What If I Break My Prayer Simply Due to a Recitation Mistake?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch
Question
I’ve been suffering from waswasa recently, and I’ve been starting Salah, reciting something wrongly, breaking the Salah from where I’m standing, and immediately starting again.
What is the punishment for doing this, and how may I make amends? Are all salahs prayed in this manner valid? Do I need to repeat any prayers?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
You are not in sin for breaking your prayer to achieve its valid performance. However, one should refrain from breaking their prayer due to misgivings such as this.
Mistakes in Recitation
Although there was much discussion over this point amongst the scholars, the later scholars have determined that no accidental mistakes in recitation invalidate the prayer, even if the meanings were changed due to the mistake. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]
This ruling is a dispensation born from the widespread inability to recite the Quran proficiently. [Ibid.]
Broken Prayers
If one breaks their obligatory prayer and then repeats it to its valid conclusion, the prayer is valid, and there is nothing else upon them. [Ibid.]
Misgivings (Waswasa)
Please have a look at this link for a reader on misgivings.
Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he 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 studied for three years in Dar al-Mustafa under some of the most outstanding 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 Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.
