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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Prostration (sujūd) is a fundamental part of the ritual prayer (ṣalāt). It is the highest form of religious devotion and is often mentioned in the Quran as well as in many traditions from all genres of Muslim literature. Prostration is also mentioned in some traditions in relation to what Muslim sources define as sujūd al-shukr, i.e., literally, ‘the thanksgiving prostration’. This is a voluntary act of devotion consisting of a prostration performed by the believer when he wants to thank God for some blessing. There is an abundance of evidence concerning this kind of prostration and it will be discussed here.
1 Much of the literature related to prostration has already been covered in a number of my other articles; see ‘Muslim attitudes towards prostration (sujūd), I: Arabs and prostration at the beginning of Islam and in the Qur'ān’, Studia Islamica (forthcoming); ‘Muslim attitudes towards prostration (sujūd), II: The prominence and meaning of prostration in Muslim literature’, Le Muséon (forthcoming); and ‘Traditions and controversies concerning the sujūd al-Qur'an in hadith literature’, ZDMG, 147, 1997, 371–93.Google Scholar I began this research on sujūd while I was in Jerusalem during 1993–94 for my Ph.D. studies programme at the Dipartimento di Studi e Ricerche su Africa e Paesi Arabi of the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples; I would like to thank the Lady Davis Fellowship Trust that granted me a scholarship to study that year at the Hebrew University. I am indebted to Professor M. J. Kister for many discussions on this subject while I was in Jerusalem, and for his most valuable suggestions. I would also like to thank Professor M. Fierro and Professor M. Lecker for their comments on a first draft of this note.
2 See Hanbal, Ahmad b., Musnad, ed1. 'A. M. al-Darwish (Beirut, 1991), I, 407, no. 1664Google Scholar; Haythami, , Majma' al-zawā'id wa-manba' al-fawā'id (Beirut, n.d.), II, 287–8;Google Scholar Bayhaqī, , al-Sunan al-kubrā (Beirut, 1994), II, 518, no. 3937, and cf. no. 3936;Google Scholar Ābādī, Al-'Aẓ'm, al-Ta'līq al-mughnī 'aiā 'l-Dāraqutnī (on margin of Dāraquṭnī, Sunan, Beirut n.d.), I, 412;Google Scholar and see al-Jawziyya, Ibn Qayyim, Zad al-ma'adfi hady khayr al-'ibād (Cairo, 1987), I, 131–2.Google Scholar See also another similar tradition, attributed to ‘al-Raḥman, Abd, in Shayba, Ibn Abi, al-Musannaf f‛ 'l-ahādīth wa'l-āthār (Beirut, 1989), II, 400; VII, 442, and cf. also II, 368;Google Scholar Ābādī, Al-'Azīm, al-Ta'tīq, I, 412.Google Scholar
3 Dāwūd, Abū, Sunan (Cairo, 1988), III, 89–90, no. 2775;Google Scholar Bayhāqī, , al-Sunan al-kubrā, II, 518, no. 3935;Google Scholar al-Jawziyya, Ibn Qayyim, Zād al-ma'ād, I, 132;Google Scholar Abadi, al-'Aẓīm, al-Ta'līq, I, 412 Google Scholar. See, in general, all the traditions collected by Haythamī, Majma', II, 287–9. And cf. also a tradition in Suyūtī, , al-Khaṣāis al-kubrā, (Beirut, n.d.), II, 211.Google Scholar
