Does looking left or right while praying invalidate the prayer or is it a sin?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Turning your neck and looking somewhere during prayer without turning your chest from the qibla does not invalidate the prayer. However, it is makruh and it reduces the thawab of prayer. Turning the chest away from the qibla invalidates the prayer.

Aisha (ra) narrates: I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) about the decree on turning the head to left and right during prayer. He said,

“That is the devil’s stealing some of the servant’s prayer.” (Bukhari, Adhan 93, see Abu Dawud, Salah 161)

According to what is narrated from Anas (ra), the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said:

“Avoid looking left or right during prayer because looking left or right during prayer is a cause for destruction. If one is bound to turn left and right, he should do it in nafilah prayers, not in fard prayers.” (Tirmidhi, Jumu’a 59)

According to a hadith narrated by Abu Dharr,

“When the servant performs a prayer, Allah Almighty always turns toward him. When the servant looks left and right, Allah turns away from His servant.” (Nasai, Sahw 10)

Our Prophet (pbuh) explains the issue as follows in one of his hadiths:

“Avoid looking left or right while performing a prayer because as long as one of you is in prayer, he is in communication with his Lord, that is, he talks to Him secretly.” (Haythami, Majmauz-Zawaid, 2/80)

When a praying person turns his head left and right, the devil gains a victory and has the opportunity to keep the servant busy. A servant who is caught up in the devil’s preoccupation means that he has severed his connection with Allah. Therefore, sometimes the state of forgetfulness overcomes him during his prayer; he does not know how many rak’ahs he has performed; sometimes he makes mistakes and gets confused about what he reads. At that moment, his heart is no longer preoccupied with Allah.

Since this situation is against Allah’s consent and pleasure, his behavior at that moment is attributed to the devil.

As it is seen, turning one’s head away from the qibla during prayer prevents awe and causes the devil to give delusions because it violates turning toward Allah, diminishing the rewards and thawabs that the servant will gain from prayer.

Scholars unanimously agree that it is makruh tanzihi to turn your head left and right during prayer. However, if a person turns away from the qibla with his body rather than his head, his prayer is invalidated according to the majority of scholars. It is not makruh to look left or right out of the corner of your eye without turning your neck.

Accordingly;

- It is makruh tanzihi to turn the head left and right during prayer.

- Turning the head left and right during prayer breaks a person’s connection with Allah and causes the devil to keep him busy because the devil considers a person’s heedlessness in prayer as an opportunity.

- Just looking left or right out of the corner of one’s eye during prayer does not harm the prayer and it is not regarded as makruh.

- While performing a prayer, turning left and right to the extent that the body moves away from the qibla invalidates the prayer.

- It is not makruh to turn the head left or right during prayer due to a legitimate excuse.

It is less makruh to turn the head left or right in nafilah prayers than in fard prayers because paying attention to the fard prayers has priority over the nafilah ones in Shari’ah.

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