Nahy al-Suhba an al-Nuzul bil-Rukba
- Author died
- 1446 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī
Nahy al-Suhba ʿan al-Nuzul bi-l-Rukba (Forbidding the Companions from Descending on the Knees) is a specialized hadith and legal treatise by the Egyptian hadith scholar Abu Ishaq al-Huwayni (d. 1446 AH / 2024 CE) examining the physical manner of descending into prostration during prayer .
Background and Composition
The treatise was originally extracted (mustall) from al-Huwayni's larger work Badhl al-Ihsan bi-Taqrib Sunan al-Nasa'i . Al-Huwayni was prompted to publish it as an independent work following an incident around 10 Dhu al-Hijjah 1399 AH (1979 CE), when he witnessed a heated dispute among a group of youths at a mosque after the Maghrib prayer . The disagreement concerned whether a worshipper moving from the standing or bowing position into prostration (sujud) should place the hands or the knees on the ground first . One of the disputants argued that only an ignorant person descends on the hands, invoking the ten arguments of Ibn al-Qayyim in Zad al-Ma'ad, and dismissed hadith scholars such as Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, and Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani as having no grasp of jurisprudence, leading to mutual insults . Al-Huwayni subsequently separated this legal and hadith inquiry from his larger work, completing its introduction in Dhu al-Hijjah 1399 AH and incorporating beneficial guidance cited partly from al-Dhahabi's Tadhkirat al-Huffaz .
Thesis and Arguments
The central inquiry of the work is the description of descending into prostration (sifat khurur al-musalli min al-ruku' ila al-sujud) . Al-Huwayni argues that the authentic prophetic practice is to place the hands down before the knees, rejecting the view that one should descend on the knees first .
To establish his conclusion, he analyzes the prophetic prohibition against kneeling like a camel (buruk al-ba'ir) alongside the explicit instruction: وليضع يديه قبل ركبتيه ("and let him place his hands before his knees") . Al-Huwayni emphasizes that the knees of a camel are located in its forelegs; therefore, when a praying person goes down on the knees first, they emulate the kneeling of a camel, which the hadith explicitly forbids . He further expanded on these discussions and responded to critics—including Ahmad al-Ghumari—in a subsequent revision of the text .
Publication and Reception
The treatise was first published in 1408 AH (1987–1988 CE) in multiple printings, including editions by Maktabat al-Taw'iya al-Islamiyya with Maktabat Manarat al-Ulama, Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi in small format, and Dar al-Andalus al-Khadra' in Jeddah .
The work has been frequently cited in contemporary discussions of prayer jurisprudence. Scholars such as Osama Sulayman cited it in legal commentary as a primary modern source establishing the preference for descending hands first . Discussing the debate, Mustafa al-Adawi noted al-Huwayni's treatise alongside opposing contemporary and classical works—such as Ibn al-Qayyim's commentary on Sunan Abi Dawud—observing that the narrations on the issue have led scholars to valid differing conclusions where neither side should be reproached .
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