279 – ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “O people, we come across verses of prostration; whoever prostrates has done the right thing, and whoever does not prostrate bears no sin.” Reported by al-Bukhari.
In another wording: “Allah, Exalted is He, has not made the prostration obligatory upon us unless we wish to perform it.” It is also found in al-Muwattaʾ. ⦗1⦘

Points derived from the report:

1. The Commander of the Believers delivered this statement during the Friday sermon in the presence of all the Companions, and none of them objected. Their silence proves the absence of any dissent, so the Companion’s statement becomes authoritative—especially since it was made by a rightly guided Caliph, the one most devoted to following the Sunnah. With all the Companions present, the ruling amounts to a consensus. One variant even says, “O people, we were not commanded to prostrate,” which, by virtue of its wording, carries the force of a marfūʿ (Prophetic) hadith. The author has cited the narration here solely as evidence that the prostration is not obligatory but recommended.
2. Because the report denies that the prostration of recitation is compulsory, it at the same time indicates its desirability: it is encouraged, yet not required.
   Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya said: “Neither the Quran, nor the Sunnah, nor consensus, nor sound analogy establishes it as obligatory.”