Reverse recitation in prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: What is the ruling on reverse recitation in prayer, whether the reversal is between surahs or between verses within the same surah?
Answer:
Reversing the verses invalidates the prayer. That is, regarding al-Fatihah: if one reverses al-Fatihah, his prayer is invalid. But if he reverses the surahs, meaning he recites this one before that one, his prayer is not invalid, because the ordering of the surahs is based on the ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) of the Companions. As for the ordering of the verses, it is based on the text of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); he is the one who ordered the verses. As for the surahs, the well-known view is that those who ordered them were the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: What is the ruling on reverse recitation in prayer, whether the reversal is between surahs or between verses within the same surah?
Answer:
Reversing the verses invalidates the prayer. That is, regarding al-Fatihah: if one reverses al-Fatihah, his prayer is invalid. But if he reverses the surahs, meaning he recites this one before that one, his prayer is not invalid, because the ordering of the surahs is based on the ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) of the Companions. As for the ordering of the verses, it is based on the text of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); he is the one who ordered the verses. As for the surahs, the well-known view is that those who ordered them were the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، بداية من أبواب الأذان — islamhouse.com (1:09:12)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.