When you forget in prayer, what do you do?

Tonight we are continuing our reading and study of Provisions for the day of the great meeting of the great appointment meaning the day of judgment and these Provisions t as taken from the ways and traditions of the best of servants the prophet.

[Arabic recitation]

By the esteemed and late scholar of Islam and we had arrived at a fle which the scholars of Islam use the word f to articulate a chapter or sometimes a sub chapter right so they will refer to a book as aab and a f as a as a sub chapter and a bab as a full chapter but in this case f here is more similar to a completely different chapter and usually it is categorized as such as a different chapter in the books of F and that is the chapter on meaning that an individual forgets something in their prayer in order for us to understand this chapter properly we need to understand the three types of seu that can occur in a person's prayer right a lot of understanding F and Islamic jurisprudence has a lot to do with a has a lot to do with understanding the issue properly and properly visualizing what the issue that is being discussed is in its actuality and this is where the scholars of Islam mention that an individual must have a scholar to teach him an individual must be instructed traditionally by a scholar to have take this knowledge in the traditional sense not just from books or information and one of the reasons for that and some of the scholars of Islam had mentioned of them whoever finds and learns Islamic jpin through books then this individual will in ibly make many mistakes the reason for this is that a lot of what f is is understanding the actual issue that is being discussed that an individual has to properly visualize what it is that is being discussed before they can apply any ruling to it this is where most mistakes are made most mistakes are made in improper visualization improper understanding of the actual situation so for example if a person were to bring you a contract and to ask you is this contract Oram and there are stipulations in that contract or conditions or issues that perhaps uses particular terminology that is specific to that field whether whatever that field is yet is generally used in the English language if an individual were to read that and understand it not as the people of that field understand it then they have improperly understood and visualized the actual issue so when they try to render a ruling on that derived from the Quran derived from the Sunnah of the prophet sallallah they will very often times make horrendous blunders and the reason for that one of the reasons one of the main reasons for that is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the actual issue being debated is this is why becomes kind of complicated and this is is why the scholars of Islam often times will usually go through a process in studying F you have the most summarized and then a little bit more you know in books that they teach their students sum very summarized and then a little bit more expounded and then a little bit more and then the for ofb and then very extensive and they will study these things and they're studying the same issue over and over and over but it's being said in different ways and there is a very big important purpose for that and that is that the student must very clearly understand and be able to visualize the issue when we are talking about a SE a SE SE literally translates to forgetfulness and forgetfulness in Salah something that is all of us are prone to in Salah and outside of Salah Allah subhanahu wa taala is the only one described as not forgetting subhanahu waala and the prophet sallam as tells us here he says he said indeed I am merely a human being as you all are human beings and I am hence prone to forgetfulness as you all are as well so if I forget then remind me he says the to the Companions and when we speak about forgetfulness in Salah there are three types that the scholars of Islam speak about right so there are three types of sah that will happen in a person's prayer number one you are going to forget and you're going to leave something out of the prayer or you will forget and accidentally add something on to the prayer so for example leave something out instead of making four for you make three okay so this person left out one one this is so this person left something out and the root of that was forgetfulness the second is forgetfulness by adding something right so for example a person instead of making four for he or she makes five thinking that it's a fourth thinking that the fifth is the fourth this here is a so a person has forgotten and they have added something to prayer and then we have a which is mere confusion right which is mere confusion some of the scholars refer to this as and which means that a person is praying and then they forget how much they've prayed they don't know if they've prayed four or three so they're again in they're not sure if this is the fourth or the third so what do they do these are the three types of forgetfulness that will happen to a person in his or her prayer now forgetfulness in its in its Essence is something that Allah subhah waala has pardoned us his pardoned the of the Prophet Muhammad sallallah alaihi wasallam as has been narrated in that the prophet s said he said indeed Allah has pardoned my nation for me what they mistakenly do unintentionally what they forgetfully do or do not do and what they are forced to do under duress these are the three things that are particular to this now what does that mean that means that people in previous nations were held to account for forget forgetting something the answer is yes yes and the reason for that and it is a difference of opinion but the reason for that is that for forgetfulness comes in its Origins from a lack of from a lack of focus on something so if a person forgets something often times because he or she is not as concerned with that thing as they should be right and so for this reason this is this is the root of forgetfulness often times so for this reason Allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