4 Bukhārī, , Ṣaḥīh (Beirut, 1992), V, 157, no. 4418;Google Scholar Muslim, Ṣaḥīh, ed. al-Baql, M. F. 'Abd (Cairo, 1991), IV,2126, no. 2769;Google Scholar Hanbal, Aḥmad b., Musnad, V, 354, no. 15789Google Scholar; al-Razzaq, 'Abd, al-Musannaf, ed. al-A'ẓamī, H. al-R.; (Beirut, 1983 2), V, 404, no. 9744Google Scholar; Kathīr, Ibn, Tafsīr al-Qur'ān al-'azīm (Beirut, n.d.), II, 618.Google Scholar
5 al-Razzaq, 'Abd, al-Musannaf, III, 357–8, no. 5961Google Scholar; Maja, Ibn, Sunan, ed. al-Bāqī, M. F. 'Abd (Cairo, n.d.), I, 446, no. 1393Google Scholar; Bayhaqī, , al-Sunan al-kubrā, II, 517, no. 3933Google Scholar; al-Jawziyya, Ibn Qayyim, Zād al-ma'ād, I, 132 Google Scholar; Ābādī, al-'Azim, al-Ta'līq, I, 411.Google Scholar
6 al-Razzāq, 'Abd, al-Musannaf III, 357, no. 5960Google Scholar: his name was Zunaym, III, 358, no. 5964; Shayba, Ibn Abī, al-Musannaf, III, 366 Google Scholar (quoting his name, wrongly, as Runaym), and see also the tradition at p. 367; Dāraqutnī, , Sunan, I, 410 Google Scholar; al-Nīsābūrī, al-Ḥākim, al-Mustadrak 'alā'l-ṣaḥīḥayn (Beirut, 1990), I, 411 Google Scholar; Damīrī, , Hayāt al-hayawān al-kubrā (Cairo, 1978), I, 625 Google Scholar. See also Hajar, Ibn, al-IṢāba fī tamyīz al-saḥāba, ed. Sprenger, A. et al. . (Calcutta, 1856 f., repr. Beirut, n.d.), III, 13, no. 2814: marra 'aiā rasūl Allāh (ṣ) rajul qasīr qāla fa-sajada sajdat al-shukr.Google Scholar
7 Shayba, Ibn Abī, al-Musannaf, II, 367 Google Scholar; see also al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, I, 411 Google Scholar; Ābādī, Al-'Aẓīm, al-Ta'tīq, I, 411 Google Scholar; Bayhaqī, , al-Sunan al-kubrā, II, 519, no. 3939Google Scholar; Haythaml, , Majma', II, 289, and another report, at p. 289Google Scholar: whenever Muḥammad saw a disfigured man, he used to fall down prostrate.
8 Shayba, Ibn Abī, al-Muṣannaf, II, 367. Muhammad used also to prostrate himself to thank God when Q. 38: 24 was recited, see Tottoli, ‘Traditions and controversies’, n. 73.Google Scholar
9 Dāwūd, Abū, Sunan, III, 89, no. 2774Google Scholar; Maja, Ibn, Sunan, I, 446, no. 1394Google Scholar, and see also the differing version attributed to Anas b. Malik: I, 445, no. 1392; al-Hakim, , al-Mustadrak, I, 411, no. 1025, iv, 324, no. 7789Google Scholar; aī-Hindi, al-Muttaql, Kanz al-'ummāl fī sunan al-aqwāl wa'l-afāl (Beirut, 1989), VII, 139, no. 18393Google Scholar; see also Dāraquṭnī, , Sunan, I, 410 Google Scholar, with two versions of this tradition; Bayhaqī, , al-Sunan al-kubrā, II, 517, no. 3934Google Scholar; al-Jawziyya, Ibn Qayyim, Zād al-ma'ād, I, 131.Google Scholar
10 Hanbal, Ahmad b., Musnad, VII, 323, no. 20477Google Scholar: …atāhu bashīr yubashshiruhu bi-ẓafar jund lahu 'aid 'aduwwihim …fa-kharra sājidan. See also al-Hakim, , al-Mustadrak, I, 411.Google Scholar
11 Tabarī, , Ta'rīkh al-rusul wa'l-mulūk, ed. Ibrahim, M. A. al-F (Cairo, 1960–1967), III, 132 Google Scholar, [= ed. M. J. de Goeje et al., Leiden, 1879 f., I, 1732]; Bayhaqī, , al-Sunan al-kubrā, II, 516, no. 3932Google Scholar; idem, Dala'il al-nubuwwa wa-ma'rifat ahwāl_sahib al-sharīa (Beirut, 1985), v, 396; al-Jawziyya, Ibn Qayyim, Zād al-ma'ād, I, 131 Google Scholar; Ābādī, al-'Aẓīm, al-Ta'tiq, i, 411.Google Scholar
12 Rubin, , ‘Morning and evening prayers in early Islam’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 10, 1987, 40–53 Google Scholar.
