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How do you pray lying down?

How do you pray lying down?
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November 11, 2024
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For someone who is ill and finds it too difficult to stand during prayer, it is allowed for them to sit. If sitting is also challenging, they may pray while lying down.

Prayer of the Sick Person

Al-Quduri (973–1037 CE), the prominent Hanafi jurist and scholar, laid out the following rules in his best known work “Mukhtasar al-Quduri” (“Quduri’s Concise Manual”), which is a foundational text in Hanafi jurisprudence:

1. When it is impossible for a sick person to stand, he prays sitting, performing ruku` and sujud. if he is unable to perform ruku` and sujud, he makes gestures with his head, and makes the sujud lower than the ruku`. He should not raise anything to his face to perform sujud on it.

2. If he is unable to sit, he lies down on his back, puts his legs towards the qiblah, and gestures for ruku` and sujud. If he lay down on his side, with his face toward the qiblah, and gestured, it is valid.

3. If he is unable to gesture with his head, he delays the salah; he does not [have to] indicate with his eyes, nor with his heart, nor with his eyelids.

4. If he is capable of standing, but is not capable of ruku` and sujud, he is not required to stand [for the gesturing of ruku`]. It is permissible for him to pray [standing only for recitation, and then] sitting [while] making gestures.

5. If a healthy person prayed part of his salah standing, and then some illness ensued [rendering him incapable of standing], he completes it sitting, performing ruku` and sujud, or gesturing if he is not able to [perform] ruku` and sujud, or lying down if he is not able to sit.

6. Someone who, on account of illness, prayed sitting, performing ruku` and sujud, and then became healthy, continues his salah standing. But, if he prayed part of his salah with gestures, and then became capable of ruku` and sujud, he re-starts the salah.

7. Someone who loses consciousness for five prayers or less makes them up when he recovers, but if he misses more than that due to unconsciousness, he does not make [them] up.

Al-Quduri’s Mukhtasar is a concise yet comprehensive book on the principles and applications of Hanafi fiqh (jurisprudence), covering a wide range of topics such as worship (ibadat), transactions (mu’amalat), marriage, and inheritance. It is used as an guide to Hanafi law.

Tayammum

If illness limits movement or requires assistance, dry ablution (tayammum) is permitted as a substitute for wudu.

The importance of salah

Prayer remains essential even in times of difficulty. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) emphasised the importance of praying even when full prostration wasn’t possible.

The salah does not need to be repeated when you are able to move again.

Shaykh Haytham Tamim 11th Nov 2024

How to do tayammum

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Shaykh Haytham Tamim is the founder and main teacher of the Utrujj Foundation. He has provided a leading vision for Islamic learning in the UK, which has influenced the way Islamic knowledge is disseminated. He has orchestrated the design and delivery of over 200 unique courses since Utrujj started in 2001. His extensive expertise spans over 30 years across the main Islamic jurisprudence schools of thought. He has studied with some of the foremost scholars in their expertise; he holds some of the highest Ijazahs (certificates) in Quran, Hadith (the Prophetic traditions) and Fiqh (Islamic rulings). His own gift for teaching was evident when he gave his first sermon to a large audience at the age of 17 and went on to serve as a senior lecturer of Islamic transactions and comparative jurisprudence at the Islamic University of Beirut (Shariah College). He has continued to teach; travelling around the UK, Europe and wider afield, and won the 2015 BISCA award (British Imams & Scholars Contributions & Achievements Awards) for Outstanding Contribution to Education and Teaching.

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