Does the one praying place his hands or his knees first when going into prostration?

The Shaykh : O questioner, tell us: when the one praying descends from his bowing to his prostration, does he place his knees first or his hands? I described the manner of prayer last night, and I avoided speaking about such issues that are often a source of dispute, which, unfortunately, have become a long and numerous path of contention, indeed becoming a basis for enmity and hatred, or love and loyalty. This is due to ignorance. This issue, which the questioner asked about, is whether the one praying descends into prostration with his hands before his knees, or with his knees before his hands. This is a matter in which the scholars have differed, based on their differing views on the evidence. However, one who looks into it carefully finds it, praise be to Allah, to be in agreement, with no difference between them. Some scholars said that when a person prostrates, he places his hands before his knees, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said . Other scholars said that he places his knees first, then his hands, because this is the natural order of the body; the first parts of a person to touch the ground are his knees, and likewise the first parts to touch the ground are his knees, so he begins with them, then his hands, then his forehead and nose. If you examine the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, which those who say he places his hands before his knees use as evidence, you will find that the hadith indicates the opposite of what they say, and that it indicates that a person places his knees before his hands. This is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Do not kneel down like the camel kneels."
He did not say, "Do not kneel down on your knees," nor did he say, "Do not kneel down in the manner in which the camel kneels." Rather, he said, "Like." The "like" here is for comparison. The comparison refers to the manner, not to the body part on which one prostrates. Accordingly, if we examine the camel, we find that when it kneels, it first extends its hands, so its front comes down before its rear. And if you respond by extending your hands, your front comes down before your rear, and in that case, you are exactly like the camel in its kneeling. As for their saying that the camel's knees are in its hands, we say: Yes, the camel's knees are in its hands, but the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not say, "Do not kneel down on your knees," so that you would make the knees the basis of the discussion. Rather, he himself said, "Do not kneel down like the camel kneels." And in that case, if we say that this is the meaning of the hadith, and that this is in accordance with the hadiths in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the one praying from imitating animals, such as his saying, "When one of you prostrates, let him not spread his arms like a dog," if we say this. Yes. Because the beginning of the hadith indicates that. No. At the end of the hadith, "and let him place his hands before his knees."
The answer to this phrase is what Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in *Zad al-Ma'ad*, where he said that these expressions are inverted in the narrator, and that the correct wording is "and let him place his knees before his hands" so that it matches.
With its beginning. And inversion in the narrators is not a new thing. It happened to some narrators in *Sahih al-Bukhari* that it was reported that "there will remain a surplus in the Fire, and Allah will create people for it and put them in it," whereas the correct version, without doubt, is that "there will remain a surplus in Paradise, and Allah will create people for it and put them in it." So inversion in the narrators is a possibility, because narrators are human beings who make mistakes and err. For this reason, the jurisprudence of some hadith scholars is that they do not restrict themselves to the chain of narration alone, or to what the narrators say alone, but they compare the hadiths reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with one another and reconcile them until they agree, because the source of prophethood is one, so it cannot contradict itself. Therefore, what I choose and testify to Allah is that I place my knees in prostration before my hands, unless I am not energetic, in which case I place my hands before my knees, as that was reported from 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both). Sometimes I forget and place my hands before my knees, so I seek forgiveness from Allah the Exalted for what I did, because I have fallen into what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade.