his hands, and let him not drop the way a camel drops.” Al-Bayhaqī commented, “Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah transmitted the same report from Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl, except that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd al-Maqburī is weak.”

I say: al-Tirmidhī also cited it in his Jāmiʿ in suspended form, wording it: “from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah —may Allah be pleased with him— from the Prophet ﷺ,” and he added, “ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd al-Maqburī was declared weak by Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān and others.” End quote.

The ḥadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd is supported by what has already been cited from Wāʾil and Anas—may Allah be pleased with them—and it is further corroborated by what Abū Dāwūd narrated in his Sunan with a sound chain from Ibn ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with them both: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade a man to lean on his hands in prayer; in another wording, “he forbade a man to support himself on his hands when rising in the prayer.”

Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “There is no doubt that if one places his hands on the ground before his knees, he is relying on them; thus he performs a portion of the prayer while resting his weight on his hands. Moreover, this reliance during prostration is analogous to the reliance when rising from it; therefore, since one posture is prohibited, its counterpart is likewise prohibited.” End quote.

If it be objected: The Prophet ﷺ, when lifting his head from the second prostration, would sit and brace himself upon the ground—al-Bukhārī recorded this from the narration of Mālik ibn al-Ḥuwayrith— and the apparent sense of that ḥadith seems to conflict with the report of Ibn ʿUmar