The Elderly Woman Who Forgets the Prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
An elderly woman says: Sometimes an elderly woman misses a prayer. We order her to pray, but she forgets. Is there anything required of her in that regard?
The Shaykh:
If her mind is with her, the prayer is obligatory upon her. If it is difficult for her to perform every prayer at its time because of her old age and weakness, she may combine them. However, if that is not the case, and forgetfulness and the loss of reason have overcome her, then nothing is required of her. She becomes like the insane if the inability to control her reason, the inability to control the prayer, and the loss of the choice of reason have overcome her; nothing is required of her. But if her mind is with her, she learns and remembers.
The questioner:
If she is sound.
The Shaykh:
Then nothing is required of her. Nothing is required of her if her reason has gone. Nothing is required of her.
The questioner:
And it returns.
The Shaykh:
If it returns, she prays at the time of its return. If her reason has gone, there is no making up of missed prayers, just as there is no making up for the insane person, for it is difficult for you to make up for him.
An elderly woman says: Sometimes an elderly woman misses a prayer. We order her to pray, but she forgets. Is there anything required of her in that regard?
The Shaykh:
If her mind is with her, the prayer is obligatory upon her. If it is difficult for her to perform every prayer at its time because of her old age and weakness, she may combine them. However, if that is not the case, and forgetfulness and the loss of reason have overcome her, then nothing is required of her. She becomes like the insane if the inability to control her reason, the inability to control the prayer, and the loss of the choice of reason have overcome her; nothing is required of her. But if her mind is with her, she learns and remembers.
The questioner:
If she is sound.
The Shaykh:
Then nothing is required of her. Nothing is required of her if her reason has gone. Nothing is required of her.
The questioner:
And it returns.
The Shaykh:
If it returns, she prays at the time of its return. If her reason has gone, there is no making up of missed prayers, just as there is no making up for the insane person, for it is difficult for you to make up for him.
Source
لقاءات لابن باز - لقاء مع إخوة في الله - ابن باز - ٢ — archive.org (16:21)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.