Prostration of thanksgiving

The Prostration of thanksgiving (Arabic: سجود الشكر, sujud shukr) is a prostration (sujud) which is made to thank God.

The madhhab school of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) of the Shafi’i and Hanbali imams regarding the ruling on prostration of thanksgiving when there is a reason for it is a Sunnah, according to the hadiths that indicate that the Prophet Muhammad was doing it.

Abd-al-Baqi al-Zurqani (d.1688) added to this legitimation according to the Maliki school, that the prostration of thanksgiving is not fard or required, meaning it is not mustahabb or desirable, but it is only mubah or permissible.

It was well known in the Maliki school that the rule of prostration of thanksgiving is that it is makruh, and this is the text of Malik ibn Anas, which appeared from his saying that it is a makruh close to the forbidden haram.

As for the madhhab of Abu Hanifa, he considers it to be included in the makruh, except that the Hanafi imams have stated what indicates that it is just disliked as a makruh, so the prostration of thanksgiving for them has no importance, and therefore it is disliked by Abu Hanifa and it is not rewarded with a thawab, and leaving it is mustahabb.

It is prescribed to prostrate thanksgiving among the fuqaha who have said that it is mubah when a blessing is apparent to the Muslim, such as if God blessed him with a child after despair of childbearing, or because of a rush of curse and misfortune for him, such as if a sick person was cured, or he found a lost thing, or he or his money escaped from drowning or fire spoilage, or to see one who is afflicted, insane, or disobedient, and that thanks to God for his safety from such a calamity, madness and disobedience.

The Shafi’i and Hanbali imams stated that it enacted the prostration of thanksgiving, whether the blessing obtained or the impulsive resentment of the prostrating Muslim or about his son, family, relatives or common Muslims, such as victory over enemies or the disappearance of a plague and an epidemic and the like.

And it came in a jurisprudential saying of the Hanbali imams that a Muslim can prostrate thanks to obtaining a general blessing and not prostrate to a particular blessing, and this was said by the jurist Ibn Hamdan in one of his books.