Is prayer invalidated if a chapter or supplication is read wrongly; is it permissible to start reading again from the beginning?
Dear Brother / Sister,
The following is stated in the book al-Fawaid: "The prayer of a person who makes a big mistake in reading and then who returns and corrects it is not invalidated. The prayer of a person who makes a mistake in i’rab and then who corrects it is also valid." (see Celal Yıldırım, Kaynaklarıyla İslam Fıkhı, Uysal Kitabevi: 1/285-286.)
If the meaning is distorted when a mistake is made in the chapter that is read in a prayer, the prayer is invalidated; if the meaning is not distorted, the prayer is not invalidated.
If a person makes a mistake while reading an additional chapter and if he starts it again to correct it, sajdah as-sahw is not necessary. However, if he does not read an additional chapter or if he does not read it again though he has made a mistake, sajdah as-sahw becomes necessary.
Questions on Islam
- Do mistakes that are made while reading a chapter invalidate prayer? Does sajdah as-sahw become necessary if a person makes a mistake and starts to read the chapter again?
- Will you give information about the mistakes made in qira’ah in prayer (dhallatul-qari)?
- If a person does not perform sajdah as-sahw though it is necessary, is his prayer invalidated? Is it possible to make a mistake while performing sajdah as-sahw? If it is possible, is sajdah as-sahw performed for sajdah as-sahw?
- Does sajdah as-sahw become necessary if a person reads the additional chapters in a wrong order in a prayer?
- How is sajdah as-sahw (prostration of forgetfulness) performed according to Shafii madhhab? What are the things that necessitate sajdah as-sahw?
- Sajdah as-Sahw
- If somebody from the congregation does not follow the imam when the imam performs sajdah as-sahw, is his prayer invalidated?
- When is Sajdah as-Sahw (prostration of forgetfulness) required? Where is it be performed?
- What are the situations that necessitate sajdah as-sahw? Is it necessary to perform sajdah as-sahw in sunnah prayers?
- If a person who has started to follow the imam later gets up and continues the prayer after the imam salutes to the right and performs sajdah as-sahw, what should he (masbuq) do?

