This was the consensus of the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—for they never prayed without coming to rest in each posture. Whenever one of them saw someone failing to do so, he reproached and forbade him, and not one of them objected to such a reproach. This constitutes their consensus, in word and deed, that stillness and composure in prayer are obligatory. Had this not been obligatory, they would sometimes have omitted it, just as they omitted what was not obligatory.

Moreover, in Arabic usage, bowing and prostration occur only when the worshipper comes to rest while bent over and while his face is upon the ground. Merely lowering oneself and rising again is called neither bowing nor prostration. Whoever calls it bowing and prostration has erred in his use of the language and must provide linguistic evidence that a person doing this may be called one who is bowing or prostrating, so that the person performing it can be held to have obeyed the command and it can be said: compliance with this command is achieved by performing anything encompassed by the term. That cannot be maintained unless it is known that this alone is called bowing and prostration in Arabic. There is no way to establish that, nor is there any evidence for it. Whoever makes such a claim therefore speaks without knowledge regarding the Book of Allah and the Arabic language. If doubt arises as to whether such a person is prostrating or not, then, by consensus, he cannot be deemed to have complied, because the obligation is known with certainty while his performance of it is not—like someone who is certain that a prayer or zakat is obligatory upon him but doubts whether he has performed it.

This is a principle that should be understood, for it cuts off at its root the argument of an opponent who claims that such a person is called one who is prostrating or bowing in Arabic. He has spoken without knowledge or proof, and when required to produce evidence, his argument collapses. The proof then lies with the one who says: “We cannot know that he has discharged his duty except by performing bowing and prostration in their recognized forms.” It may further be said: even if the terms “bowing” and “prostration” were found in Arabic usage for the mere contact of the face with the ground without coming to rest, then a person who rubbed his cheek in the dust would be