—and he himself did the very opposite. The first parts of his body to reach the ground were always those nearest to it, one after the other, and the first to rise were those uppermost. He would place his knees first, then his hands, and finally his forehead; when rising he would lift his head first, then his hands, and then his knees. That is the exact reverse of a camel’s way. Moreover, the Prophet ﷺ forbade in prayer any imitation of animals: he prohibited kneeling like a camel, turning the head like a fox, sprawling like a beast of prey, squatting like a dog, pecking like a raven, and waving the hands at the salām the way horses toss their tails in the glare of the sun. The conduct of one who prays must therefore differ completely from the conduct of animals.

Second: their claim that a camel’s knees are in its fore-legs is nonsensical and unknown to the linguists; the knee is found only in the hind legs, and if the joints in its fore-legs have ever been called “knees,” that is merely by way of figurative predominance. So ends the statement of Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him. His words are unassailable, and what is truly strange is the author’s surprise at them!

As for the assertion—quoted by the author from Lisān al-ʿArab and similar works—that a camel’s knees are in its fore-legs, it was rejected by the compiler of al-Qāmūs in his book Safar al-Saʿādah. He wrote: “Whoever says that the camel’s knees are in its fore-legs is mistaken and in error, contrary to the verdict of the leading authorities on the language.” Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī likewise said in Muʿjam al-Buldan: “Rukbah—pronounced with a ḍamma on the first letter, a sukūn on the second, and a bāʾ—is the very word for the knee that is in the leg of a camel or any other beast.”

The statements of the author of al-Qāmūs and of Yāqūt thus concur with the view of Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—and on their authority the charge of strangeness levelled against him collapses. Allah knows best.