Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd (1): “This is a sunnah reported only by the people of Medina. They have two chains of transmission for it: this is one, and the other is from ʿUbayd Allāh (2), from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).”
I say: He meant the hadith narrated by Asbagh ibn al-Faraj, from al-Darāwardī, from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, that he used to place his hands before his knees and say: “The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) used to do this” (3). Al-Hākim narrated it in al-Mustadrak (4) through Muhriz ibn Salamah, from al-Darāwardī, and said: “It meets Muslim’s criteria.”
Al-Hākim also narrated (5), from Hafs ibn Ghiyāth, from ʿĀsim al-Ahwal, from Anas: “I saw the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) lower himself while saying ‘Allah is the Greatest,’ with his knees reaching the ground before his hands.”
(1) Al-Dāraqutnī quoted this from him, as recorded in al-Gharā’ib (2:297—al-Atrāf). The remainder reads: “This is the position of the hadith scholars: placing the hands before the knees.”
(2) k: “‘Abd Allāh.”
(3) Reported by Abū Dāwūd (6:156—Tuhfat al-Ashrāf), Ibn Khuzayma (627), and al-Tahāwī in Sharh al-Ma‘ānī (1:254). ‘Abd al-Razzāq (2934), al-Hākim (1:226), and al-Bayhaqī (2:100) also transmitted it through another route from Nāfi‘, with the same report. Al-Dāraqutnī identified a defect in it in al-‘Ilal (2912) and preferred the mawqūf version describing Ibn ‘Umar’s own action, as did al-Bayhaqī. Al-Bukhārī cited the mawqūf version without its chain of transmission, using affirmative wording, in the chapter heading for hadith (803).
(4) (1:266). It has already been mentioned in the preceding source references.
(5) (1:266). Also reported by al-Dāraqutnī (1308), al-Bayhaqī (2:99), and al-Diyā’ al-Maqdisī in al-Mukhtāra (6:293, 294). Its chain includes al-‘Alā’ ibn Ismā‘īl, who narrates from Hafs ibn Ghiyāth and is an unknown narrator. Al-Dāraqutnī counted this hadith among the reports transmitted by him alone. Al-Hāfiz said in Lisān al-Mīzān (5:462): “‘Umar ibn Hafs ibn Ghiyāth differed from him. He is among the most reliable transmitters from his father, and he narrated it from his father, from al-A‘mash, from Ibrāhīm, from ‘Alqama and others, from ‘Umar, as a mawqūf report attributed to ‘Umar himself. This is the correctly preserved version.” See also al-Muhallā (3:128–130).