page_title: Sujud
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Sujud / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: November13,2013 - Muharram 9,1435 - Grand Mosque of Nishapur
context_page_description: Sujūd, or sajdah, is the act of low bowing or prostration to God towards the qiblah. It is usually done in standardized prayers. The position involves kneeling and bowing till one touches the ground with the forehead, nose, palms, knees and toes, and remaining in that position until one attains a relaxed state while glorifying God thrice or more in odd number of times.
context_section_description: Sujud (prostration) is one of the main pillars of daily prayer in Islam. A single act of sujud is called a sajdah (plural sajadāt). Muslims do sujud several times in each prayer, depending on the number of raka'at of prayer: two sajadat are performed every raka'ah, and prayers vary in obligatory length between two and four raka'at (additional supererogatory raka'at are often performed as sunnah muakkadah, or emulation of the example of Muhammad as represented in the sahih hadith). A raka'ah is a unit of set actions that have to be performed in a prayer. The shortest fard (obligatory) Muslim prayer is that of fajr, performed immediately before sunrise. It consists of two raka'ah. The raka'ah can be described as follows:
  Standing and saying Allahu akbar, reciting surah al-Fatiha, and reciting a short passage of the Quran such as sura al-Ikhlas.
  Performing ruku' (bowing down) without bending the knees and with hands resting on the knees, while reciting additional phrases to glorify Allah.
  Standing up from bowing, and reciting further.
  Going in prostration (sajdah) once, while reciting additional specific phrases to glorify Allah.
  Lifting the face up from prostration but kneeling or sitting on the ground.
  Performing a second prostration (sajdah).
  Rising for the second, third, or fourth raka'ah. In the last raka'ah, one remains sitting and recites the tashahhud, and then performs the taslim by turning the head to the right and saying, as-salamu alaikum wa rahmatu Allah wa barakatuh ("may the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you"), and then turning the head to the left and repeating the blessing to conclude the prayer.
  Points 1-7 define one raka'ah. Thus, the shortest prayer, that of fajr, contains four sajadat. For Hanafis, witr prayer is three raka'ahs, which is for them considered wajib, a level of necessity below that of fard but above all else: in practice, this makes witr obligatory.
  While in sujud, the use of a turbah (a small piece of soil or clay, often a clay tablet), on which a person places their forehead, is compulsory in most Shi'a schools of Islam.
caption: A Muslim prayer in Sujud, Grand Mosque of Nishapur
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