My grandmother is advanced in age, and standing in prayer may tire her, so she prays the voluntary prayers sitting on a chair, while she prays the obligatory prayers standing.

The questioner : The questioner, Abdul Aziz, says in this question: My grandmother is advanced in age, and standing in prayer may tire her, so she prays the voluntary prayers sitting on a chair, while she prays the obligatory prayers standing, performing her bowing and prostration fully. The question is: Does she sin by sitting on the chair? And if she does not sin, is it better to pray on the floor or on the chair, given that the chair is more comfortable for her?

The Shaykh : Yes. As for the obligatory prayer, the matter is clear because she performs it as it should be. As for the voluntary prayer, if she wants to pray sitting, let her sit on the floor and sit in the tawbah position during the standing before bowing, during the bowing, and during the rising after bowing, then prostrate on the floor and sit in the ifrash position between the two prostrations as usual. When she prostrates the second prostration, she sits in the tawbah position, because the tawbah position is in the place of standing. This is undoubtedly better than the chair, because with the chair she cannot prostrate on the floor, and thus she misses the prostration. And if prostration is possible, it is not permissible to indicate with the head instead of it. So we say that if this grandmother wants to perform voluntary prayer, let her do it on the floor and act as we said: sit in the tawbah position in the place of standing before bowing, during bowing, and during the rising after bowing; sit in the ifrash position in the sitting between the two prostrations and in the two tashahhuds; and prostrate on the floor. Yes.

The questioner : May Allah reward you, Shaykh Muhammad.