Can I Perform Voluntary Prayers Sitting While Only Using Head Movements?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question 

Can I perform voluntary prayers in a sitting position while only using head movements? I did this in the past, so am I required to make up these prayers?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

It is permissible to perform voluntary prayers in a sitting position (Qa’idan). However, one’s prostration must be on the ground – head movements do not suffice unless one is unable to prostrate due to sickness. [Tahtawi/Shurunbulali, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah]

Performing the prayer sitting with head movements is only allowed for the traveler performing voluntary prayers in a conveyance or vehicle. [Ibid.]

Making Up Invalidated Voluntary Prayers

Any voluntary prayer that a person commences is obligatory to see to its sound completion. Thus, if one starts a voluntary prayer and invalidates the prayer, it becomes obligatory to make up the prayer. [Ibid.]

That said, the basis is that you would have to make up any voluntary prayers in which you used head gestures in place of the prostration. That is unless a person did this due to sickness and inability to prostrate or when traveling. [Ibid.]

Undue Hardship

As a result of this ruling, you may find yourself in great difficulty and undue hardship because of the tremendous amount of voluntary prayers you must make up. In that case, you may consider the opinion of Imam al-Shaf’i that invalid voluntary prayers do not require making up. [Ahmad al-Asbhani, Matn Ghaya wa al-Taqrib (Abu Shuja’)]

If the amount of prayers is not a lot, it is best to estimate the number of prayers and then proceed to make them up, which is ideal. [Ibid.]

That said, regardless of which of the two above options you choose to implement, you should carry on, from here on out, performing voluntary prayers with a complete prostration on the ground. [Ibid.]

Hope this helps

Allah knows best

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch

 

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

 

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.