Question 14 : Assalaamu ‘alaykum Shaykh,

2 Questions:

If we’re watching live taraweeh somewhere and there’s sujood tilawah, what do we do?

If we are in prayer and sujood tilawah at end of the Surah or portion we’re reading then what to do?

 

Answer:  Walaikumussalam Brothers,

First Question:

I do not recall coming across reading a fatwa from any of the great scholars of fiqh about sujud tilawah from a live Taraweeh prayer broadcast and as a result of which I cannot reply to this question with certainty or full confidence. In absence of having come across anything better, I would consider one perspective that the listener is not in the gathering of recitation – the Quran is neither read to him nor is he participating in its gathering in a way that the Prophet (s.a.w) was listening when a Sahabi read to him or when he read and the sahabah heard and did sujud. From this perspective, since not like the Prophet’s situation, I would consider that there is neither a specific recommendation for the broadcast listener to do sujud nor any harm in not doing the sujud. But if the listener did want to do the sujud because of the meaning of the verse being heard calling upon the believers to prostrate to Allah in submission, then it seems there is no harm and rather inshallah reward for the listener of the broadcast to do sujud out of compliance to Allah’s call in the Surah to do Sujud.

Sajdah tilawah for listening to a Sajdah verse in Quran, according to the view of the scholars that I learnt from is not wajib, rather it is mustahab, be it in prayer or outside it.

ps: I did read some contemporary scholars write that a person does not have to do sajdah tilawah when listening to a audio recording since the reciter is not doing sajdah at that time. Allah knows best.

 

The Second Question:

If we are in prayer and Sajdah verse comes at the end of the surah or the verse we are reading, then it is better and Mustahabb (recommended) to do one sajdah immediately. The person can then get up and continue recitation. Alternatively, the person does not have to do sajdah tilawah at all and can instead continue reading without sajdah, based on view of this being Mustahabb and not wajib, and thus miss chance of more reward from Allah, or alternatively end the rakah and do ruku there and sujud, which again is not sajdah of tilawah but permissible to not do sajdah tilawah.

Basically it is always better to do sajdah tilawah as it is recommended but not doing it sometimes is perfectly fine as it is said that tje Prophet (s a.w) did not do sajdah once when a sahabi was reading and he didnt do sajdah either, according to what sh ibn baz (r.a) said.

 

ps: For further reading:

There are some very good beneficial links to read more on this topic and I will post some of those links below for those who inshallah want to read more.

  1. i) What is the ruling on sajdah tilawah? https://islamqa.info/en/4924