As for the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah, it was recorded by Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasaʾī, and al-Dāraqutnī in their Sunan collections, in the recension of al-Dārāwardī from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan, from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah. He said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared: “When any one of you goes down for prostration, he must not drop the way a camel does; rather, he should place his hands before his knees.”

The hadith critics disagreed over al-Dārāwardī’s reliability. Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī deemed him trustworthy. Aḥmad said: “He was known for seeking knowledge. When he narrates from his own notebook his report is sound, but when he narrates from other people’s books he slips, for he would read from their manuscripts and err; he even inverted a ḥadīth of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, relating it from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar.”

Abū Zurʿah remarked, “He had a poor memory and would sometimes narrate from that faulty memory and make mistakes.” Al-Nasaʾī said, “There is no serious problem with him, but his transmission from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar is objectionable.” Abū Ḥātim stated, “He is not to be relied upon.” Al-Sājī wrote, “He was truthful and trustworthy, yet he made many errors.” Ibn Saʿd said, “He was reliable and narrated copiously, but he often slipped.” I say: It is therefore quite possible that these two ḥadīths are among his slips—Allah knows best.

Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “It has long seemed to me that Abū Hurayrah’s ḥadīth was turned around by some transmitter in both wording and provenance, and that the correct version is: ‘Let him place his knees before his hands.’” ʿAlī al-Qārī observed: “What appears to me—Allah knows best—is that the ending of this ḥadīth was reversed by one of the narrators; the original reading was: ‘…and he is not to place his hands before his knees.’” The author of al-Qāmūs, in Safar al-Saʿādah, likewise wrote: “There is a mistake on the part of some narrator in Abū Hurayrah’s ḥadīth, because the beginning of the report contradicts its conclusion, for a camel actually puts its fore-legs down before…"