observe the camel, we see that when it kneels it brings its forelegs down before its knees; its front limbs reach the ground first and its hind-quarters follow. If you place your hands down first, your own front precedes your rear, and your descent thus imitates the camel’s.

Therefore, the wording “let him place his hands before his knees” does not accord with the beginning of the ḥadīth. The wording that fits is “let him place his knees before his hands.” Some scholars thought the report contained no inversion, arguing that the camel’s knees are in its forelegs. We concede that the camel’s knees are indeed there.

Yet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not say, “He must not come down upon what the camel comes down upon.” Had he said that, we would have understood it to mean: do not descend upon the knees, because the camel descends upon its knees. Rather, he said, “he must not drop as a camel drops,” and the particle kāf in kamā denotes resemblance; the two statements are not the same.

Thus the meaning of “he must not drop as a camel drops” is: he is not to advance his hands so that his front reaches the ground before his rear. Moreover, descending into prostration on the knees is the natural order: in normal descent the first part to touch the ground is what is closest to it—the knee—then the hand, and finally the forehead and the nose.¹