13 Darimi, Swum (Damascus, 1991), I, 364, no. 1434Google Scholar; Ibn Māja, Sunan, I, 445, no. 1391: with no direct mention of the salāt al-duhā; Haythami, Majma' al-zawā'id, II, 238; Bayhaqī, Dalā'il al-nubuwwa, v, 81, but cf. III, 89, where it is said that Muhammad fell down prostrate when informed of the death of Abū Jahl. See also the references in Rubin, ‘Morning and evening prayers’, 44–5.
14 It should be noted that this practice was not accepted by all the authorities, see for instance Shayba, Ibn Abi, al-Muṣannaf, II, 367 Google Scholar. Differing opinions are then reflected among later scholars: see the discussion and the sources quoted by Fierro, M. in Ibn, Waḍḍāḥ, Kitāb al-bida' (Madrid, 1988), 113. Shāfi'ī(d. 204/820) approved the practice of the thanksgiving prostration, see Al-'Azīm Abādī, al-Ta'tīq, i, 411, and the reference to his Kitab al-Umm in Ibn Waḍḍāḥ, Kitāb al-bida', 113, n. 319. Mālik b. Anas, however, was against it, see Ibn Waḍḍāh, Kitāb al-bida', 187. See also the discussion in Ibn Ḥazm, al-Muhallā (Beirut, n.d.), v, 105f.Google Scholar
15 Ibshīhī, , al-Mustatraf fi kull farm mustazraf (Beirut, 1991), 253 Google Scholar; see also Ghazālī, Ihyā' 'ulūm al-dīn (Cairo, 1939), III, 68 and IV, 126; and see Bayhaqī, Dalā'il, in, 125, 309: a thanksgiving prostration is performed after a prodigious event. Cf. also a tradition reported by Haythamī, Majma', II, 290: at the time of the anti-Caliph ‘Abdallah b. al-Zubayr, it is said that Asmā’ bint Abī Bakr fell down prostrate when she found something the Prophet had given her as a present and which she had lost. See also Ghubīmī, 'Unwān al-dirāya (Beirut, 1969), 221, no. 56; Sarakhsī, Kitāb al-siyar al-kabīr (Cairo, 1958), I, 221–3; I am indebted to Professor M. Fierro for these references.
16 See Kisā'ī, , Qiṣa1E63; al-anbiyā' (Leiden, 1922–1923), 152 Google Scholar: Sarah (and by Laban: p. 155); al-Hākim, al-Mustadrak, II, 610, no. 4049: Abraham; Haysam, Qisas al-Qurā'an, Princeton, MS Yahuda 49, 52a: Abraham and Ishmael. Ibn Iyās, Badā'i' al-zuhūr fī waqā'i' al-duhūr (Beirut, n.d.), 124: Moses's mother; Majlisī, Bihār al-anwār al-jdmi'a li-durar akhbār al-a'imma al-athār (Beirut, 1983), XIII, 79, and Māwardī, al-Nukat wa'l-'uyiūn (Beirut, 1992), II, 246: Moses and Aaron. Wāsitī, Faḍa'il al-bayt al-muqaddas, ed. I. Hasson (Jerusalem, 1979), 11: David. Regarding all the episodes about Solomon: Kisā'ī, Qisas, 272; Ibn Iyās, Badā'i', 152; Nuwayri, Nihāyat al-arab fī funūn al-adab (Cairo, 1923f.), XIV, 72, 93, 103; Ps-Asma'ī, Qisas al-anbiyā' (in the Kitāb al-shāmil), London, MS British Library Or. 1493, 62b; Māwardī, al-Nukat, IV, 200, Ibshīhī, al-Musta1E6D;raf 590. And see Ps-Asma'ī, Qisas, 70b: Isaiah. Job's wife: Majlisī, Bihar, XII, 343; Ḥusaynī, QiṢaṢ al-anbiyā' 'aiā ra'y al-imdmiyya, Berlin, MS Staatsbibliothek Nr. 1025 (Petermann, i, 633), 82a.
