Sujud (prostration) is one of the main pillars of daily prayer (
salah) in
Islam. A single act of sujud is called a sajdah (plural
sajdāt). Muslims perform sujud several times during each prayer, depending on the number of ''
raka'at'' of prayer: two sajadat are performed every raka'ah, and prayers vary in obligatory length between two and four raka'at (additional supererogatory raka'at are often performed as
sunnah muakkadah, or emulation of the example of Muhammad as represented in the
sahih hadith). A raka'ah is a unit of set actions that have to be performed in a prayer. The shortest
fard (obligatory) Muslim prayer is that of
fajr, performed immediately before sunrise (two raka'ahs) and the shortest ever possible number of raka'ahs is in the
witr prayer, which is considered Sunnah in the Maaliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali
Madhabs (schools of Fiqh) and Wajib (compulsory) in the Hanafi madhab, with one needing an odd number of Rakats to complete the prayer, with one being valid in all madhabs but the Hanafi Madhab. The raka'ah can be described as follows: • Standing and saying
Allahu akbar, reciting surah
al-Fatiha, and reciting a passage of the
Quran such as
sura al-Ikhlas. • Performing
ruku' (bowing down) without bending the knees and with hands resting on the knees, while reciting additional phrases to glorify Allah. • Standing up from bowing, and reciting further. • Going in prostration (sajdah) once, while reciting additional specific phrases to glorify Allah. • Lifting the face up from prostration but
kneeling or sitting on the ground. • Performing a second prostration (sajdah). • Rising for the second, third, or fourth raka'ah. In the last raka'ah, one remains sitting and recites the
tashahhud, and then performs the
taslim by turning the head to the right and saying,
as-salamu alaikum wa rahmatu Allah wa barakatuh ("may the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you"), and then turning the head to the left and repeating the blessing to conclude the prayer. Points 1–7 define one raka'ah. Thus, the shortest prayer, that of fajr, contains four sajadat. For
Hanafis,
witr prayer is three raka'ahs, which is for them considered
wajib, a level of necessity below that of fard but above all else: in practice, this makes witr obligatory. While in sujud, the use of a
turbah (a small piece of soil or clay, often a clay tablet), on which a person places their forehead, is compulsory in most Shi'a schools of Islam. == Other types of sujud ==