Guidance for one who has doubts or uncertainties in prayer

Question : Honorable Shaykh Muhammad, may Allah preserve you, this woman is with us on the line. She says that during prayer, if she prolongs her prostration, she does not know whether she prostrated the first or the second prostration, and then she prostrates for forgetfulness. Perhaps you have some guidance on this?

Answer : Yes, our guidance in this is that a person should leave these doubts and uncertainties. The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) mentioned that if a person’s doubts become frequent, he should not pay attention to them or worry about them, but rather dismiss them. This is because frequent doubts compel a person to have no worship except while doubting about it. And this is a trap for the servant. Rather, one should discard the doubt and not worry about it. And let her proceed with the first thing that comes to her mind and leave the doubts.