248 – On the authority of Abū Hurayrah — may Allah be pleased with him — who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When any one of you goes down in prostration, let him not drop as a camel collapses; rather, he should place his hands before his knees.” It was recorded by the three compilers (1).

This report is stronger than the ḥadith of Wāʾil ibn Ḥujr: “I saw the Prophet ﷺ, whenever he prostrated, place his knees before his hands,” which was narrated by the four (2).

The first ḥadith has supporting evidence from the narration of Ibn ʿUmar — may Allah be pleased with them both — which Ibn Khuzaymah declared sound, and which al-Bukhārī cited in suspended form as a statement of Ibn ʿUmar (3).

Hadith grading:
The ḥadith of Abū Hurayrah was produced by Aḥmad (2/381), Abū Dāwūd (840), al-Tirmidhī (269), al-Nasāʾī (1091), and al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, through the chain of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd-Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah. Al-Bukhārī said of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd-Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan: “No one corroborates him, and I do not know whether he actually heard from Abū al-Zinād or not.” Ḥamzah al-Kinānī remarked, “This ḥadith is munkar (irregular).” Ibn Sayyid al-Nās commented, “According to al-Tirmidhī’s criteria, Abū Hurayrah’s report should be classed as ḥasan, for its narrators are free of any substantive criticism.”