The Prayer of an Elderly Woman Unable to Perform Ablution
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, there is an elderly woman in India who cannot perform wudu (ablution). When I tell her to perform tayammum (dry ablution), she does not complete the prayer; sometimes she cuts it short and does not make the closing salam, and sometimes she does not complete the recitation of the chapter on the right, so the prayer becomes invalid for her.
Answer:
As long as she has some mental capacity, meaning she is instructed to pray, she should pray according to her ability. Allah does not burden a soul beyond what it can bear; she should pray according to her condition. However, if her mental capacity is completely lost and she has no understanding, then no prayer is required of her.
Honorable Shaykh, there is an elderly woman in India who cannot perform wudu (ablution). When I tell her to perform tayammum (dry ablution), she does not complete the prayer; sometimes she cuts it short and does not make the closing salam, and sometimes she does not complete the recitation of the chapter on the right, so the prayer becomes invalid for her.
Answer:
As long as she has some mental capacity, meaning she is instructed to pray, she should pray according to her ability. Allah does not burden a soul beyond what it can bear; she should pray according to her condition. However, if her mental capacity is completely lost and she has no understanding, then no prayer is required of her.
Source
شرح العقيدة الطحاوية [1] — alfawzan.live (1:09:10)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.