Abd Allah, [and Abu Hanifah and his companions made it obligatory] (3). Due to the saying of Allah, the Almighty and Majestic: "So what is [the matter] with them that they do not believe? (20) And when the Qur'an is recited to them, they do not prostrate? (21)" (4). [And this is a rebuke] (5), and one is not rebuked except for neglecting an obligation. And because it is a prostration performed in prayer, so it is obligatory like the prostration of prayer. Our evidence is what [Zayd ibn Thabit narrated, saying: I recited (Surah) al-Najm to the Prophet - peace and blessings of Allah be upon him - and none of us prostrated. Agreed upon (6). And because it is the consensus of the Companions] (7). Al-Bukhari (8) and al-Athram narrated from Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, that he recited Surah al-Nahl on the pulpit on the day of Jumu'ah, and when he reached the prostration (verse), he descended and prostrated, and the people prostrated. Then, when the following Jumu'ah came, he recited it, and when he reached the prostration (verse), he said: O people, we only pass by the prostration, so whoever prostrates has done right, and whoever does not prostrate, there is no sin upon him. And Umar did not prostrate. In another wording: Allah has not made prostration obligatory upon us unless we wish. In the narration of al-Athram, he said: At your leisure, for Allah has not written it for us unless we wish. So he recited it and did not prostrate, and he forbade them to prostrate. [And this was on a Friday, in the presence of the people of Friday from the Companions and others, and it was not denied, so it constitutes a consensus] (9) (10). And because prostration is a prayer, it enters into the generality of his saying, peace be upon him, to the Bedouin when he asked him
(3) In the original: "And Abu Hanifah and his companions said: It is obligatory." (4) Surah al-Inshiqaq 20, 21. (5) Omitted from: (M). (6) Recorded by al-Bukhari, in: The Chapter on whoever reads the prostration and does not prostrate. Sahih al-Bukhari 2/51. And Muslim, in: The Chapter on the prostration of recitation, from the Book of Mosques. Sahih Muslim 1/406. It was also recorded by Abu Dawud, in: The Chapter on whoever did not see prostration in the Mufassal (surahs), from the Book of Prostration, Sunan Abi Dawud 1/324, 325. And al-Tirmidhi, in: The Chapter on what has been narrated concerning whoever did not prostrate in it, from the Chapters of Jumu'ah. 'Aridat al-Ahwadhi 3/57, 58. And al-Nasa'i, in: The Chapter on omitting prostration in al-Najm, from the Book of Opening the Prayer. al-Mujtaba 2/124. And Imam Ahmad, in: al-Musnad 5/183, 186. (7) Omitted from: The original, at this location, and it came following the hadith of Umar that follows. (8) In: The Chapter on whoever held that Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, did not make prostration obligatory, from the Book of Prostration. Sahih al-Bukhari 2/52. (9) In (M): "And this was in the presence of a large gathering, and no one denied it, nor was any disagreement reported regarding it." And after it in the original is the hadith of Zayd ibn Thabit which preceded. (10) From here to his saying: "unless we wish" was omitted from (M). =
