all the passages at which he does not hold that one should prostrate are expressed as commands, while all those at which he holds that one should prostrate are expressed as statements.

If someone says, “The prostration passage in ‘When the sky is split open’ [al-Inshiqāq: 1] is expressed as a statement, yet he does not hold that one should prostrate there,” the response is: “The warning mentioned there serves the same purpose as a command.”

If someone says, “The prostration passage in Hā Mīm al-Sajdah is expressed as a command, yet he holds that one should prostrate there,” the response is: “Its meaning is to describe the conduct of the disbelievers, who do not prostrate to Allah but prostrate to the sun and moon, and to prohibit imitating them in this. It is not simply a command to prostrate to Allah that would be understood as referring to prostration within prayer.” This is indicated by His words at the end of the passage:

“But if they are arrogant, those who are with your Lord glorify Him night and day and never grow weary.” [Fussilat: 38]

The meaning is that if the disbelievers are too arrogant to prostrate to Allah, those who are with Him are not too arrogant to do so. Some scholars preferred prostrating at the words “and never grow weary,” so that the prostration would coincide with the statement, in accordance with the principle we have mentioned.

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As for the obligation to prostrate at these passages, it is obligatory. According to one view, this is the obligation attaching to sunnah acts: whoever performs them is rewarded, while whoever omits them incurs no sin. According to another, it is the obligation attaching to prescribed duties, whose omission is sinful. Mālik—may Allah have mercy on him—held that it is obligatory in the sense that sunnah acts are, not in the sense that prescribed duties are. His evidence is that Allah—exalted is He—praised those who prostrate upon recitation but did not command it, and that the Prophet performed it—may blessings