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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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How to reconcile the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr, "He used to place his knees before his hands in prostration," with the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, "When one of you prostrates, let him not kneel down like a camel kneels down"

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The questioner : May Allah reward you, O honorable Shaykh. How is the reconciliation achieved between the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr (may Allah be pleased with him) and the hadith of Abu Hurayrah?
The hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr:
That the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to place his knees before his hands in prostration أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم كان يقدم ركبتيه في السجود قبل يديه
and the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
when one of you prostrates himself he must not kneel in the manner of camel, but should put down his hands before his knees. إذا سجد أحدكم فلا يبرك كما يبرك البعير وليضع يديه قبل ركبتيه
Sunan Abi Dawud 840Sahih (Al-Albani)
.
And although al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar preferred the hadith of Abu Hurayrah in *al-Bulugh*, which is a mawquf report, and al-Hafiz Ibn al-Qayyim discussed it in *al-Zad* from ten angles, what is your opinion on that?

The Shaykh : Our statement on this is that there is no contradiction between them, and their meanings are in agreement:
The hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) placed his knees before his hands, is in complete agreement with the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, because the hadith of Abu Hurayrah says:
when one of you prostrates himself he must not kneel in the manner of camel إذا سجد أحدكم فلا يبرك كما يبرك البعير
Sunan Abi Dawud 840Sahih (Al-Albani)
and when a camel kneels down, it places its hands first, as is known by those who have seen it. So it is a complete match with the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr, that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah a man from placing his hands before his knees, because if he did that, he would be like a camel.
Some people have imagined and said: "The camel's knees are in its hands," and they are correct in that the camel's knees are in its hands. But the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) did not say: "Let him not kneel down on what the camel kneels down on," but rather he said: "Let him not kneel down as the camel kneels down."
So the prohibition is actually a prohibition of the posture and the manner, and everyone who has seen a camel when it kneels down finds that it places its hands first. And with that, the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) matches the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hujr.
And it remains to look at his statement at the end of the hadith:
And let him place his hands on his knees وليضع يديه على ركبتيه
For this is undoubtedly a mistake by the narrator and a reversal upon him, because it does not match the beginning of the hadith. The beginning of the hadith is the basis and the foundation, and its end is a branch of it. And if it is a branch of it, it must be that the branch matches the original. And at that time, it does not match the original unless its wording is: "But let him place his knees before his hands." Yes.
Source alathar.net

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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