Eighth Point of Clarification
The author states in the footnote on page 101: “The reason one should differ from a camel by placing the hands before the knees is that a camel first sets down its knees—and its knees are located in its fore-legs, as stated in Lisān al-ʿArab and other linguistic works. Al-Ṭaḥāwī mentioned the same in Mushkil al-Āthār and Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār. Ibn al-Qayyim, however, produced an odd remark, claiming that such a statement is unintelligible and unknown to the experts of the Arabic language; the sources we have cited refute him—let the reader consult them.” End quote.
I say: what has been quoted from Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—has been lifted out of its context in Zād al-Maʿād; had the transmitter reproduced it in full, that would have been more fitting.
The exact words of Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—are: “As for the ḥadith of Abū Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—traceable to the Prophet ﷺ: ‘When one of you goes down for prostration, let him not kneel as a camel kneels; rather, let him place his hands before his knees,’ then—Allah knows best—some narrator has slipped, for the beginning of the report contradicts its ending. If he places his hands before his knees, he has in fact knelt exactly as a camel does, for the camel puts its fore-legs down first. Once those who held this view noticed the difficulty, they said: ‘The camel’s knees are in its fore-legs, not its hind legs; thus he is being told to avoid putting the knees down first.’ This inference is unsound for several reasons:
First: when a camel kneels it puts its fore-legs down first while its hind legs remain standing; when it rises it lifts its hind legs first while its fore-legs are still on the ground. This is precisely what the Prophet forbade…"