without deliberately delaying them. It is therefore as though he had performed them before the salām. Since he does not repeat the tashahhud after performing them before the salām, neither should he repeat it after performing them after the salām.

Moreover, the purpose is to conclude his prayer with prostration, not with the tashahhud. This is demonstrated by the fact that prostration before the salām was prescribed after the tashahhud, not before it. Thus, it is clear that it was made the conclusion of the prayer, with nothing remaining afterward except to leave it. Furthermore, repeating the tashahhud and supplication would mean repeating them after only a short interval. This is therefore not prescribed, just as repeating them is not prescribed when one prostrates before the salām.

Moreover, if a tashahhud followed these two prostrations, what was prescribed would not be merely two prostrations. Yet the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, commanded only two prostrations, with nothing added, and called them the two that humiliate Satan. Adding a tashahhud after the prostrations is therefore like adding recitation before them or adding an opening takbīr. It is well known that they have no opening takbīr of their own; rather, one says the takbīr as one lowers oneself, not while remaining seated. This shows that the prayer’s opening takbīr also covers them, making them part of the prayer, just as when they are performed before the salām. They therefore have no tashahhud of their own.

One does, however, conclude them with the salām, because the first salām no longer counts and did not serve to conclude them: the salām is pronounced only upon leaving the prayer. Some of the Companions and Successors maintained that there is no salām after these two prostrations, just as they have no opening takbīr of their own. But the correct view is to distinguish between the two, as established in the authentic Sunnah. And Allah knows best.