278 – Khalid ibn Maʿdān (may Allah have mercy on him) said, “Sūrah al-Ḥajj has been singled out for distinction by having two prostrations.” Reported by Abū Dāwūd in his work al-Marāsīl ⦗1⦘.
Aḥmad and al-Tirmidhī also transmitted it with a connected chain from the ḥadīth of ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir, adding the words, “Whoever is not going to perform the two prostrations should not recite it.” Its chain is weak ⦗2⦘.
Grading of the ḥadīth
• The report is mursal, yet it possesses supporting narrations that strengthen one another, as Ibn Kathīr remarked.
• As for the narration of ʿUqbah, Ibn Kathīr said that Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī related it through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lahīʿah, and al-Tirmidhī observed, “He is not strong.”
• In al-Talkhīs, Ibn Kathīr added that al-Ḥākim corroborated the report, noting that it is authentically transmitted from ʿUmar, his son ʿAbd Allāh, Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿAbbās, Abū al-Dardāʾ, Abū Mūsā, and ʿAmmār.
Points derived from the ḥadīth
- The narration highlights a feature that sets Sūrah al-Ḥajj apart from other chapters of the Quran, namely its two prostrations. It does not, however, establish absolute superiority over every other sūrah; any preference is confined to the specific quality mentioned.
- It indicates that the final prostration in Sūrah al-Ḥajj is one of the recognized prostrations of Quranic recitation. This counters the view of Abū Ḥanīfah and his followers, who do not regard it as such.
- It points to the obligation of performing both prostrations in this sūrah: the prohibition against reciting it unless one intends to prostrate is evidence of obligation, for a prohibition is issued only to prevent the abandonment of