Chapter: The Prostrations of Qur’anic Recitation Are Sunnah

According to Imām al-Shāfiʿī’s later view, they are fourteen in number. Among them are the two prostrations in Sūrah al-Ḥajj, but not the one in Sūrah Ṣād; that, rather, is a prostration of gratitude: recommended outside the prayer yet, in the soundest opinion, impermissible within it. The recitational prostration is sunnah for both the reciter and the attentive listener, and it becomes emphatically recommended once the reciter himself prostrates.

I say: it is likewise recommended for the one who merely hears; Allah knows best.

If the verse is recited during the prayer, the imam and the person praying alone prostrate only for their own recitation, while the follower prostrates for the imam’s prostration. Should the imam prostrate and the follower fail to follow, or the reverse, that person’s prayer is invalid.

One who prostrates outside the prayer must form the intention, pronounce the opening takbīr while raising the hands, then utter a second takbīr as he descends without raising them, prostrate exactly as in the prayer, rise with another takbīr, and conclude with salām. The opening takbīr is a prerequisite according to the soundest view, and, in the more apparent view, so is the salām; all the conditions of prayer apply. Whoever prostrates within the prayer says takbīr when going down and when rising, without raising the hands.

I also say: he does not sit for a brief rest; Allah knows best.

While prostrating he says: “My face has prostrated to the One Who created it, fashioned it, and opened its hearing and sight by His power and might.”

If the verse is repeated in two separate sittings, he performs a prostration for each; and, in the sounder opinion, the same ruling holds even when it is repeated in a single sitting. One rakʿah counts as one sitting, and two rakʿahs count as two sittings. If he omits the prostration and a long interval passes, the prostration is no longer due.

The prostration of gratitude is not incorporated into the prayer. It is recommended upon the sudden arrival of a blessing, the removal of a calamity, or when one sees a person who is afflicted or openly sinning. One may display it before the sinner but not before the afflicted. It is performed in the same manner as the recitational prostration, and the sounder view is that both may be performed on a mount by a traveller; indeed, if he is praying on his mount and recites a verse of prostration, performing that prostration on the mount is unquestionably valid.