I was listening to a recitation of the Quran from a tape and then the reciter prostrated so should I follow him in prostration? What if I broke my ablution? May Allaah Reward you.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

For the prostration of recitation to be sound, one must fulfill the conditions of the soundness of the voluntary prayer (i.e. being free of both Hadath (i.e. state of ritual impurity), covering the ‘Awrah, directing oneself to the Qiblah and observing the intention. This is the chosen opinion of the Hanafi, Maaliki, Shaaf‘i and Hanbali scholars.

Ibn Qudaamah, the Hanbali scholar said: “There is no disagreement regarding this opinion, except that ‘Uthmaan ibn ‘Affaan used to permit a menstruating woman to bow her head down when hearing a verse of prostration. Also, Sa‘eed ibn Al-Musayyib adopted this opinion and said that “one (in a state of ritual impurity) should say ‘O my Lord for you I prostrate.’” Ash-Sha‘bi chose the opinion that the one who hears a verse of prostration while he is in a state of ritual impurity should prostrate regardless of his direction".

There is no doubt that the opinion adopted by the majority of scholars is the preponderant one. Moreover, it is not obligatory to make ablution or Tayammum to prostrate for the recitation.

All of this is applicable when the individual listens directly to the reciter and not to a recording because the one prostrating does following the Imaam and it is not valid to follow an Imaam via television or live broadcasting. So, following an Imaam via a recorded tape is invalid by greater reason.

Allaah Knows best.