his marginal notes and elsewhere—may Allah guide us and him.

I say: The necessary corollary of this sound sunnah is that one lift the knees before the hands, for it is impossible to lean on the ground while rising except in this fashion. This also accords with the hadiths that forbid imitating animals during prayer, particularly the hadith of Abū Hurayrah cited earlier which prohibits al-burūk, the camel’s crouch; a camel rises by pressing on its knees, as is plainly seen, so the worshipper ought to rise by leaning on his hands in deliberate contrast to it. Reflect on this with fairness.

This ḥadith likewise establishes the legitimacy of the sitting of rest, and we shall discuss it shortly, if Allah wills.

Notice: I later came across a small treatise by a contemporary scholar on the manner of rising in prayer in which he declared the ḥadith of “kneading” weak. Regrettably, I must say that his study is far removed from rigorous academic investigation and from freedom of sectarian bias, contrary to what we had assumed of him. He is given to citing whatever supports his view while suppressing what contradicts it, or, if he does cite it, relocating it so that the reader will not notice that it is evidence against him rather than for him. He is expansive and severe in criticizing what conflicts with his stance, casting doubt upon its import, yet lax in criticizing what bolsters him, presenting a weak ḥadith in the guise of a strong one by means of its chains, though it possesses only two feeble isnāds which he led his readers to believe were five. He then prolongs the discussion by listing the individual words of those isnāds until he makes them ten, with no tangible benefit save to reinforce the aforementioned illusion—and there is more of the same, too lengthy to detail here, nor can this marginal note accommodate a full exposition with examples. Nevertheless, some points must be mentioned so the readers may be certain of what I have stated. I say:

1 – The ḥadith of Mālik ibn al-Ḥuwayrith: all the scholars are unanimous regarding its authenticity and on