The answer is: Yes, but acts of worship are based on revealed prescription; analogy has no place in them. If analogy were admitted into the manner of performing acts of worship and similar matters, people would lose all consistency: each person would make analogies according to what he wished, or according to what he supposed to be a fully valid analogy, and the Ummah would lose its uniformity in the acts of worship by which they draw near to Allah, Mighty and Majestic.

His statement, “in prostration,” is a circumstantial qualifier of the subject of “falls,” but it is a subsequent qualifier, because this state—namely, prostration—does not occur at the moment of falling; rather, it occurs after the falling has ended. It is therefore a subsequent qualifier. Prostration is such that its upper and lower extremities are level. Thus, if a person were to prostrate upon an elevated, sloping surface and ended up closer to sitting than to prostrating, that would not be regarded as prostration. The upper and lower parts must therefore be level, or at least he must be closer to complete prostration than to complete sitting, in the case where the ground slopes upward.

ON SEVEN LIMBS: HIS FEET, THEN HIS KNEES, THEN HIS HANDS, THEN HIS FOREHEAD TOGETHER WITH HIS NOSE

His statement: “On seven limbs: his feet, then his knees, then his hands, then his forehead together with his nose.”

He said, “seven limbs,” and then explained them: his feet, then his knees—four;

then his hands—six;

then his forehead together with his nose—seven.

In reality, the forehead and the nose are not one and the same thing, but the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, included the nose with the forehead. The evidence for this is