The ruling on an elderly woman who makes mistakes in prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Please, my brother Faisal from the Noble Makkah. Faisal. Peace be upon you. And upon you be peace. May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh. Please. I have a question. My mother, meaning an elderly woman, is truly a bit confused in her prayer. She is confused in al-Fatihah, in the bowing, and in the prostration; she gets a bit mixed up. Also, I tried with her using six methods, whether teaching or bringing her things like this, counting the prayer, like the 'Asr prayer is four and the Fajr prayer is two, and she gets mixed up. I took her to the mosque and I would come and have her pray with me, and she would pray with me, and we did this for a few days, and I saw her getting annoyed, as if... So I was afraid that I might now fall into undutifulness to parents, and I do not know, O Shaykh, in this situation.
Answer:
Yes, it is obligatory for you to command her to pray. And if she has, meaning, a lack of understanding or weakness in her intellect, or if she is overcome by confusion, she prays according to her condition. Allah the Exalted said:[At-Taghabun 64:16] Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Please, my brother Faisal from the Noble Makkah. Faisal. Peace be upon you. And upon you be peace. May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh. Please. I have a question. My mother, meaning an elderly woman, is truly a bit confused in her prayer. She is confused in al-Fatihah, in the bowing, and in the prostration; she gets a bit mixed up. Also, I tried with her using six methods, whether teaching or bringing her things like this, counting the prayer, like the 'Asr prayer is four and the Fajr prayer is two, and she gets mixed up. I took her to the mosque and I would come and have her pray with me, and she would pray with me, and we did this for a few days, and I saw her getting annoyed, as if... So I was afraid that I might now fall into undutifulness to parents, and I do not know, O Shaykh, in this situation.
Answer:
Yes, it is obligatory for you to command her to pray. And if she has, meaning, a lack of understanding or weakness in her intellect, or if she is overcome by confusion, she prays according to her condition. Allah the Exalted said:
So fear Allah as much as you are able
فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْThe presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
قناة «مكة و المدينة»، 01 فتاوى على الهواء - 12 01 1433هـ _ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (45:47)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.