he should simply prostrate whenever he remembers, and nothing further is required of him. Some have said that even if a long time has passed, or he has left the place of prayer, or spoken, or his ablution has lapsed, still nothing is binding upon him.

If someone forgets the tashahhud, nothing is due from him; Mālik regarded this as a minor lapse. I nonetheless prefer that he prostrate for it—Sahnūn held the same view, and it is also related from Mālik—whereas Abū Muṣʿab maintained that the prayer must be repeated in such a case.

The rules of forgetfulness in supererogatory prayers are the same as in obligatory ones. Thus, if a person is uncertain whether the sitting he performed came after an even-numbered cycle or after the odd witr cycle, and he has already recited the tashahhud and given salām, he should perform two prostrations for forgetfulness, give salām from them, then rise and perform the witr unit. It has likewise been reported that no prostration is required here.

Those praying behind the imām rise to make up what they owe only after the imām has concluded the salām and finished both salutations, if he is of those who give two. Most scholars of Medina, however, say that they rise as soon as the imām completes the first salām.

If the imām must prostrate for forgetfulness after the salām while some followers still owe units of the prayer, they may either rise to make them up immediately—since they do not join him in that prostration—or wait until he has finished prostrating.

Should a worshipper assume that the imām has completed the prayer and stand to make up what he missed, then return to the imām before the salām, no prostration is required of him. If he does not return until after the imām’s salām, whatever he performed before that salām is not counted, and, according to Mālik, he must make two prostrations for forgetfulness after his own salām.

Ibn al-Qāsim said that the prostrations should be made before the salām, while al-Mughīra and ʿAbd al-Malik said