Sin Of Placing Knees Down First During Prostration_Part 3

[Sheikh Iesa Ibn]

Bismillah ir-rahmaan ir-raheem
Al-hamdu lillah ir-rahmaan ir-raheem
Allahumma salli ala Nabi Muhammad wa ala ali Nabi Muhammad
As-salaamu laykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

[Ibn Khuzaimah (a Shafi'i scholar of Hadith, d. 311/924; Rahimahullah) observes that the tradition of Abu Hurayra (Allah be pleased with him) has been abrogated. He reports a tradition on the authority of Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas (Allah be pleased with him): We used to place our hands (on the ground) before our knees, but later on we were commanded to place our knees before our hands ] al-Albani Unveiled: Important Issues of Fiqh
Dear Muslims;
For those who might think that parts 1 or 2 were excuses, I respond accordingly. The reasons for scholarly disputes are numerous. Let the point be made that in issues of scholarly dispute each point is valid. In this sense, knees first and hands first in prostration is permissible. This does not mean that there can not be a consensus. I cite the example of taking off the shoes before entering the masjid which is widespread these days although praying in shoes in the masjid is sunnah.
Translation of Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 2:
Prayer (Kitab Al-Salat)
Book 2, Number 0650:
Narrated AbuSa'id al-Khudri:
While the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) was leading his Companions in prayer, he took off his sandals and laid them on his left side; so when the people saw this, they removed their sandals. When the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) finished his prayer, he asked: What made you remove your sandals? The replied: We saw you remove your sandals, so we removed our sandals.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) then said: Gabriel came to me and informed me that there was filth in them. When any of you comes to the mosque, he should see; if he finds filth on his sandals, he should wipe it off and pray in them.
Book 2, Number 0652:
Narrated Aws ibn Thabit al-Ansari:
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: Act differently from the Jews, for they do not pray in their sandals or their shoes.
The point I am making is we can all choose to place our hands down first and encourage this way only.
A strong hadith is a hadith which reaches back to the Prophet(salli allahu alayhi wa sallam) in the text or chain of narrators. There is concensus on this point and also on the point that any hadith which does not reach back to the Prophet(salli allahu alayhi wa salaam) is weak, that is, not permissible to act on nor base decisions upon. There is no dispute about this nowhere So we can see that there are two basic corrupters of a hadith, failure to reach to the Prophet(salli allahu alayhi wa sallam) in the chain of narrators or failure to reach to the Prophet(salli allahu alayhi wa sallam) in the text. Let us look at the following hadith which is the evidence of those who support the view that knees are to put down on the ground first:

Ibn Khuzaimah narrated on the authority of Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas (Allah be pleased with him): We used to place our hands (on the ground) before our knees, but later on we were commanded to place our knees before our hands

We can see naively that there is no mention of the Prophet(salli allahu alayhi wa sallam) in neither the chain of narrators nor the text so we can say that literally this hadith has a basic weakness. Some scholars argue that this hadith does reach Prophet Muhammad(salli allahu alayhi wa sallam) in the sense of the text. These scholars take a position similar to the following:
It should be noted that certain expressions used by a Companion generally render a hadith to be considered as being effectively marfu'[that reaching to the Prophet (salli allahu alayhi wa sallam) ]although it is mauquf on the face of it, e.g. the following:
“We were commanded to…”
“We were forbidden from…”
“We used to do…”
“We used to say…”
“It used to be said…”
“It is from the sunnah to…”
The Athar (actions) of the Sahaba and the Tab’ieen (successors) supports this hadith.
(Al jauharun Naqi Vol.2 Pg.31,32, Musannaf ibn Abi Shaibah Vol.1 Pg.390,391)

The logic here is faulty. The process is to evaluate the hadith not create the hadith. What I mean is that when we see a hadith that is missing narrators, we do not, because we know the “sense” of the chain of narrators add in the missing narrators due to the fact that we know so and so studies under so and so and lives at the same time as so and so because this is forgery which is unacceptable so why are they doing this in the text. The text does not mention Prophet Muhammad because of the relation of the hadith to the true sunnah which is faulty. The reason why a hadith is in weak form is because there must be some questions concerning its representation of the sunnah during its transmission. Perhaps there is uncertainty of who is relaying or what is the saying and this is why there is no mention of the Prophet Muhammad(salli allahu alayhi wa salaam). Furthermore, the scholars identify a number of expressions which indicate, on a descending scale, the strength and reliability of transmission. An example is the following:
(1st) “I heard the messenger of allah saying such and such
(2nd) “The Prophet said so and so”
(3rd) “The Messenger of Allah commanded such and such or prohibited such ans such”
(4th) “He ordered such and such and forbade us from such and such”
(5th) “The Sunnah is such and such”
(6th) “from the Prophet”
(7th) “We used to do such and such when the Prophet was alive”
-taken from Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence-Mohammad Hashim Kamali-Page 101
The hadith in question does not resemble any of the expressions and if not weak most certainly has a ranking at the bottom of the scale of strength and reliability of transmission near that of a weak hadith because it literally does not mention the Prophet(salli allahu alayhi wa salaam) in the hadith. Even if we assume the hadith in question to be above that of a weak hadith this hadith does not match the strength and reliability of those hadith which narrate to place the hands first. A hadith which is weak literally and raised in its sense does not match a hadith strong literally and raised in its sense. The point is that we can speak of strengths of authenticity so that even if we accept the narration of knees first, its strength of authenticity is certainly less so than hadiths narrating hands first. For reference to this point see, Bulugh Al-Maram by Muhammad bin Ismail Al-Sanani page 108 point 245

Soubhannah Allah wa bihamdihi;
Sheikh Ieesa Ibn Mhamed