233 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Hearken! I have been forbidden to recite the Quran while bowing or prostrating. As for bowing, magnify the Lord therein; and as for prostration, exert yourselves in supplication, for it is most likely that your plea will be answered.” Related by Muslim (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• “Magnify the Lord therein”: to describe Allah with attributes of greatness, majesty, and exaltation; what is intended here is to say: subḥāna rabbī al-ʿaẓīm (Glory be to my Lord, the Most Great).
• “Exert yourselves”: juhd (with ḍamma or fatḥa) means one’s utmost power and capacity; it is a verbal noun derived from jahada fī l-amr, “he strove in a matter until he reached the utmost of his quest.”
• “Fa-qamin”: with an open qāf and a kasra on the mīm, followed by a nūn. Ibn Ruslān said: with the mīm open it is a verbal noun—neither dual, plural, nor feminine; with the mīm closed it is an adjective that can be pluralized, dualized, and feminized. It means: deserving, worthy, likely that your supplication will be answered.

Lessons derived from the ḥadīth
1 – A prohibition against reciting the Quran while in rukūʿ (bowing) or sujūd (prostration), whether in obligatory or supererogatory prayers. The prohibition comes from the Lord, for the one addressed is the Messenger ﷺ, and whatever he is forbidden, his ummah is by default forbidden as well.
2 – The ḥadīth, on its face, indicates that the prohibited act is unlawful, so reciting the Quran while bowing or prostrating would be ḥarām. Nevertheless, most scholars have taken the prohibition to denote only reprehensibility (makrūh), without