Chapter: The Prostration of Forgetfulness

The prostration of forgetfulness is a Sunnah whenever a commanded element is omitted or a forbidden element is committed.

1. Omission of a commanded element
   • If the omitted element is a pillar, it must be made up, and prostration may be prescribed for the extra movement created by making it up, as mentioned earlier concerning the order of the prayer.
   • If the omitted element is something short of a pillar—such as the qunūt (supplication), the standing for it, the first tashahhud, its sitting, or sending blessings upon the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) therein—then, according to the sounder view, one performs the prostration. Another view holds that if he left it out intentionally, he does not prostrate.

   I say: The same ruling applies to blessings upon the Prophet’s family wherever we have prescribed them—Allah knows best—whereas no other Sunnah elements are compensated by this prostration.

2. Commission of a forbidden element
   • If doing the act deliberately would not invalidate the prayer—such as turning the head or taking two steps—no prostration is required for forgetting it.
   • If doing it deliberately would nullify the prayer, then he does prostrate, provided the prayer is not already invalidated by the forgetfulness itself, such as extensive speech, according to the soundest view.

   Intentionally prolonging a short pillar nullifies the prayer according to the preponderant opinion; therefore, if it happens out of forgetfulness, he prostrates. The upright posture after bowing is counted as a short pillar, and so is the sitting between the two prostrations, according to the sounder view.

   If a verbal pillar—such as reciting the Fātiḥah—were displaced to the bowing posture, or the tashahhud were recited in the wrong place, the prayer is not invalidated by doing so deliberately according to the soundest view, yet one must still perform the prostration of forgetfulness if it occurred unintentionally. This case is therefore an exception to our principle that whatever does not invalidate the prayer when done deliberately does not call for a prostration of forgetfulness.

   If he forgets the first tashahhud and remembers it after