Should the prostration of recitation be repeated if the verse of prostration is repeated for the purpose of memorisation?
Question During memorisation of the quran we have to recite the aayaath many times to perfect them. What should we do if there is sajdah of tilaawah in those aayaath. Do we perform sujood as many times we recite the verses or can we just do one sajdah at the end of memorisation?. Praise be…
Question
Praise be to Allah.
The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed
concerning this issue. The correct view is that it is sufficient to do one
prostration, so as to avoid hardship and difficulty. So one should prostrate
when reciting the verse of prostration for the first time, then not repeat
the prostration again.
This is the view of the Hanafis, and some of the Shaafa‘is
and Hanbalis. It is also the view favoured by Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may
Allah have mercy on him).
Ibn ‘Aabideen (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
if he repeats it in two sitting, he should repeat the
prostration, but if he repeats (the verse) in one sitting he does not have
to repeat the prostration; rather once is sufficient, and doing it after the
first recitation is preferable. This is so as to avoid hardship so long as
the same verse is repeated in the same sitting.
End quote from Radd al-Muhtaar ‘ala ad-Durr al-Mukhtaar,
2/114. See also al-Insaaf, 2/196
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) was
asked: Is it obligatory for the one who is reading Qur’aan to prostrate when
he comes to a verse in which there is a sajdah (prostration)? If he is
repeating the verse for the purpose of memorisation, does he have to
prostrate every time?
He replied: He does not have to prostrate, whether he reads
the verse in which there is a prostration once or he repeats it. The
prostration of recitation is Sunnah and not obligatory. The evidence for
that is the fact that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab (may Allah be pleased with him)
recited in a Friday khutbah a verse in which there is a prostration, namely
the verse in Soorat an-Nahl, and he came down (from the minbar) and
prostrated, then he recited the same verse on another Friday, and he did not
prostrate. Then he said: Allah has not made the prostration obligatory upon
us unless we want to do it. So the prostration of recitation is Sunnah and
is not obligatory.
If the verses are repeated, such as when one repeats the
verses for the purpose of memorising Qur’aan, doing the prostration the
first time will suffice for the rest and there is no need to repeat the
prostration. But if he is reading Soorat al-Hajj, for example, (in which
there are two sajdahs) and he does the first prostration then he comes to
the second prostration, he may prostrate again even if the interval was not
long.
End quote from Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa, 14/318
And Allah knows best.
