Sajda outside of Salah, except Tilawa
Fatwa No: 82132

Question

Is SAJDA outside the SALAH allowed (of course except the SUJDA of TILAWA)?

Answer

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
Sujud (Prostration) should not be done outside the prayer except Sujud of Tilawa (prostrations during the Qur'anic Recitation) and Sujud of thankfulness. The Tilawa Sujud is to be performed after reading any of the verses in the Holy Qur'anic (Mus-haf) that are followed by the symbol for prostration. The lawful Sujud of Thankfulness is the one performed when one receives a bounty or is rescued from some trial. The Prophet Muhammad (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) prostrated the Sujud of thankfulness on several situations. In the Book of al-Mustadark and the Book of the Sunan of Abu Dawood, it is narrated from Abu Bakrata that the "Prophet Muhammad (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) used to prostrate himself whenever something good happened to him or whenever some good news was brought to him". The Prophet Muhammad (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) prostrated, for instance, when he received the letter of Ali () informing of Hamadan's Islam. (Al Baihaqi). As for prostrating for no given reason, it was narrated as lawful in the Shafi'e school. But al-Nawawi proved in his book "Al Majmou) that it is not permissible. This last view is the correct one since there is no evidence that supports al-Shafi'es view. But the Scholars dislike prostrating in order to stop any of the things that are thought to be punishments by Allah, such as earth quakes, thunder, darkness. They made desirous performing some Nawafil (likable things) and making Du'a (supplication) to repulse such things. Abu Huzaifa Bin al-Yamani said: "The Prophet Muhammad (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) used to pray whenever something saddened him". [Ahmad& Abu Dawood]. Allah knows best.

Related Fatwa