17 Majlisī, Bihār, XII, 288, and cf. xn, 317: Jacob made a sajdat al-shukr when he found out that Joseph was still alive; Husaynī, Qisas, 79a; Diyārbakrī, Ta'rīkh al-khamīs fī ahwāl anfas nafīs (Beirut, n.d.), I, 140; see also the relevant passage in Ibn al-Dawādārī, Kanz al-durar wa-jdmi' al-ghurar, I, ed. B. Radtke (Wiesbaden, 1982), 374, where the distinction between sujūd al-shukr and prostration before a man, forbidden by Islam, is made.
18 Jacob and his sons performed a thanksgiving prostration before Joseph: Māwardī, al-Nukat, III, 82; Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-masīr fī'ilm; al-tafsīr (Damascus-Beirut, 1965), IV, 290; Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf'an haqā'iq al-tanzīl wa-'uyūn al-aqāwīl (Cairo, 1972), II, 344; Khāzin, Lubāb al-ta'wīl fi ma'ām 'l-tanzīl (Cairo, 1955), III, 317; 'Ayyāshī, Tafsīr (Beirut, 1991), II, 208; Baydāwī, Anwār al-tanzīl wa-asrār al-ta'wīl (Cairo, 1968), I, 508; Abū Bakr al-Razi, Tafsīr (Beirut-Damascus, 1990), 231; Nizām al-Dīn al-Nīsābūrī, Gharā'ib al-Qur'ān wa-raghā'ib al-furqān (Cairo, 1962), XIII, 48; Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Mafatīh al-ghayb (Beirut, 1990), XVIII, 169.
19 al-Razzāq, 'Abd, al-Muṣannaf III, 358, no. 5963Google Scholar; Bayhaqī, al-Sunan al-kubrā, II, 519, no. 3940; al-Muttaqī al-Hindī, Kanz, VIII, 147, no. 22318; Ibn Abī Shayba, al-Muṣannaf, II, 367. See the discussion of this tradition by Ibn Waḍḍāḥ, Kitāb al-bida', 187.
20 Ibn Abī Shayba, al-Muṣannaf II, 367; al-Muttaqī al-Hindī, Kanz, VIII, 147, no. 22319–20; Al-'Aẓīm Abādā, al-Ta'īq, I, 411; Haythamī, Majma', II, 289. These statements are sometimes found together with the above-mentioned particular that Muhammad used to prostrate himself whenever he saw a disfigured man; see, for instance, the discussion in Bayhaqī, al-Sunan al-kubrā, II, 519, no. 3939.
21 al-Jawziyya, Ibn Qayyim, Zād al-ma'ad, I, 132 Google Scholar; Ābādī, Al-'Azīm, al-Ta'līq, I, 412.Google Scholar
22 al-Razzāq, 'Abd, al-Muṣannaf III, 358, no. 5962Google Scholar; Bayhaqī, al-Sunan al-kubrā, II, 519, no. 3941; idem, Dalā'il, vi, 433; Ibn Abī Shayba, al-Musannaf, II, 367: with differing versions, and cf. p. 368, where it is stated that it was a prostration of joy (sujud farahan); see also in Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, I, 230, no. 848; Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Zād al-ma'ād, I 132; Al-'Azīm Ābādī, al-Ta'līq, I, 412. Concerning other thanksgiving prostrations by 'Alī, see 'Amilī, al-Jawāhir al-saniyya fī 'l-ahādīth al-qudsiyya (Baghdad, 1964), 227, 231; and also the long discussion in Kulīnī, al-Kāfī (Ṫehran, 1957–61), III, 325–28: in particular 327, about the words pronounced by 'Alī when prostrate. About Dhū '1-Thudayya, see Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-'Arab (Cairo n.d., ed. Dār al-Ma'ārif), I, 474c.
