It is something obvious to small children—let alone to full-grown adults—that when a camel wishes to kneel it lowers its fore-legs first and then its hind-legs. Therefore, if a worshiper places his hands on the ground before his knees when going down for prostration, he has unquestionably knelt in the very manner of a camel; and if, when rising from prostration, he brings up his knees before his hands, he has stood up the way a camel does. The same applies to anyone who leans on his hands while lifting his knees first, or who rises in that fashion after the first tashahhud.

The second of these postures mimics the camel when it stands, while the first mimics it when it kneels, and every such imitation is forbidden. The rationale for the prohibition is the resemblance to the camel’s posture, whether in kneeling or in rising. Whether one insists that a camel’s “knees” are in its fore-legs or its hind-legs is beside the point; what matters is the actual bodily configuration. Whoever remains doubtful about this resemblance should simply watch a camel kneel and rise, then observe someone who puts his hands down first in prostration and someone who lifts his knees first when standing—he will see the likeness to the camel in both cases with his own eyes.

This, then, is evidence that al-Dārāwardī slipped when transmitting the two reports from Ibn ʿUmar and Abū Hurayrah. Concerning Ibn ʿUmar’s report, al-Dāraqutnī related in his Sunan, through the chain al-Dārāwardī → ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿUmar → Nāfiʿ → Ibn ʿUmar, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, whenever he prostrated, would place his hands before his knees. Al-Ḥākim recorded the same meaning in his Mustadrak, stating, “It is authentic according to Muslim’s criteria, though they did not include it.”