Points derived from the ḥadith:
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We have three reports describing how one descends into prostration:
(a) Ḥadith of Abū Hurayrah: “When any one of you prostrates, he should not drop the way a camel collapses; rather, let him place his hands before his knees.” It is traced back to the Prophet (marfūʿ).
(b) Ḥadith of Ibn ʿUmar: Nāfiʿ said, “Ibn ʿUmar used to place his hands before his knees.” Al-Bukhārī recorded it in suspended form as a Companion statement (mawqūf).
(c) Ḥadith of Wāʾil ibn Ḥujr: “When he prostrated, he would place his knees before his hands.” It is traced back to the Prophet (marfūʿ). -
The reports of Abū Hurayrah and Ibn ʿUmar agree that the preferred practice is for the hands to reach the ground before the knees, whereas the report of Wāʾil ibn Ḥujr differs, holding that it is preferable for the knees to touch down before the hands.
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Some scholars preferred the narrations of Abū Hurayrah and Ibn ʿUmar over that of Wāʾil ibn Ḥujr. They argued that a camel’s knees are in its fore-legs, and these are the first part of the animal to touch the ground, whereas a human being’s knees are in his legs; therefore, they should not touch down before his hands. The prohibition thus targets the knees, preventing them from preceding the hands in the descent, even though their anatomical location differs between human and camel. Since the first thing to reach the earth in the camel is its knees—located in its fore-legs—it follows that the first thing to reach the earth in a human should be his hands, in line with the apparent meaning of the reports of Abū Hurayrah and Ibn ʿUmar.
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Ibn al-Qayyim, however, maintains that the wording in Abū Hurayrah’s narration has been inverted by a transmitter: where it now reads, “let him place his hands before his knees,” its original form was, “let him place his knees before his hands.” This, he says, is supported by the opening of the ḥadith itself—“He should not drop the way a camel collapses”—for a camel is known to set its fore-legs down before its hind legs. Accordingly, a person is forbidden to let the front of his body touch the ground first, as the camel does; instead, he must do the opposite, namely, that the first part of his body to touch the ground be his knees—