The prayer of a new Muslim who has not memorized al-Fatihah
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A man recently converted to Islam and wants to pray, but he has not memorized al-Fatihah. How should he pray?
Answer:
He should pray even if he does not know al-Fatihah well. If you have a Qur'an with you, read from it. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Jami` at-Tirmidhi 302 A prayer is not valid without it. He must pray even if he does not know al-Fatihah well, but it is obligatory for him to learn it for the future. If he is able to learn it before the time for prayer expires, he does not pray until he learns it. However, if the time has passed and he has not learned it, he prays even if he has not finished the benefit.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A man recently converted to Islam and wants to pray, but he has not memorized al-Fatihah. How should he pray?
Answer:
He should pray even if he does not know al-Fatihah well. If you have a Qur'an with you, read from it. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
If you know any Quran then recite it, if not then praise Allah, mention His greatness, and the Tahlil. Then
إن كان معك قرآن فاقرأ وإلا فاحمد الله وأهله وكبره ثم
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 141/28 شرح زاد المستقنع/ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (1:27:06)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.