What is sujud as-sahw, and when do you do it?
8 min read
Short answer
Sujud as-sahw is two extra prostrations that repair a mistake made in the prayer through forgetfulness. You perform them when you have added something, left something out, or cannot be sure how many rakahs you have prayed.
They are performed exactly like the prostrations of the prayer, with a takbir before each and a sitting in between. Whether they come before or after the tasleem is the one detail the schools genuinely differ on, and all of their answers are valid.
Everyone loses their place in the prayer. You stand up for a fourth rakah that is actually a fifth, you rise straight past the first sitting, or you reach the end genuinely unable to say whether that was three or four. The Prophet ﷺ himself said, in a narration in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, that he is a human being who forgets as people forget, and that he should be reminded when he does.
Sujud as-sahw is the remedy given for it. Two prostrations, the same ones you make in every rakah, offered at the end of the prayer to patch over what went wrong. The prayer then stands, and there is nothing to repeat.
The three reasons for it
- Addition. An extra rakah, an extra bowing, an extra prostration, or a sitting where none belonged.
- Omission. Something left out that the prayer expects, most commonly the first sitting and the tashahhud that goes with it.
- Doubt. Reaching a point in the prayer and not knowing which rakah you are in.
Two limits apply to all three. The lapse has to be forgetful, because nothing done deliberately is repaired by prostrating. And a pillar of the prayer that has been missed entirely, such as a bowing or a prostration or a whole rakah, is not patched over by sujud as-sahw. That has to be performed, and only then is the prostration made.
How to perform it
- Say Allahu akbar and go down into prostration, exactly as you do in the prayer.
- Say the same tasbih you would say in any prostration.
- Sit up with a takbir, as you sit between the two prostrations of a rakah.
- Prostrate a second time with a takbir, then sit up.
- Give the tasleem. Where your school has you prostrate after the tasleem, you give a second tasleem here to close the prayer, and the Hanafi school has you repeat the tashahhud and the salawat before it.
Two prostrations cover everything. If you made three separate mistakes in one prayer, you still perform one set of two at the end, not one set per mistake.
Before or after the tasleem?
Both are established in authentic narrations, which is exactly why the schools arrived at different conclusions. In the hadith of Dhul-Yadayn the Prophet ﷺ prostrated after the tasleem, and in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Buhaynah he prostrated before it. Each school read the two together in its own way.
What the four schools say
Does sujud as-sahw come before or after the tasleem?
Nobody's prayer is invalidated by following another school's timing here. If you prostrate before the tasleem and later learn your school places it after, the prayer you already prayed stands.
If you add a rakah
You stand for a fifth rakah in Isha, or a third in Fajr. If you notice while you are in it, sit down straight away, say the tashahhud if you have not already, and finish the prayer with the two prostrations. If you only notice after finishing, prostrate twice and give the tasleem again. Either way the prayer counts, provided the addition was forgetful. Adding a rakah knowingly invalidates the prayer.
If someone behind you or beside you tells you mid prayer, act on it. That is the whole point of the Prophet's instruction to remind him when he forgets, and of the way the companions corrected him in the hadith of Dhul-Yadayn.
If you leave out a rakah
You gave the tasleem at three rakahs of Asr, or two rakahs of Maghrib. The rakah itself has to be prayed, because nothing repairs a missing rakah except praying it.
- You notice before the tasleem. Stand, pray the missing rakah properly, sit for the tashahhud, then prostrate twice and close.
- You notice just after the tasleem. Stand while you are still in place, pray what is missing, give the tasleem, then prostrate twice. This is precisely the situation of the hadith of Dhul-Yadayn.
- A long time has passed, or you left the mosque. The prayer is prayed again from the beginning. The schools differ on how much can intervene before that point, particularly speech, so if you spoke in between it is worth asking within your own school.
If you forget the first tashahhud
This is the most common mistake there is, and there is a clear instruction for it. If you have begun to rise but have not straightened up, sit back down and say it. If you have already stood upright, do not go back. Carry on with the prayer and prostrate for forgetfulness before the end.
That is the incident Abdullah ibn Buhaynah reported: the Prophet ﷺ stood after two rakahs without sitting, the congregation stood with him, and when the prayer was finished he prostrated twice while still seated, before giving the tasleem. For the wording itself, see the Tashahhud.
