فَاسْجُدُوا لِلَّهِ وَاعْبُدُوا ۩ (62)
(53:62) Prostrate yourselves before Allah, and serve Him. *55
*55) According to Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Shafe`i and many other scholars it is obligatory to perform a sajdah on the recitation of this verse. Although Imam Malik himself used to perform a sajdah here (as cited by Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-`Arabi in Ahkam al-Qur 'an), yet he held the view that it was not obligatory to perform a sajdah here, the basis of his view being this tradition of Hadrat Zaid bin Thabit: "I recited Surah an-Najm before the Holy Prophet, and he did not perfom a sajdah. ' (Bukhari, Muslim, Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Abu Da'ud, Nasa'i). But this Hadith dces not negate the incumbency of the prostration here, for it is likely that the Holy Prophet did not perform the sajdah then due to some reason but might have performed it later. Other traditions on the subject are explicit that the prostration was always performed on this verse. Hadrat `Abdullah bin Mas'ud, Ibn `Abbas and Muttalib bin Abi Wada`ah have unanimously stated that when the Holy Prophet recited this Surah for the first time in the Ka`bah, he had prostrated himself and along with him the whole assembly of the believers and the disbelievers also had fallen down prostrate. (Bukhari, Ahmad, Nasa'i) Ibn 'Umar has reported that the Holy Prophet recited Surah an-Najm in the Prayer and prostrated himself and lay long in that state. (Baihaqi, Ibn Marduyah). Saburat al- Juhani states that Hadrat 'Umar recited Surah an-Najm in the Fajr Prayer and performed a sajdah, then stood up, recited Surah al-Zilzal and performed the ruku'. (Sa'id bin Mansur). Imam Malik himself has related this act of Hadrat Umar in his Mu'watta (Bab Ma Ja `fi Sajud al-Qar en).