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[Q-ID0310] Can I lightly press my forehead against the carpet during sajdah?

QUESTION:

What do the noble ‘ulamā say regarding the issue of carpets in the masājid in England. I have read regarding firmly establishing the forehead during sajdah in ‘Sunnī Bāhishtī Zewar’. Will lightly placing the forehead on the carpet be sufficient for the fulfilment of sajdah or will the forehead need to be firmly pressed?

Questioner: Ahmed from UK

ANSWER:

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب

It is necessary to firmly establish the forehead in prostration. The meaning of firmly establishing the forehead is that the firmness of the floor can be felt [when pressing]. If someone prostrated in such a way that the forehead was not firmly established then the prostration will not be fulfilled. If prostration was done upon something soft, for example a cotton or foam pillow or a carpet and the likes of these and the forehead was firmly established, i.e. pressed so much that further pressing does not cause it to be pressed further, then the prostration will be fulfilled. However, if the forehead is not firmly established then the prostration will not be fulfilled, as a result of which the prayer will be invalid, just as it is mentioned in al-Fatāwā al-Hindiyyah that,

“وَلَوْ سَجَدَ عَلَى الْحَشِيشِ أَوْ التِّبْنِ أَوْ عَلَى الْقُطْنِ أَوْ الطَّنْفَسَةِ أَوْ الثَّلْجِ إنْ اسْتَقَرَّتْ جَبْهَتُهُ وَأَنْفُهُ وَيَجِدُ حَجْمَهُ يَجُوزُ وَإِنْ لَمْ تَسْتَقِرَّ لَا“

“If one prostrated on grass, straw, cotton, carpet or ice and the forehead was established and one felt its hardness, then that is allowed, and if the forehead was not established then the prostration has not been fulfilled.”

[al-Fatāwā al-Hindiyyah, vol 1, pg 70]

In Bahār-e-Sharī’at it is mentioned that if one prostrated on something soft like grass, cotton, carpet or other than that and the forehead was firmly established in the sense that it was pressed so much that further pressing does not cause it to be pressed further, then that is permissible otherwise it is not. In some places in winter months rice chaff [rice husks] are spread out in the Masājid; it is necessary that worshippers prostrating on these must take note of this because if the forehead is not firmly established then the prayer is not valid and if it is a case of only the nasal bone not being established then the prayer will be makrūh tahrīmī (prohibitively disliked) and wajib al-‘Iādah (necessary to repeat).

[Bahār-e-Sharī’at vol 1, pg 514]

واللہ تعالی اعلم ورسولہ اعلم صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم
کتبہ ابو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء قادری

Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qadri

Translated by Mawlana Ibrar Shafi

Read the original Urdu answer here – [Q-ID0310] Can I lightly press my forehead against the carpet during sajdah?

Also see:

[Q-ID0235] Can I recite a dua in English during prostration?

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