the obligatory act is uncertain. This is like someone who is certain that he owes a prayer or zakah but doubts whether he has performed it. This is a principle that ought to be understood, for it cuts off the argument of the disputant who says, “Such a person is called prostrating and bowing in the Arabic language.” He has spoken without knowledge or proof, and when asked for evidence, he has no answer. The sound argument belongs to the one who says, “We cannot know that he has discharged his obligation except through prostration and bowing in their recognized forms.”

It may then be said: If the expressions “bowing and prostration” were used in Arabic for merely bringing the face into contact with the ground without composure, someone rubbing his cheek in the dust would be prostrating. So too would someone pressing his nose into the dust—that is, bringing his nose into contact with raghām, meaning dust. This would be especially true according to the disputant who says that prostration is accomplished by placing the nose on the ground, without the forehead and without composure. Pecking at the ground with the nose would thus be prostration. Yet it is well known that this is not how the Arabs use their language, just as they do not call a crow’s pecking, or anything similar, prostration. Were that the case, someone placing his face on the ground to suck, bite, or move something lying there, or to do anything similar, would be called prostrating.

Furthermore, Allah has commanded that prayer be observed carefully and consistently, and has condemned neglecting it and being heedless of it. He says at the beginning of Surah al-Mu’minūn:

“Successful indeed are the believers.”