Q:

Salam. I am a non arab. I am also a victim of OCD. Sometime ago i found that mistakes in fatiha that change meaning invalidate salah. After knowing this my salah has become burdensome for me to the extent that the thoughts telling me to leave salah are becoming frequent. I spend about 10 to 12 minutes just praying 4 rakat. And in that i repeat certain words in fatiha more than once and in that way i extend salah and this is because i am a non arab so there are certain words i cannot pronounce correctly, so i have to repeat them. I have couple of questions that i want to ask.

1. In fatiha i cannot pronouce ayn correctly but not to such extent that listener could mistake it for another letter. Means that if you listen to me reciting ayn in rabbill ââlamin you could tell that i was pronouncing ayn but you will also get to know that i recited it incorrectly. So is this much defective pronounciation permissible. 

2. In fatiha if i make a mistake(lets say in 1rst rakat) but donot notice it. But then after prayers i remember it or in 3rd or 4th rakat, what should be done?

3. There are few points that i read in another islamic website. And in it i found few points that confused me. You just have to tell me that whether they are valid or not?

A. Pronouncing the letter ﻕ like ﻙ or the letter ﻙ like ﻕ does not nullify salat. Nor does pronouncing the letter ﺱ like ﺹ or ﺹ like ﺱ. The articulation places of ﺱ and ﺹ are the same. Pronouncing ﺱ in place of ﺹ or ﺹ in place of ﺱ, which is a commonly committed mistake, does not nullify salat. For example, if one, when reciting “idhaa jaa-a nasrullahi,” substitutes ﺱ for ﺹ or if one, when reciting “Allahus-samad”, substitutes ﺱ for ﺹ, it will not nullify one’s salat.

B. Reciting “iyaka na’budu” in place of iyyaaka na’budu does not render salat invalid, even though the misrecitation alters the meaning. (Halabi)

C.Making an error in the recitation of something sunnat may invalidate salat, too. For example, in the Arabic alphabet there are three distinct z’s with different pronunciations. The first one is ﻆ. The second one is ﺯ, and the third one is ﺫ. Each of these is pronounced differently. The word azeem that appears in the phrase recited during ruku’ is pronounced with the letter ﻆ, which means “My Rabb is great.” But if it is pronounced with ﺯ, then it means “My Rabb is my enemy,” which causes salat to become invalid. (Radd-ul-mukhtar)

4. If in fatiha i, in attempt to pronounce a word correctly, pronounce it wrongly is it obligatory to repeat thay word since i know what correct pronounciation is, but i havent recited it wrong intentionally. And what would we the ruling on the above condition if i was reciting the words normally as everyone else does( not i attempt to pronounce it correctly). 

5. If in salah i say arrrahman nirrrahim instead of what i am supposed to say. Would it invalidate it?

Please answer these questions since i am in great distress.

A:

Wa `alaykum As-Salamu waRahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

I would advise you to learn the basics of tajweed or recitation of the Qur’an from a Quran teacher; there is no shortage of them; you can even find one on the internet.

The other alternative is to listen to the Muallim recitation of a qari like Minshawi; here is a link to his recitations: 

You should start with Fathihah, and then the last three surahs, to begin with.

By listening to his recitation and following along with the children reading after him, you can learn the proper reading. Once you do that, you won’t be frustrated.

As for the other Dua’s of the salah also, you can find the links to learn to them if you search the internet; here is one, and you can find others as well, if you try: 

How to start praying salah | Learning dua for Salah | Part 1.

Once you have done your best to practice them, you are excused of the mistakes you make.

If you sit and dwell on the problems instead of focusing on solutions, your problems will only worsen, and you will never come out of a state of depression.

So, summon the courage to take the steps necessary to learn to read the Quran and pray correctly by visiting a teacher in the closest mosque; if that is not possible, then using the internet and online methods.

In this day and age, there is no excuse for us to pretend ignorance of Islam’s basics.

I pray to Allah to bless your efforts to seek knowledge and forgive you of the past mistakes. Allah is All-Forgiving and All-Merciful.

Almighty Allah knows best.