Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) led one of the two noon prayers, and after praying two rak‘ahs, he ended the prayer with salam. Then he stood by a piece of wood kept in the mosque and leaned on it with his hand. Yazid bin Harun said: Ibn ‘Aun showed us by placing one hand on the back of the other and interlacing the fingers of the upper hand with those of the lower hand. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stood, it seemed as if he was angry. Those who were quick to leave, left, and they began to say,“The prayer has been shortened, the prayer has been shortened.”Among those present were Abu Bakr and ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), but they did not have the courage to speak. Among the people was a man who was called Dhu’l-Yadayn (the one with long arms). He said,“O Messenger of Allah! Did you forget, or has the prayer been shortened?”He replied,“I did not forget, nor has the prayer been shortened.”Then he asked those present,“Has this happened?”(i.e., was there any deficiency in the prayer?) They replied,“Yes.”So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) returned and completed the prayer, then ended it with salam. Then he said“Allahu Akbar”and performed a long prostration, then raised his head, then said takbir again and performed a second prostration like the first, then raised his blessed head from prostration and turned around.

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) performed either the Zuhr or Asr prayer, and in one of these prayers he ended the prayer after two rak‘ahs. So Dhu’l-Yadayn bin ‘Abd bin ‘Amr bin Nadhla Khuzā‘ī, who was an ally of Banu Zuhrah, said: O Messenger of Allah! Has the prayer been shortened or did you forget? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“I did not forget, nor has the prayer been shortened.”Dhu’l-Yadayn said: There must be something, O Messenger of Allah. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) turned to the people and said:“Is Dhu’l-Yadayn speaking the truth?”They replied: Yes. Therefore, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stood up and completed the prayer, and no narrator has told me that while sitting in that state, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) performed two prostrations in that prayer (this, in their opinion, and Allah knows best) because the people convinced him and he became certain that there had been a deficiency in the prayer (and only two rak‘ahs had been performed).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) once performed five rak'ahs in the Zuhr prayer. When he was informed about it, he (peace and blessings be upon him) performed two (prostrations of) forgetfulness (sujood as-sahw).