• The Ḥanbalīs hold that there are fourteen prostrations, but they do not regard the one in Sūrat Ṣād as a binding prostration.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ remarked: “There is unanimous agreement on ten locations; they occur consecutively except for the second one in Sūrat al-Ḥajj and the prostration in Ṣād.”

The scholars have differed concerning the rulings of the prostration of recitation with respect to the takbīr and the concluding salutation, arriving at three opinions:

1. A takbīr is made on going down, another takbīr when rising, and the salutation (salām) is given. This is the well-known view in the school of Imām Aḥmad, yet there is no proof for it, and all acts of worship are contingent on evidence.

2. No takbīr is uttered when descending or rising, and no salām is given, because nothing has been authentically transmitted to that effect. As for the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar — “The Prophet ﷺ used to recite the Quran to us; whenever he reached a verse of prostration he would pronounce takbīr and prostrate, and we would prostrate with him” (Abū Dāwūd 1413) — the advocates of this position deem it weak.

3. A takbīr is pronounced upon descending into the prostration, but not when rising, and there is no salām. The takbīr for descent is supported by the cited ḥadīth, whereas no sound evidence is known for a takbīr upon rising or for the salām. This middle stance is the most balanced and was favored by Ibn al-Qayyim in Zād al-Maʿād.