If you are unsure how many rakahs you have prayed
There are two approaches in the source texts, and each school built on one of them. One is to discard the doubt and build on the number you are certain of, which is always the lower one. The other is to weigh the two possibilities and act on whichever your mind settles on more strongly.
What the four schools say
What do you do when you cannot be sure of the count?
Both routes trace to authentic narrations: the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri on discarding doubt and building on certainty, and the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud on seeking out what is nearest to correct. The schools differ over which one governs and which is the exception.
When you should not prostrate
- For something done deliberately. The prostration repairs forgetfulness, nothing else.
- For a passing thought or a wandering mind. Distraction is not a mistake in the fabric of the prayer, however much of it you had.
- For a missing pillar you have not yet made up. Perform the bowing, the prostration or the rakah first, and prostrate for forgetfulness after that.
- For funeral prayer. There is no sujud as-sahw in it, since it contains no bowing or prostration to begin with.
Do not let it grow into something bigger
For a certain kind of worshipper, doubt in the prayer turns into a loop: four prostrations because you were unsure whether you did the two, then a repeated prayer, then another. The scholars have consistently told people in that situation to stop, act once, and walk away, because feeding the doubt is what keeps it alive. Pray, do the two prostrations if one of the three reasons genuinely applies, and consider the prayer done.
The existence of this ruling is itself reassuring. The prayer was never designed to be performed flawlessly by people who do not forget. If you want the shape of it to become second nature, read through how to pray salah step by step, and the mistakes will thin out on their own.
Common questions
›Do I need sujud as-sahw if I stumble over my recitation?
Generally no. Losing your place, mispronouncing a word, or starting a verse again does not call for it, because the recitation after al-Fatiha is not a pillar of the prayer. What the schools do treat as a reason is a change to the shape of the prayer itself, such as an imam reciting aloud where the prayer is silent, or reciting silently where it should be aloud. Even there the schools differ on whether the prostration is required or simply good practice.
›What if I forget the sujud as-sahw itself?
If you realise at once, before you have moved away or spoken, perform it and give the tasleem again. If a long time has passed, the majority hold that the moment has gone and your prayer stands as valid, since the prostration exists to repair a lapse and not to create a second obligation. The Hanafi school, which classes it as obligatory, takes a deliberate omission more seriously and has the prayer repeated in that case.
›Do I do it behind an imam, even if I made no mistake myself?
Yes. You follow the imam in the prostration, because the imam carries the prayer for everyone behind him, and a follower's own forgetfulness is covered by the imam according to the majority. If you joined late and the imam prostrates before the tasleem, prostrate with him and then stand to complete what you missed. If his prostration comes after the tasleem, stand to complete your prayer instead, and prostrate at the end of your own.
›Does sujud as-sahw apply to sunnah and voluntary prayers?
Yes. The same rules run through the voluntary prayers, including witr and the sunnah prayers around the obligatory ones. The prostration repairs forgetfulness in any prayer. What it never does is repair something left out on purpose, in a voluntary prayer or an obligatory one.
Sources referenced
- Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the hadith of Dhul-Yadayn, where the Prophet ﷺ gave the tasleem after two rakahs, was told of it, completed the prayer, and then prostrated twice after the tasleem.
- Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the hadith of Abdullah ibn Buhaynah, who saw the Prophet ﷺ stand after two rakahs without sitting for the first tashahhud, then prostrate twice before the tasleem.
- Sahih Muslim, the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, that one who is unsure should discard the doubt, build on what he is certain of, and prostrate twice before the tasleem.
- Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud, that one who is unsure should seek out what is nearest to correct, complete the prayer on it, give the tasleem and then prostrate twice.
- Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the words of the Prophet ﷺ that he is a human being who forgets as they forget, and that he should be reminded when he forgets.
- Sunan Abi Dawud and Sunan Ibn Majah, the instruction that one who has risen after two rakahs should sit back down if he has not straightened up, and continue and prostrate for forgetfulness if he has.
Where the schools of thought differ we have given each position rather than choosing one. For a ruling on your own situation, ask a qualified scholar in your community.
Put it into practice
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