Refers to the people who will enter the Hellfire after having been been warned and after the message of the prophets and Messengers have been explained to them perfectly pristinely clearly Allah will refer to them disobeying as forgetfulness that they will forget they have forgotten right they didn't forget meaning that they were ignorant of something after having knowing it they were forgetful of it meaning that they were it was unimportant to them it was inconsequential to them and that is essentially the root of forgetfulness often times and so we see that Allah ascribes forgetfulness to the sin of Adam in so he says subhah Allah subhanahu waala says about Adam inah that when Adam ate from the tree he forgot and we did not find for him any substantial will to to refrain from eating from the tree so there was a lack of will therefore a person forgets for this reason the prophet sallallah Ali wasallam prohibited that a person say I forgot any verse of the Quran and many scholars view this as well for the Hadith of the Prophet Sall alai wasallam Muslim he said s he says s it is a terrible thing for a man to say I have forgotten such and such verse of the Quran rather he was made to forget so when a person says about a verse that he once knew and due to a lack of prac practice was made to forget it he is to not to say I forgot it he is not to say he is to say I knew this verse but I was made to forget it why the answer is because in admission of forgetfulness in this way it articulates necessarily an a lack of concern a lack of diligence a weakening willpower to remain constantly conscious of the verses of Allah subhanahu wa taala and so after understanding that this does not mean that the prophet Muhammad s. wasam forgets because of negligence that is not what is intended rather this is a common human issue right and so being that it is a common human issue everyone is that is human is predisposed to forgetfulness just every human being is predisposed to sinfulness even though that sinfulness is of different levels the prophet s. was said he says all children of Adam are mistak makers or Sinners people who inherently will have this but the best of those Sinners are those who are in constant repentance to Allah subhanahu wa taala forgetfulness is something that every human being is predisposed to and this is why Allah found it U appropriate to describe himself with a very very unique description on the tongue of Moses that my Lord neither becomes confused unaware nor does he forget subhanahu wa taala so this is something that is unique to Allah subhanahu wa taala and so in order for us to understand now this is the essence of forgetfulness in the legislation of Islam in Salah forgetfulness is these three types either a person forgets and adds something a person forgets and forgets leaves out something or a person forgets and is unclear and we'll give that example again person let's say is making they are to bake four units of prayer four okay okay and so when they reach the third ra they think that it is the fourth this is called so the person forgot and they left out if the person stands up for a fifth then this person has forgotten and added a fifth to prayer and then a person reaches a ra and they're unsure is this the third or is this the fourth ra so they are unsure what should they do and this is what we are going to be discussing tonight in and another thing to take into account before we continue with the words of is that the two the two suud of SE the two s that the two prostrations that a person makes because of forgetfulness they in themselves are for obligations they take the place of obligatory acts not pillars pillars must be made up what does that mean well let's take a dive into this the actions of prayer the statements of prayer the abstaining or what a person abstains from in prayer they are four types okay we have conditions pillars obligations sunin things that are recommended things that are encouraged but are not absolutely necessary they're not binding these are four four categories okay conditions are in the correct opinion eight conditions of prayer and pillars are 14 pillars of Prayer in the correct opinion excuse me I was going to sneeze there for a second and alhamdulillah kept it in okay so these are this is the difference between a condition and a pillar conditions and pillars are the same thing except that conditions are outside of the actual Act of prayer whilst pillars are part of the integrity and the actions of prayer so for example W is a condition actually purification but we'll say w for Simplicity is a condition of prayer whereas standing or is a pillar of prayer what is the difference one is outside of prayer and one is part of prayer itself this is the only difference between conditions and pillars there are a couple of others but this is the main one the second thing is obligations obligations there are a number of obligations in a very in a very popular opinion also in the of immed there are eight conditions of pray there are eight oblig obligations of prayer okay eight obligations of prayer such as sub in the first Etc there are a few now when a person wishes to make which are these two additional suud for forgetfulness any of the three types we mentioned if the person is making for leaving something out then if it is an