in cases of forgetfulness. Thus, Makhūl and Muhammad ibn Aslam said concerning someone who forgets a prostration or a rakʿah: “He performs it whenever he remembers it and prostrates for forgetfulness.” Al-Awzāʿī said concerning a man who forgot a prostration in the Zuhr prayer and remembered it during the ʿAsr prayer: “He continues his prayer, then prostrates when he has finished.”

This view is supported by the hadiths concerning the prostrations of forgetfulness, which indicate that he completes the prayer and then prostrates for forgetfulness, even after a lengthy interruption.

As for someone who joins the prayer late, the prostration he performed with the imam was for the purpose of following the imam. Hence the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to Abū Bakrah:

“May Allah increase your eagerness, but do not do that again.”

He is able to perform the rakʿah after the salām, so he has no excuse until … (1)

If he forgets an essential element of the first rakʿah and has already begun the second, there are two views concerning this. Mālik and Ahmad do not accept combining parts of the two rakʿahs. Rather, the rakʿah whose essential element was forgotten is disregarded, and the present one takes its place. There is disagreement, however, over whether this occurs upon beginning the recitation or upon bowing.

Al-Shāfiʿī says: Whatever he performed after the omitted bow is disregarded because he performed it out of its proper place—not that he performs its counterpart in the second rakʿah, so that it completes the first