Sajdat al-Tilāwah: Ḥadīth Perspective
The first ḥadīth in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī under the chapter on prostration during recital of the Qurʾān runs as follows:
Story of the ḥadīth
When the Prophet ﷺ first presented Islām in Makkah, many embraced it. Some would recite the āyah of sujūd and prostrate, though others were unable to do so because of crowding. The Muṣannaf of Ibn Abī Shaybah carries a narration from Abū Hurayrah that everyone prostrated when Sūrat al-Najm was recited, save two men who sought fame. Some of the Quraysh leaders rebuked them, saying they had abandoned the religion of their forefathers. It is reported that Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah and Abū Jahl were among those who had returned from Ṭāʾif (the narrator of this report, ʿAbdullāh ibn Lahīʿah, has weak memory).
Ikhtilāf regarding the old man
The identity of the old man in the ḥadīth is disputed. The reports include:
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4862, in the narration of ʿAbdullāh, gives Umayyah ibn Khalaf.
- The sīrah of Ibn Isḥāq names Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah. Ibn Ḥajar judges this unlikely, since Walīd was not killed as the ḥadīth states.
- Sunayd, in his tafsīr, gives Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah or ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, with hesitation.
- al-Ṭabarī gives Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayyah Abū Uḥayḥah.
- Abū Ḥayyān gives Abū Lahab, without a source.
- A narration in al-Nasāʾī records al-Muṭṭalib ibn Abī Wadāʿah saying that the Prophet ﷺ recited Sūrat al-Najm and prostrated, those with him following, while he himself refrained; he was not yet a Muslim.
It is possible that more than one man behaved this way and that ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, who narrates the ḥadīth, did not see them all. He may have mentioned only the man who raised dust to his forehead and did not prostrate, so that al-Muṭṭalib too may have refrained, but is not the man named in the ḥadīth.
The number of sajdat al-tilāwah
There is consensus on ten places of sujūd in the Qurʾān.
The Aḥnāf count fourteen āyāt of sujūd, excluding the second āyah of sujūd in Sūrat al-Ḥajj and including the āyah of sujūd in Sūrat Ṣād.
The Shawāfiʿ also count fourteen, but include both āyāt in Sūrat al-Ḥajj. They do not count the āyah in Sūrat Ṣād, treating it as a sajdah of shukr to be performed only by the one not in ṣalāh; performing it deliberately within ṣalāh invalidates the prayer (ʿUmdat al-Sālik).
The Mālikiyyah count eleven verses that necessitate sajdat al-tilāwah, excluding the second āyah in Sūrat al-Ḥajj and the verses in Sūrat al-Najm, al-Inshiqāq and al-ʿAlaq1 (Mukhtaṣar al-Khalīl).
The Ḥanābilah count fourteen, including both verses in Sūrat al-Ḥajj.
Ruling of sajdat al-tilāwah
For the Ḥanafīs, sajdat al-tilāwah is wājib on both the reciter and the listener.
The school points to verses in which the imperative form سجد (prostrate) is used:
Since the words come in command form, the Aḥnāf hold the prostration to be wājib.
For Imām al-Shāfiʿī and Imām Aḥmad, sajdat al-tilāwah is a sunnah muʾakkadah. Imām Mālik has two well-known views: that the prostration is virtuous, and that it is sunnah. Imām Aḥmad is also reported to have held it wājib for the person in ṣalāh, but not outside it.
Is wuḍūʾ necessary?
The four madhāhib agree that wuḍūʾ is a condition for sajdat al-tilāwah. The position of Imām al-Bukhārī is itself disputed.
Those who hold that wuḍūʾ is not necessary
They point to the chapter heading in the fifth chapter on sajdat al-tilāwah in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī:
This is the wording recorded in the majority of nusakh (prints). Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar holds it the wording of the soundest copies.
Imām al-Bukhārī mentions that the mushrikūn did sujūd, and places this close to his note that Ibn ʿUmar did sujūd without wuḍūʾ. Ibn Baṭṭāl argues that if Imām al-Bukhārī meant the sujūd of the mushrikūn as a proof that wuḍūʾ is not necessary, the argument fails: the sujūd of the mushrikūn is not ʿibādah at all. If, however, the chapter is meant to refute the practice of Ibn ʿUmar, the reading is sounder.
Those who hold that wuḍūʾ is necessary
A different nuskhah, that of al-Aṣīlī, reads:
The word غير has dropped out, so the sense is that Ibn ʿUmar would prostrate while in a state of wuḍūʾ. This matches the position of all four schools.
Ibn ʿUmar often did things to demonstrate permissibility, even where the act was not the common practice of the Companions or the more preferred course. Ibn Abī Shaybah records, for instance, that Ibn ʿUmar recited an āyah of sajdat al-tilāwah while walking with his back to the qiblah, and indicated sujūd with his head. (There are two narrations: one mentions that he was without wuḍūʾ; the other does not.) The sunnah method is to prostrate while still and facing the qiblah; the report is therefore best read as a demonstration of permissibility in difficult circumstances.
Reconciling the narrations
al-Bayhaqī records Ibn ʿUmar saying that no one prostrates unless he is ṭāhir. How is this to be reconciled with the chapter heading in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī?
Some hold that the ṭahārah in question is freedom from minor impurity, that is, the lack of wuḍūʾ, as opposed to major impurity that calls for ghusl; on this reading, sajdat al-tilāwah may be performed without wuḍūʾ.
Others hold that the requirement of wuḍūʾ is binding when one has the option to perform it; the dispensation applies only to cases of ḍarūrah, where wuḍūʾ is hard to come by.
For further reading see Fatḥ al-Bārī, vol. 4, p. 221.
Footnotes
-
Sūrat al-ʿAlaq is sometimes also called al-Qalam. ↩