The ruling on building on the predominant opinion when in doubt about the number of rak'ahs
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The brother questioner says in this message: I frequently experience doubt in prayer regarding the number of rak'ahs, whether it is the third or the fourth in a four-rak'ah prayer. So I build on what is more likely in my mind. Is my action correct?
Answer:
Yes, if you build on your predominant opinion, then there is no harm in that, but you must prostrate for forgetfulness, prostrate for forgetfulness. As for if nothing is predominant in your mind and you remain hesitant, then you build on certainty, because you act on the lesser number, and you leave what you doubted and perform its replacement. So if you doubt whether you prayed four or three, you make it three, and you perform the fourth, and you prostrate for forgetfulness. Yes.
The brother questioner says in this message: I frequently experience doubt in prayer regarding the number of rak'ahs, whether it is the third or the fourth in a four-rak'ah prayer. So I build on what is more likely in my mind. Is my action correct?
Answer:
Yes, if you build on your predominant opinion, then there is no harm in that, but you must prostrate for forgetfulness, prostrate for forgetfulness. As for if nothing is predominant in your mind and you remain hesitant, then you build on certainty, because you act on the lesser number, and you leave what you doubted and perform its replacement. So if you doubt whether you prayed four or three, you make it three, and you perform the fourth, and you prostrate for forgetfulness. Yes.
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/271 — archive.org (9:27)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.