of consecration, nor any concluding salutation. This is the established sunnah transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ and followed by the broad consensus of the early generations; hence none of the conditions required for ritual prayer apply to it, and it may even be performed without ritual purity.
In Subul al-Salām it is stated: “The default ruling is that purification is not required unless there is evidence for it, and the proofs that stipulate purification pertain to prayer. Since the prostration is not called a prayer, the burden of proof lies with whoever makes purification a condition.”
6 – The ḥadīth proves two prostrations of recitation: one in ‘When the sky is split asunder’ (al-Inshiqāq 84:1) and one in ‘Read’ (al-ʿAlaq 96). This rebuts the Shāfiʿī position, which does not acknowledge the prostrations found in the short surahs (al-mufaṣṣal).
Al-Ṭaḥāwī said, “The reports that he ﷺ prostrated in the mufaṣṣal have reached the level of mass transmission, and the narrations of Abū Hurayrah take precedence over the report of Ibn ʿAbbās.”
7 – The strongest opinion is that the prostration of recitation is a sunnah rather than an obligation, because ʿUmar performed it on one occasion and left it on another, thereby informing the people that it is not compulsory.
8 – In the prostration of recitation one says what is said during the prostration in prayer—“Subḥāna Rabbī al-Aʿlā” (Glory be to my Lord Most High)—in keeping with the Prophet’s ﷺ general instruction: “Say it in your prostrations.” It is also permissible to add other supplications, especially those that are textually transmitted.
9 – If the prostration occurs within prayer, one pronounces takbīr when going down and when rising, based on the ḥadīth: “He would pronounce takbīr whenever he descended and whenever he rose.” Abandoning the takbīr in this context has no sound basis.
Scholarly disagreement
The scholars have differed regarding the number of prostrations in the Qur’an:
• The Ḥanafīs say there are fourteen instances; they count the prostration in Sūrat Ṣād and see only one prostration in Sūrat al-Ḥajj.
• The Shāfiʿīs maintain that there are eleven, for they do not recognize the prostrations in the mufaṣṣal.