—those in his legs—then his hands, and finally his forehead together with his nose. This is the sound conclusion to be drawn from the ḥadiths, and it removes any appearance of contradiction among them.

Just as this ruling follows from the transmitted evidence, it also accords with nature and human anatomy. When the worshipper lowers his body from an upright position, he descends gradually, and the parts of him that are nearest to the ground reach it first: his knees, then his hands, and then his forehead along with his nose.

5 – The editor—may Allah pardon him—writes: There is no doubt that a camel’s knees are in its fore-legs, not its hind-legs; what the hind-legs contain are the hocks. Likewise, it is indisputable that the first things to touch the earth when a camel sinks to the ground are the very knees in its fore-legs. The hadith therefore prohibits resembling the camel’s manner of resting, in which the animal’s front—its fore-legs—reaches the ground before its rear, which bears its hocks. Hence the report of Abū Hurayrah contains an inversion, as Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) noted. Ibn al-Qayyim’s only misapprehension was to assume that a camel’s knees are in its hind-legs, whereas in both linguistic usage and common speech a camel’s knees are in its fore-legs, as expressed in the Arabic saying: “So-and-so and so-and-so are in rank like the two knees of a camel.”

For this reason, the majority of scholars hold that it is preferable for the person prostrating to place his knees on the ground first, and then his hands, relying on the ḥadith of Waʾil ibn Ḥujr.