Surah 32 of 114 · Makkah
سُورَةُ السَّجۡدَةِ
As-Sajdah The Prostration
30 verses · revealed in Makkah
The context
As-Sajdah is Makkan and short, thirty verses, and its place in practice is larger than its length. The Prophet ﷺ recited it together with Surah al-Insan in the dawn prayer of Friday, and the report is authentic and well known, which has kept this surah in weekly circulation in a way most surahs of its size are not.
Its subject is the two things a Makkan audience found hardest: that the Qur'an is from the Lord of the worlds and not composed by a man, and that a body which has decayed into the earth will be raised. It answers both briefly and moves on.
The name
Named for the prostration in verse fifteen, one of the places in the Qur'an where a reciter and those listening prostrate. The verse describes people who, when reminded of the verses of their Lord, fall down in prostration and glorify Him and are not arrogant, and the surah asks the reciter to do the thing being described while describing it.
How it moves
- 1-11From the Lord of the worldsThe claim that this is revelation, the creation of the human being from a despised fluid, and the answer to the objection about being raised after decay.
- 12-22Two responsesThe criminals with their heads lowered before their Lord, set against those whose sides part from their beds, calling on Him in fear and hope. The prostration falls in this passage.
- 23-30The Book given to Musa, and the closingThe pattern of scripture and patience, the barren land revived by water, and a warning to turn away from those who will not be reached.
The themes
Rising after decay
The objection, that a body dissolved into the ground cannot return, is stated plainly and answered without evasion.
Worship in the dark
The believers of this surah are described by what they do at night, when their sides part from their beds and nobody is watching.
A reward nobody has been told about
No soul knows what has been hidden for them of comfort for the eyes, which leaves the best thing in the surah deliberately undescribed.
Reminder, then prostration
The surah does not only argue. At its centre it asks the reciter to stop reading and put his forehead on the ground.
The heart of it
Recited slowly, this surah is short enough to hold whole and heavy enough to leave a mark. Its centre is a description of people who get out of a warm bed in the dark to pray, and the phrase used, their sides part from their beds, is physical enough that a reciter feels it in the body before he understands it.
Then comes the promise that no soul knows what has been kept hidden for them. Everything else the Qur'an describes of the next life is given in images a person can picture. Here it declines to, and the refusal does more than a description would.
Verses worth knowing
- 32:15The verse of prostration. Read it, and then do what it describes.
- 32:16Their sides part from their beds, calling upon their Lord in fear and hope. The most exact description of night prayer in the Qur'an.
- 32:17No soul knows what has been hidden for them of comfort for the eyes, as reward for what they used to do.
- 32:7Who perfected everything He created and began the creation of man from clay. The answer to the objection is that He has already done the harder thing once.
On reciting it
The Prophet ﷺ used to recite As-Sajdah and Al-Insan in the dawn prayer on Friday. This is an authentic report of his practice. It establishes the surah's place in the week; it is not a report promising a specific reward for reciting it at other times.
Sunnah-confirmedBukhari 891; Muslim 880
Read beside it
On the shelf
Surahs it travels with