but it is mentioned only as a report that David—peace be upon him—performed that prostration in gratitude to Allah, and that our Prophet ﷺ followed him in doing so. Al-Nasāʾī (957) relates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “David prostrated it in repentance, and we prostrate it in gratitude.” Accordingly, this prostration should be confined to occasions outside the ritual prayer, for the prostration of gratitude belongs outside the prayer.
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The well-known view in the school of Imām Aḥmad is that performing the prostration of Sūrah Ṣād during the prayer invalidates the prayer. Another opinion states that it does not, because it is prompted by recitation and is therefore like the other prostrations of recitation.
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī said: “The correct view is that the prostration of Ṣād does not nullify the prayer, because its cause is the recitation that forms part of the prayer.”
The preponderant position in the Shāfiʿī school is not to prostrate for it inside the prayer. Fatḥ al-Bārī records that al-Shāfiʿī based this on the wording “in gratitude,” arguing that the prostration of gratitude is not legislated within the prayer. In addition, the ḥadith establishing that the Prophet ﷺ performed this prostration places it outside the prayer.
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It has been authentically reported that the Prophet ﷺ carried out this prostration outside the ritual prayer.
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Mujāhid said: “I asked Ibn ʿAbbās about the prostration of Ṣād. He replied, ‘Your Prophet was commanded to follow the prophets, in His words, “Those are the ones whom Allah has guided, so follow their guidance” (al-Anʿām: 90).’” Al-Rāzī commented that this obliges the Prophet ﷺ to unite within himself all the distinctive qualities and scattered virtues of the previous prophets.
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Shaykh ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad al-Sūdānī wrote in his commentary Kifāyat Ahl al-Īmān: “Know that Allah did not narrate to us in detail what David actually did; rather, He concealed it for him. Therefore every Muslim must refrain from probing into it except in the best and most appropriate manner.”