The ruling on the prayer of one who does not memorize al-Fatihah or whatever is easy of the Qur'an
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you. After that, there are some of the common people who do not memorize Surat al-Fatihah, or whatever is easy of the Qur'an, or the tashahhud. You hear them utter words that approximate what is reported in these surahs or the tashahhud. And when you ask them about the poems, they recite to you whatever you request. So what is the validity of the prayer of these people and its ruling, and what is obligatory toward them, given the difficulty of dealing with them and their general refusal to accept correction? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
First, these people must learn what makes their prayer valid and what makes their acts of worship valid. Among the things that make the prayer valid is learning Surat al-Fatihah. It is obligatory to learn it when one is able and has the capacity. However, if one is unable, he should try repeatedly and persist in memorizing it. If he still cannot do so, Allah has not placed any hardship upon you in the religion. He should recite tasbih, tahlil, and takbir in place of it. If he has memorized other parts of the Qur'an of equivalent length, that is better. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you. After that, there are some of the common people who do not memorize Surat al-Fatihah, or whatever is easy of the Qur'an, or the tashahhud. You hear them utter words that approximate what is reported in these surahs or the tashahhud. And when you ask them about the poems, they recite to you whatever you request. So what is the validity of the prayer of these people and its ruling, and what is obligatory toward them, given the difficulty of dealing with them and their general refusal to accept correction? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
First, these people must learn what makes their prayer valid and what makes their acts of worship valid. Among the things that make the prayer valid is learning Surat al-Fatihah. It is obligatory to learn it when one is able and has the capacity. However, if one is unable, he should try repeatedly and persist in memorizing it. If he still cannot do so, Allah has not placed any hardship upon you in the religion. He should recite tasbih, tahlil, and takbir in place of it. If he has memorized other parts of the Qur'an of equivalent length, that is better. Yes.
Source
شرح الدروس المهمة لعامة الأمة لابن باز [ مجموعة من المشايخ ]، فتاوى الشيخ عبد الكريم الخضير — islamhouse.com (9:00)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.