Can I Nurse My Child While Praying?
Shafi'i Fiqh
Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad
Question
As a mother of young children, I often face challenges in prayer. If my child with a soiled diaper touches me, does it invalidate my prayer? How can I manage distractions from concern for their safety?
Is it permissible to watch them through a monitoring app while praying? If I am leading prayer and must exit to tend to them, can the congregation continue? Can I hold my child during salah, and is nursing while praying allowed?
Answer
Thank you for your question. Praying with a baby around is never easy, so do the best you can, none of this is lost on Allah Most High.
Distractions
Do your best to pray when the child is sleeping or engrossed with some interesting toy. Consider putting him/her in the crib with a soft toy while you pray next to the crib so you won’t be touched, grabbed, or jumped on, and the child will be safe. You should not be using a monitoring app while you pray, as your focus should be on your Lord. Also, you may not intend that you will break the prayer for any reason, as the mere intention would nullify the prayer.
Salah is a means to nurture a close, personal relationship with Allah, seek His guidance, align one’s life with His will, and worship Him as though you see Him. Through the prayer, we find peace, purpose, and balance. Find a few minutes in each prayer time to put your Lord above your child.
See those details here: Does the Intention to Break the Prayer Break the Prayer? [Shafi’i]
Leaving the Prayer
If you leave the congregation, and you are the imam, the congregation can and should continue, but I urge you not to break your prayer for this reason. (See above) If you suspect this might happen, don’t lead.
It says in the Reliance of the Traveller:
“f12.24 Whenever the imam ceases his prayer because of his ablution (wudu) being nullified or another reason, he may choose a successor to finish leading the prayer, provided the successor is eligible (def: f12.27) to lead the group. If the group performs a whole integral (f12.15(N:)) after the imam has stopped leading, then he may no longer choose a successor.
Any follower may be picked as the successor (O: even if he came late to the group prayer). If a latecomer, he leads the group beginning at the same point in the prayer where the imam left off. When he finishes leading them in their prayer, he stands (O: to finish his own), and indicates to them to cease following his leadership, or better yet, indicates for them to remain waiting for him Testification of Faith (Tashahhud)) until he comes to it after finishing his own rak‘as. If he does not know which rak‘a the imam was in, then he should observe (O: by looking left or right to see if the followers are sitting or) whether they are ready to rise. If they are, he rises, and if not, then he sits in a Testification of Faith.
It is permissible for the successor to be someone who has not been praying with the group, provided he is picked in the first or third rak‘a (if the prayer has four rak‘as), though he may not be picked in the second or fourth rak‘a (A: because the order of the person’s prayer will not correspond to theirs, for such a person is not committed to the imam’s order).
The followers need not intend to follow the successor. They may each simply break off and finish alone. If the imam chooses someone but they put forward someone else, their choice takes precedence.”
Resources
Please see more details here: Does Breaking Off from Prayer Entail Shirk?
As for nursing while prayer, it should be avoided. See details here:
- Can I Pray While Sitting and Nursing so as to Not Miss the Prayer Time?
- Joining Prayers While Nursing
Please see here details on holding your child during prayer:
- Praying While Holding a Soiled Baby in the Shafi’i School
- Does Carrying a Soiled Baby Invalidate the Prayer (Hanafi)?
- Is My Prayer Valid If a Child with a Soiled Diaper Touches Me During It?
- Is It Permissible to Hold One’s Baby in Salah?
May Allah give you the best of this world and the next.
[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria, for two years, where she studied ‘aqida, fiqh, tajweed, tafsir, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Masters in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan, where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She later moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.
