your elbows.”

He would also say, “Be balanced in your prostration, and let none of you spread his arms out (in one wording: as) a dog spreads them.” In another version, recorded in a different ḥadīth, he said, “Let none of you lay his forearms on the ground the way a dog lies.”

He further instructed, “Do not stretch out your arms [like a beast of prey]; support yourself on your palms and keep your upper arms away from your sides, for when you do that every limb of yours prostrates with you.” ⦗725–759⦘

The obligation of composure in prostration
He ﷺ would command that bowing and prostration be perfected, and he likened the person who fails to do so to a starving man who eats one or two dates that cannot satisfy him. About such a person he said, “He is among the worst thieves.” He judged the prayer of anyone who did not straighten his back in bowing and prostration invalid—as mentioned earlier under Bowing—and he ordered the man who prayed poorly to be tranquil in his prostration, as cited at the beginning of this chapter. ⦗760⦘

Supplications during prostration
In this pillar he ﷺ used to recite various remembrances and supplications, saying one at times and another at others:

1- “Subḥāna rabbiyal-aʿlā” (Glory be to my Lord Most High) three times—and on occasion he repeated it more than that.

Once, during the night prayer, he prolonged it so greatly that his prostration was nearly as long as his standing. In that rakʿah he recited three of the long sūrahs—al-Baqarah, al-Nisāʾ, and Āl ʿImrān—interspersing them with supplication and seeking forgiveness, as related under Night Prayer.

2- “Subḥāna rabbiyal-aʿlā wa bi-ḥamdih” (Glory be to my Lord Most High, and praise is His) three times.

3- “Subbūḥ, quddūs, Lord of the angels and the Spirit.”

4- “Subḥānaka allāhumma rabbana, wa bi-ḥamdika, allāhumma ighfir lī” (Glory be to You, O Allah, our Lord, and praise is Yours. O Allah, forgive me). He frequently recited this in his bowing and prostration, putting the Qur’an into practice.

5- “O Allah, to You I have prostrated; in You I have believed; to You I have submitted [and You are my Lord]. My face has prostrated to the One who created it and fashioned it [and perfected its form], and who opened its hearing and sight. Blessed is Allah, the best of creators.”

6- “O Allah, forgive me all of my sins—the minor and the major, the first and the last, the public and the private.”

8- “Subḥāna dhīl-jabārūt, wal-malakūt, wal-kibriyāʾ, wal-ʿaẓamah” (Glory be to the One who possesses might, dominion, majesty, and greatness). This—and the invocations that follow—