if one begins it as he descends and completes it after reaching the bowing position, there is likewise no blame. Yet it is better, insofar as possible, for it to be said between the two pillars. The same applies to “Allah hears whoever praises Him” and to all the takbirs of transition. However, if he does not begin it until after reaching the following pillar, it is not counted.

Raising his hands, …

His statement, “raising his hands,” means raising them to the level of his shoulders, or to the upper parts of his ears, as discussed previously regarding the opening takbir (1). He raises his hands when he intends to