Sujud al-Sahw: When It Is Due, How to Do It and What to Say

Sujud al-Sahw is two prostrations like those of the prayer followed by salam. It comes before the salam when you omit something or doubt and build on the lower number, and after the salam when you add something or said salam before finishing.

How to perform it, step by step

Before the salam:

1. Complete the final tashahhud including the salat Ibrahimiyyah.
2. Say Allahu akbar and prostrate as in prayer.
3. Say Allahu akbar, rise and sit briefly.
4. Say Allahu akbar and make the second prostration.
5. Say Allahu akbar, rise, then give salam to the right and left.

After the salam:

1. Finish your prayer with salam as usual.
2. Make two prostrations with a sitting between them.
3. Give salam again.

What to say in it

Say what you say in the prayer's prostration: "Subhana rabbiyal-ala" three times or more, and any dua. No specific dhikr for Sujud al-Sahw is established from the Prophet; the widely shared phrase "Glory be to the One who neither sleeps nor forgets" was recommended by some jurists but is not in a hadith.

The three causes

Addition

Adding a rakah, bowing or prostration by mistake. The Prophet prayed Dhuhr as five, and when told he made two prostrations after the salam. Bukhari (1226).

Omission

Leaving the first tashahhud by mistake. The Prophet stood after two rakahs of Dhuhr without sitting, and when he finished he prostrated twice before the salam. Bukhari (1224), Muslim (570).

Giving salam before completing the prayer is also omission, as in the hadith of Dhul-Yadayn, when he completed what remained, gave salam, then prostrated twice. Bukhari (1229), Muslim (573).

Doubt

The Prophet said: "If one of you doubts in his prayer and does not know whether he prayed three or four, let him cast aside the doubt and build on what he is certain of, then prostrate twice before the salam." Muslim (571).

If one option seems more likely, act on it, then give salam and prostrate twice, from the hadith of Ibn Masud. Bukhari (401).

What to do if you make a mistake

Before or after the salam

This detail is drawn from the hadiths above and is the Hanbali position. Hanafis place all of it after the salam, Shafiis all before, and Malikis before for omission and after for addition. The majority hold the prayer valid either way; the difference is about what is best.

Imam and follower

A follower prostrates with the imam and does not prostrate for his own mistake if he joined from the start. A latecomer who errs in what he makes up after the imam's salam prostrates for himself.

Sujud al-Sahw is a mercy: forgetting is human, and it happened to the Prophet so people would learn how to repair it rather than repeat the prayer.

Frequently asked questions

Is it obligatory

Hanafis and Hanbalis consider it obligatory; Shafiis and Malikis consider it sunnah in most cases.

I forgot it until after the salam

If you remember shortly after, prostrate and give salam; if a long time passed, many scholars hold the prayer valid.

See also Salat al-Ibrahimiyyah and Sujud al-Shukr.