forgetfulness in namaz

[Muhammad Sadiq]

asalamo alaykum,

What is the situation if when one is praying salat and they forget a wajib act of their salat like sajda, or finish earlier, i mean only pray three sunnats instead of four accidentally, but only realise much, much later.

And ALSO what if during the namaz you cant recall how many rakats you have prayed ?

What harm has been done and how do we rectify our salat, even if we have to pray it later ?

[Imam]

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Wa'alaykum 'Assalam


To forget a wàjib act in Salàt, then one must perform Sajdah-e-Sahw, which means a sajdah for forgetfulness, negligence, inattentiveness, inadvertence and carelessness etc.

This is done after the first Salàm, by going into sajdah position twice and then remaining in the seated position, followed by the two salàms as normal.



Where a person has prayed three rak’ahs instead of four, then depending on when he realizes his mistake he must rectify it.

If he realized in the same Salàh, then before salàm, he must perform the extra rak’ah followed by Sajdah-e-Sahw. If he realised much later, (i.e. after Salàm), then his Salah which was in mistake is void, and must perform the full four rak’ahs, as three rak’ahs do not suffice for four, nor do two rak’ahs suffice for three, and so forth.



Where a person cannot recall how many rak’ahs he has prayed, then this will depend on how forgetful he is i.e. If he forgot two rak’ahs out of four then, then two more are incumbent upon him, and if he forgot three out of four then three, as decribed in the pattern in the paragraph above.

If his forgetfulness was such, that he could not recall totally how many rak’ahs he prayed, then it is best to end the Salàt in the even number of rak’ahs, normally, and start afresh for salàt.

The greatest type of forgetfulness is total negligence, the punishment to which Allàh give us refuge. From its punishment in this world, and in the next. May Allàh keep us firm on five times Salàh, with jamà’ah, where possible and not make us negligent. (àmïn).


And Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) knows best.

M.Waseem Ashrafï.