This is because, in our school, when a person neglects to recite the Mother of the Qur’an in any unit, the correct view—preferred by Ibn al-Qāsim and reported by Ashhab from Mālik—is that that unit is annulled.
Some of Mālik’s associates, however, do not obligate a fresh prayer for someone who failed to make the prostration of forgetfulness after rising from the first two units; analogy supports that opinion, and Allah alone grants success.
If a worshipper forgets three or more takbīrs and does not prostrate, he need not repeat the prayer, for the proofs establish that every takbīr of the prayer other than the opening one is a recommended sunnah, not an obligation. For that reason we say that, in our school, the prayer is not repeated on account of omitting a prostration of forgetfulness that was due before the salām—except for the prostration required when one stands up after two units.
Whoever stands after two units, straightens fully, then returns to the sitting posture should prostrate after the salām, and nothing further is required of him. Ideally, he should not have returned once he was upright; rather, he should have prostrated before the salām. There is no basis for the statement of some of our colleagues that his prayer is invalidated by returning, for he has merely gone back to the original position.
It has also been said in this matter that he should prostrate before the salām after his return as well, but the first view is the established position of the school.
If someone forgets the prostration of forgetfulness that is due after the salām, he may perform it whenever he remembers; even if he never performs it, nothing is binding upon him.
The scholars unanimously agree that if a person intentionally recites two or three surahs together with the Mother of the Qur’an in the first two units, and in the last two units recites only al-Hamdu and one surah, nothing is required of him—no prostration and nothing else—save for a single narration that diverges from their foundational principles, a view adopted only by those unaware of the basis.
Whoever is required to prostrate for forgetfulness before the salām because he omitted one or two takbīrs, or because he recited silently where he ought to have recited aloud, or the like, and then fails to prostrate