What is the ruling on one who frequently forgets in prayer despite his best efforts, even if it involves one of the pillars of prayer?
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Question:
During prayer, I forget a lot, even though I try very hard to be humble in prayer. It is well known that prayer has pillars, conditions, obligations, and recommended practices. It is also well known that if one forgets one of the pillars of prayer, he must repeat the prayer and does not perform the prostration for forgetfulness. So what is the ruling on one who frequently forgets in prayer despite his best efforts, even if it involves one of the pillars of prayer? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
If the forgetfulness reaches the level of obsessive thoughts (waswas), a person may have such thoughts, seeing that he has forgotten and left something out, when in fact he has left nothing out; rather, Satan is confusing him. If the matter reaches the level of obsessive thoughts, then the person rejects it and completes his prayer, and praise be to Allah, and he seeks refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan.
As for if the forgetfulness is real and results in leaving out one of the pillars of prayer, the matter is not as the questioner said, that his prayer is invalidated. Rather, the ruling is that the rak'ah in which he left it out is invalidated, and the one following it takes its place, so he completes his prayer on this basis and performs the prostration for forgetfulness. And if he leaves out an obligation due to forgetfulness, his prayer is valid, and nothing of its rak'ahs is invalidated, but he must perform the prostration for forgetfulness. Just as if he leaves out the first tashahhud and stands up for the third rak'ah without performing the tashahhud; he makes it up with the prostration for forgetfulness, and his prayer is valid, and praise be to Allah. Yes.
During prayer, I forget a lot, even though I try very hard to be humble in prayer. It is well known that prayer has pillars, conditions, obligations, and recommended practices. It is also well known that if one forgets one of the pillars of prayer, he must repeat the prayer and does not perform the prostration for forgetfulness. So what is the ruling on one who frequently forgets in prayer despite his best efforts, even if it involves one of the pillars of prayer? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
If the forgetfulness reaches the level of obsessive thoughts (waswas), a person may have such thoughts, seeing that he has forgotten and left something out, when in fact he has left nothing out; rather, Satan is confusing him. If the matter reaches the level of obsessive thoughts, then the person rejects it and completes his prayer, and praise be to Allah, and he seeks refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan.
As for if the forgetfulness is real and results in leaving out one of the pillars of prayer, the matter is not as the questioner said, that his prayer is invalidated. Rather, the ruling is that the rak'ah in which he left it out is invalidated, and the one following it takes its place, so he completes his prayer on this basis and performs the prostration for forgetfulness. And if he leaves out an obligation due to forgetfulness, his prayer is valid, and nothing of its rak'ahs is invalidated, but he must perform the prostration for forgetfulness. Just as if he leaves out the first tashahhud and stands up for the third rak'ah without performing the tashahhud; he makes it up with the prostration for forgetfulness, and his prayer is valid, and praise be to Allah. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم من كثر عليه السهو في الصلاة رغما عنه حتى لو كان ركنا من أركان الصلاة؟ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.