‘the knees of a camel’s “hands” are the two joints that lie next to the belly when it kneels, whereas the two protruding joints at the back are the hocks; every quadruped has its knees in its fore-legs and its hocks in its hind-legs.’ The very same wording appears in Taj al-Arus (1/278). Their habitual usage supports this, for Alqama and Al-Aswad relate from Umar  that, after finishing his bow, he dropped to his knees “the way a camel drops” (a phrase cited in the previous hadith). Thus they explicitly likened his descent on his knees to that of a camel. Ibn al-Qayyim, however, insists that such a description is wrong because, in his view, a camel does not go down on its knees at all! In fact, when a camel kneels it does so with great force, to the extent that the ground trembles beneath it; similarly, if a worshiper descends upon his knees the prostration produces a loud thud—especially in a mosque floored with wooden planks and filled with worshipers—and the resulting din clashes with the serenity and humility required in prayer. For that reason the Prophet ﷺ forbade it and commanded that the hands be placed first, so that they meet the ground and spare the knees from crashing into it as a camel’s do. This is the true point of resemblance between a camel’s kneeling and a worshiper’s dropping onto his knees. Imam Malik appears—Allah knows best—to have hinted at this when he said, as reported in Fath al-Bari, ‘This manner is better for cultivating humility in prayer.’ Ibn al-Munir likewise explained the rationale for putting the hands down first: ‘He meets the ground with them before his forehead and thus protects his knees from pain were he to fall on them.’ Allah knows best. Benefit: The straightforward wording of the hadith indicates obligation, and I have found no one who states this explicitly except Ibn Hazm; in al-Muhalla he rules that it is mandatory and that omitting it is unlawful. This shows the inaccuracy of the consensus reported by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya in al-Fatawa (1/88) that both ways of descending are permissible.