“They fear their Lord above them and do what they are commanded.”

And in Surah Subhān:

“Indeed, those who were given knowledge before it, when it is recited to them, fall upon their faces in prostration.”

“And they say, ‘Glory be to our Lord! Surely the promise of our Lord is bound to be fulfilled.’”

“And they fall upon their faces, weeping, and it increases them in humility.”

This is an account of prostrating alongside those who heard the Quran and prostrated. Likewise, in Maryam:

“Those were the ones whom Allah blessed among the prophets, from the descendants of Adam, and of those We carried with Noah, and from the descendants of Abraham and Israel, and from those We guided and chose. When the verses of the Most Merciful were recited to them, they fell down in prostration, weeping.”

These prophets prostrated when the verses of the Most Merciful were recited to them, and those who were given knowledge before the Quran prostrate when the Quran is recited to them. The apparent sense here is prostration without further qualification, like the prostration of the magicians, and as in His words:

“Enter the gate prostrating, and say, ‘Forgive us.’”

Even if what is meant here is bowing, prostration is submission and humility before Him; hence the term is used to express submission. As the poet said:

You see the hills there prostrate before the hooves.

A number of lexicographers said, “Prostration is humility and submission,” and cited the following verse: