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Having Doubt During Prayer: What Should I Do?

06 December, 2017
Q Sometimes in the prayer I forget if I had recited Surat Al-Fatihah or not. Therefore, I recite it a second time. Is this action proper? Should I then perform the prostration of forgetfulness?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. 

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.


In this fatwa:

1- Many people get numerous devilish whisperings during the prayer.

2- The cure for that is to make sure that one really gets attuned to the prayer and the heart is fully conscious during it.

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3- If that happens a lot and one usually recites Al-Fatihah, then it is disliked to recite it again.


Answering your question, Sheikh `Abdullah ibn Jibreen, the late prominent Saudi Muslim scholar, stated:

Many people get numerous devilish whispering during the prayer. This causes them to doubt if they had recited [Al-Fatihah] or made the tashahhud [and so forth].

The cure for that is to make sure that one really gets attuned to the prayer and the heart is fully conscious during it, fearing mistakes or devilish prompting.

If that happens a lot and one usually recites Al-Fatihah, then it is disliked to recite it again.

However, if one does repeat Al-Fatihah just to make sure and be on the safe side, then he does not have to make the prostration of forgetfulness.

Almighty Allah knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.