If one prays while preoccupied, is his prayer accepted and does it suffice?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, many people today pray while their minds are elsewhere, and perhaps they do not know what their imam is reciting. Is this prayer accepted, or must he repeat it?
Answer:
This prayer is valid in appearance; he is not ordered to repeat it. However, he has no reward in it except for the portion in which his heart was present. His heart may be present for the entire prayer, in which case he receives the full reward. His heart may be present for part of it, in which case he receives a portion of the reward. His heart may not be present for the entire prayer, in which case he has no reward; he leaves his prayer without reward. But he is not ordered to repeat it because he prayed. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, many people today pray while their minds are elsewhere, and perhaps they do not know what their imam is reciting. Is this prayer accepted, or must he repeat it?
Answer:
This prayer is valid in appearance; he is not ordered to repeat it. However, he has no reward in it except for the portion in which his heart was present. His heart may be present for the entire prayer, in which case he receives the full reward. His heart may be present for part of it, in which case he receives a portion of the reward. His heart may not be present for the entire prayer, in which case he has no reward; he leaves his prayer without reward. But he is not ordered to repeat it because he prayed. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [4 -582] من صلى وهو مشغول البال، هل تقبل صلاته وهل تكون مجزئة؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.