Ibn Battāl objected to al-Bukhārī’s use of the following hadith of Ibn ‘Abbās as evidence that prostration is permissible without ablution:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, recited Surah al-Najm and prostrated, and the Muslims, polytheists, jinn and humans prostrated with him.”

This prostration is established among the scholars through mass transmission. The Sahīh collection also contains the following hadith of Ibn Mas‘ūd:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, recited Surah al-Najm in Mecca and prostrated during it. Those with him also prostrated, except for an old man who took a handful of pebbles or dust, raised it to his forehead and said, ‘This is enough for me.’” Ibn Mas‘ūd said, “I later saw him slain as a disbeliever.”

Ibn Battāl said: “This provides no proof, because the polytheists did not prostrate to worship and glorify Allah. Rather, they did so because of the mention of their deities that Satan cast upon the tongue of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when he recited:

‘Have you considered al-Lāt and al-‘Uzzā, and Manāt, the third, the other one?’

He then said, ‘Those are the exalted cranes, and their intercession may indeed be hoped for.’ Thus, they prostrated because of the glorification of their deities that they had heard.

When the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, learned what Satan had cast upon his tongue, he became distressed and grieved over it. Allah Most High therefore revealed the following to reassure him and console him over what had happened:

‘We never sent any messenger or prophet before you but that, when he recited, Satan cast something into his recitation’

up to His words:

‘And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.’

That is, when he recited, Satan cast something into his recitation. Thus, the polytheists’ prostration cannot be used to infer the permissibility of prostrating without