The very first passage Allah revealed from the Quran was:

“Recite in the name of your Lord who created” ⦗Al-ʿAlaq 1⦘.

It begins with a command to recite and ends with a command to prostrate, for He also says:

“So prostrate and draw near” ⦗Al-ʿAlaq 19⦘.

Likewise, His words,

“Only those who believe in Our signs are those who, when they are reminded of them, fall down in prostration and glorify their Lord with praise” ⦗As-Sajdah 15⦘,

indicate that being reminded of those signs—just like reciting them in prayer—requires both prostration and glorification. Whoever, when reminded of them, does not fall in prostration and praise his Lord is not a believer. This ruling applies even to verses that contain no explicit command to prostrate, and such verses make up the great majority of the Quran; the Quran holds more than 6,000 verses, whereas the verses of prostration are only a dozen or so.

His phrase “they are reminded of it” includes all the verses, so being reminded of any one of them obliges glorification and prostration. This serves as evidence for the obligation of both acts. In fact, the general proofs of the Law, from both Quran and Sunnah, show that some form of glorification is compulsory. Whoever fails to glorify Allah while prostrating has disobeyed Allah and His Messenger; yet if he utters any of the prescribed formulas of glorification, it is sufficient.

The jurists hold three views on this question.