Mark Of Prostration

The wound of prostration on the forehead … أثر السجود

Al-Khatib al-Shirbini, ash-Shafi’ii quotes some scholars of the past as saying:
كنا نصلي فلا يرى بين أعيننا شيء ونرى أحدنا الآن يصلي فيرى بين عينيه ركبة البعير فلا ندري أثقلت الرؤوس أم خشنت الأرض .
“We used to pray in the past, but no wound of prostration appeared on our foreheads.
As for today, we see some people pray and we see a wound of prostration between their eyes, like the knee of a camel.
We don’t know whether people’s heads have become heavier or the earth has becomes harder.”
[“Tafsir Siraj al-Munir”, 11/129].

The pious predecessors used to prostrate softly on the ground, so that the mark of prostration would NOT appears on their foreheads.
Some people genuinely have soft skin, so for them it appears even if they don’t try.
In other people, it doesn’t even show.
The hypocrites deliberately rub their foreheads hard on the floor to make the mark appear, so that people will say: ‘he is a great worshippers.’
May Allah protect us against riyaa (show-off) and make us among the sajideen, ameen