The Ruling on Turning the Head in Prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, a questioner says: If a person turns his head while forgetting, and does not say the taslim in the first tashahhud, is he required to perform sujud al-sahw?
Answer:
Turning the head, if done intentionally, is disliked (makruh) and does not invalidate the prayer. If done out of forgetfulness, he owes nothing. If he performs sujud al-sahw as a means of compensating for the prayer and completing it, that is better. Otherwise, it does not invalidate the prayer. What invalidates the prayer is turning the body, deviating from the qiblah with the body; that invalidates the prayer. As for turning the head, that is disliked. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: May Allah reward you.
Regarding turning like the turning of a fox. And if it is for a need, there is nothing wrong with it. If there is a need that requires him to turn, there is nothing wrong with that. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to pray and turn toward the valley, fearing that someone from the enemy might attack them. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Honorable Shaykh, a questioner says: If a person turns his head while forgetting, and does not say the taslim in the first tashahhud, is he required to perform sujud al-sahw?
Answer:
Turning the head, if done intentionally, is disliked (makruh) and does not invalidate the prayer. If done out of forgetfulness, he owes nothing. If he performs sujud al-sahw as a means of compensating for the prayer and completing it, that is better. Otherwise, it does not invalidate the prayer. What invalidates the prayer is turning the body, deviating from the qiblah with the body; that invalidates the prayer. As for turning the head, that is disliked. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
(peace and blessings be upon him) [The hadith text is garbled in the source: "khtalasihi al-shaytan min salah al-'abd"]
صلى الله عليه وسلم اختلاسه الشيطان من صلاة العبد.Regarding turning like the turning of a fox. And if it is for a need, there is nothing wrong with it. If there is a need that requires him to turn, there is nothing wrong with that. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to pray and turn toward the valley, fearing that someone from the enemy might attack them. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
75-اللقاء الأسبوعي مع الشيخ صالح الفوزان - 30 — archive.org (1:06:15)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.