Can I Sit In Vowed Voluntary Prayers?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question

In the Shafi‘i school, if someone vows to perform a nafl prayer, making it obligatory to fulfil, may they still perform it sitting, even though they are able to stand?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

According to the relied-upon view in the Shafi‘i School, vowing a voluntary prayer makes it obligatory, and therefore, standing therein is obligatory as well. This is because an act that becomes obligatory by vow takes the rulings of obligatory acts,  and Allah knows best.

Imam Nawawi (Allah have mercy on him) states, “If a person vows (nadhara) a prayer [without further specification], he should fulfill two units, though a weak view holds that one suffices. According to the former [and dominant] view, standing is obligatory in both units for the one capable thereof, but according to the latter, it is not.” [Nawawi, Minhaj al-Talibin]

If the person is unable to stand, then sitting is permitted, as with all obligatory prayers.

And Allah knows best.
[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan (Allah have mercy on him), where he taught.

Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Shaykh Muhammad Awama, Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Hitu, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.

He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has been the Director of the Discover Islam Centre, and for six years, he has been the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.

Shaykh Irshaad has fifteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town. He is currently building an Islamic podcast, education, and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy Prophetic living and fitness.