be rewarded for what they did while disbelievers? There are two well-known views on this. The correct view is that they will be rewarded for it, on account of the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to Hakīm ibn Hizām: “You have embraced Islam with your past good deeds to your credit,” and other scriptural texts. It is well known that Jews and Christians have prayers and prostrations, although these will not benefit them in the Hereafter if they die in disbelief.

Moreover, Allah has mentioned the prostration of Pharaoh’s magicians in several places in the Quran. As He, Most High, says:

“So the magicians fell down in prostration. They said, ‘We believe in the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of Moses and Aaron.’”

This prostration accompanied their faith. Allah accepted it from them and admitted them to Paradise through it, although they were not in a state of ritual purity. The law prescribed for those before us is also binding upon us unless our own revealed law abrogates it. If the Quran were recited to disbelievers and they prostrated to Allah in faith in Allah and His Messenger Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or if they witnessed a sign pointing to faith and prostrated to Allah, believing in Allah and His Messenger, that would benefit them.

What further clarifies this is that prostration is prescribed independently of prayer, as in prostration upon recitation, prostration of gratitude, and prostration upon witnessing signs. For “when Ibn ‘Abbās learned of the death of one of the Mothers of the Believers, he prostrated and said: ‘The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, commanded us to prostrate whenever we witness a sign.’”