Prostrations of forgetfulness (sujud al-sahw)

The prostrations of forgetfulness are two prostrations a worshipper makes for an addition, omission or doubt in his prayer. ^{2 3} Abu Dawud gives them a run of chapters in the Book of Prayer: forgetfulness in the two prostrations; one who prays five units; doubt between two and three; those who say one completes on one's strongest belief; those who say after the salam; one who rises after two units without the testimony; one who forgets the testimony while sitting; and the testimony and salam of the two prostrations. ⁴

Muhammad ibn Sirin relates from Abu Hurayra that the Prophet ﷺ led one of the two afternoon prayers, the noon or the mid-afternoon, prayed two units and gave the salam, and went to a beam at the front of the mosque; the hasty went out saying, "The prayer has been shortened." Abu Bakr and 'Umar were among the people but held back from speaking to him in awe; a man whom the Prophet called Dhu al-Yadayn said, "Did you forget, or has the prayer been shortened?" He said, "I did not forget, and it has not been shortened." The man said, "Rather, you forgot." He asked the people, "Has Dhu al-Yadayn spoken truly?" They signalled yes; so he prayed the remaining two units and gave the salam, then said "God is greatest" and prostrated as long as his usual prostration or longer, then rose with "God is greatest" and prostrated likewise. ⁵ Ibn Sirin was asked whether he gave the salam after the forgetfulness prostrations and said, "I did not retain that from Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him), but I was told that 'Imran ibn Husayn said: then he gave the salam." ² Abu Dawud notes that only Hammad ibn Zayd gives the words "they signalled". ²

• Whoever says "I did not do it", having done it forgetfully, is not a liar. ⁶
• Whoever speaks in his prayer by mistake, or not knowing that he is in prayer, does not invalidate it; Dhu al-Yadayn spoke at a time of abrogation, additions and reductions to the prayer, in a situation where he could suppose the prayer was over. ⁶
• Al-Khattabi rejects the claim that the report was abrogated by the prohibition of speech in prayer: speech was forbidden in Mecca, while this event took place in Medina, since its narrator Abu Hurayra was a late convert and it was also related by 'Imran ibn Husayn, whose emigration was late; and the "speech" of Abu Bakr and 'Umar was a gesture, as in Hammad's version. ⁶
• Whoever forgets several times in one prayer is covered by two prostrations, the view of most jurists; al-Awza'i and al-Majishun, Malik's companion, are reported to have required two prostrations for each lapse. ⁶

Al-Khattabi says that the matter rests on the reports of Ibn Mas'ud (weighing the likelier case and prostrating after the salam), Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (discarding the doubt, building on certainty and prostrating before the salam), Dhu al-Yadayn (the salam after two units, then prostrating after the salam) and Ibn Buhayna (rising after two units without the testimony, then prostrating before the salam), and that the jurists' schools branched out from them. ³ Al-Khattabi gives Abu Sa'id's report with a full chain through Sulayman ibn Bilal, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from 'Ata' ibn Yasar, to answer those who weakened it because Malik transmitted it without the Companion, observing that Malik is known to transmit in this way reports he holds with full chains. ⁷

Part of al-Khattabi's commentary on pp. 430–436 has not yet been read, nor the schools' views from their own books.