23 Zakariyā, Al-Mu'āfā b., al-Jalīs al-sālih al-kāfī wa'l-anīs al-nāṣiḥ al-shāfī (Beirut, 1993), I, 435 Google Scholar; see also, about a prostration by Yazld b. Mu'āwiya, II, 137.
24 Tabarī, Ta'rīkh, VI, 192 [=II, 851]. See also Ṭabarī, Ta'rīkh, VI, 342 [II, 1065]: al-Ḥajjāj fell down prostrate when informed by Ziyād of the defeat of the enemy.
25 Balādhurī, , Ansāb al-ashrāf V, ed. Goitein, S. D. (Jerusalem, 1936), 377 Google Scholar.
26 Ibn Ra's Ghanama, Kitāb manāqil al-durar wa-manābit al-zuhar, MS Chester Beatty 4254, 88b; I am indebted to Professor M. J. Kister for this reference. References about thanksgiving prostrations by the Caliph al-Walīd are given by M. Fierro in Ibn Waḍḍdāḥ, Kitāb al-bida', 308, n. 17.
27 See, for instance, Ṭabarī, Ta'rīkh, VII, 126 [II, 1615]: Hishām b. 'Abd al-Malik (d. 125/743) performed a thanksgiving prostration (sajada sajdat al-shukr) when informed of a victory; cf. also VII, 75 [II, 1539]: a prostration by al-Junayd; Mas'ūdī, Murūj al-dhahab wa-ma'ādin al-jawhar, ed. B. de Meynard, P. de Courteille and revised by C. Pellat (Beirut, 1966–79), IV, 355, no. 2811: when al-Mu'tasim (d. 227/842) captured the rebel Bābak, who confessed his identity, he prostrated himself and ordered that the rebel have his hands and feet cut off; see also a tradition about a prostration by al-Mutawakkil (d. 247/861) in v, 36, no. 2954. A similar episode is also reported about Bishr b. al-Hārith (d. 227/842) who wished he had performed a thanksgiving prostration to God when he was informed that a Mutazilite adversary had died, and said: ‘I was in the market, but if it had been a place suitable for prostration, I would have prostrated myself for thanksgiving (to God)’; see Ibn al-Jawzī, Talbīs Ibtīs (Beirut, 1983), 23.
28 Ṭabarī, Ta'rīkh, VII, 247 [n, 1801]: Yazīd III (d. 126/744) prostrated himself at the announcement that the Caliph al-Walid II (d. 126/744) had died; VII, 493 [III, 117]: Abū Isḥāq fell down prostrate when Caliph al-Mansūr (d. 158/775) showed him the corpse of the dead Abū Muslim; VII, 605 [III, 26]: a woman fell down prostrate when told of the death of her brother. It is interesting to note that there is also a contemporary example of thanksgiving prostration: when a prisoner of Nasser heard that he had died, he noted in his diary that he prostrated to God and thanked Him; see E. Sivan, Radical Islam (New Haven-London, 1985), 120. I am indebted to Professor Fierro for this reference.
29 See Tabarī, , Ta'rīkh, VIII, 488 [III, 925]Google Scholar: the Caliph al-Ma'mun (d. 218/833) performed a prostration when the head of an enemy was brought before him; IX, 660 [III, 2093]: Abū'l-'Abbās and Quwwād performed a thanksgiving prostration when the head of the dead enemy was brought before them. Mas'udī, Muruj, no. 2319: when the head of an adversary was brought to Marwān II (d. 132/750), he prostrated himself and stayed prostrate for a long time, only raising his eyes to thank God; V, 178, no. 3361: the Caliph al-Muktafī (d. 295/908) performed a similar act when the head of the rebel Abū 'Umar was brought to him: he prostrated himself; L. Seco de Lucena, ‘De nuevo sobre el “Naqt al-'arus” de Ibn Hazm de Cordoba’, al-Andalus, 29, 1964, 33: Ibn Abī 'Āmir performed a thanksgiving prostration when the head of an enemy was brought to him.
