ritual purity.” However, the view that prostration is permissible without ritual purity may be stronger.

It has also been said that prostration in al-Najm alone was abrogated, unlike in Iqraʾ and al-Inshiqāq, for an authentic report establishes “that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prostrated during both, and Abū Hurayrah prostrated with him.” Abū Hurayrah embraced Islam after Khaybar. This refutes the claim that he did not prostrate during any of the Mufassal surahs after the Hijrah. As for al-Najm, however, Zayd’s hadith explicitly states that he did not prostrate during it.

Those who hold this view say that the abrogation therefore applies specifically to this surah, not to others. Since Satan had made his interjection, when some supposed that the Prophet had agreed with them, the Prophet abandoned prostration during it altogether to close off this avenue. In prayer, it comes at the end of the standing portion, and the prostration of the prayer suffices in its place. This view is therefore more likely to be correct than the alternatives. And Allah knows best.

As for the report concerning Umar, even if it were explicit, it would amount only to his own statement and the assent of those present, who were not all the Muslims. The statement of Uthmān and others indicates that it is obligatory.

Furthermore, it may be said that Umar perhaps meant that prostration had not been prescribed for us in this particular situation: when the imam recites the passage from the pulpit. This is clarified by the fact that prostration in this situation