obligation then is enough but if it is a pillar then a person must redo that pillar if it is a condition a person must redo the prayer right so what does that mean so for example let's say saying sub in the position saying it at least once so this is a an obligation or let's say one that most of the scholars agree on the first tah in a in a in a a prayer that has more than one t so for example the first in not the last one just before t but the first one the one after the second ra this is an obligation okay and what an obligation means is that if it is left off on purpose the prayer is invalid but if it is forgotten the prayer is still valid okay so a person is praying they make the second suud of the second of they stand up for the third and they have forgotten the T that is supposed to fall in in between those two places this person has left off an obligation what do they do well they make their Salah and then they make to that's it right if they leave it off on purpose well I'm kind of in a bind I'm in a hurry let me just leave it off on purpose the prayer is invalid a pillar however does not have that ruling whether a person forgets it or leaves it off on purpose it must be done if they leave it off on purpose the prayer is invalid if they forget it they must redo it so let's say a person now is praying and leaves off R right so they go straight from the standing position to Su and they forget the r then they remember what should they do they should stand up and not count that ra they should stand up and not count that ra it did not it did not happen so if that was their first ra they stand up from and now this is their first why because bowing is a pillar of prayer and a pillar whether forgotten or not must be fulfilled in order for the prayer to be valid right now the scholars of Islam all agree that as far as is concerned for a person to make those two s should we make it before or should we make it after T they all agree that it is valid before or after Tas regardless of the mistake made in prayer if you make it before or after Tas it's valid the only difference that they differ on is what is better what is better and this is what will speak about here he says so the prophet s. wasam stood up and he had stood up for the third ra after only making after making two ra without so he he's making or he's making he's supposed to make excuse me not he's supposed to make after the second before he goes up to the third but he forgot to do that so he stood straight up from the second to the third okay so he forgot to what did he do says he says and what the prophet sallallahu alai wasallam did in this instance was he made suud before he made T so when he finished the prayer and he was finished with a the final T and he was getting ready to make T he made two s right just two as you normally would make in prayer this is called suud the C the prostration of forgetfulness he did this s. wasam before he made T comments on this and says hence what is taken from this action of his is that whoever forgets something that is an obligation and not a pillar whoever forgets something from Salah that is not a pillar then this person when making would make it before and also what is to be taken from this narration that he is speaking about is that if an individual forgets that thing which is not a pillar forgets it and starts on another pillar or starts on another position of prayer then the person does not go back the person does not go back what does that mean so let's say the same issue here it's the second of a a fourth four he forgets so he stands straight up from the second to the third forgets T once he reaches the standing position to pray to start with he does not go back into the sitting position he does not go back into the sitting position that is that is done likewise another thing that happens to people it does happen often let's say a person makes one suud and forgets the second sujud so they're making Salah they make they stand up they go to Su and from that sujud they stand straight up again right and so they forgot the second suud what did they do well we understand here from that the person continues on with his prayer and as we said before when a pillar is left out we leave off the entire right so let's say that was my first I finished the first sujud I stand up okay now I'm making again I forgot oh I forgot to make the second sujud that doesn't count this now is my first ra right or second or third or fourth whatever position a person might be in there is a statement of some of the who view that if a person is closer to the position that he forgot then he goes back and if he's already closer to the next position then he continues on what does this mean let's say again he forgets the so he's standing up for the third ra he stands up from the suud straight into the third ra he's halfway then he remembers oh I'm supposed to make should he go back down or not this is where the scholars differ some of the F said some of the fuk said if he's closer to sitting then he sits back down and if he is closer to standing then he continues on but there is a narration in iMed in which the prophet sallai wasallam was narrated to have said and it is a narration authenticated by many scholars of Hadith that if a person has not started the second position then the person goes back so even if you're almost completely standing then you and you remember just before you completely stand then you go back it doesn't matter which one you're closer to and that's the soundest opinion so if a person is praying he forgets the T he stands up and just as he's going to put his hands together and start reciting he remembers I forgot he sits back down and at the end of the prayer he makes he says.

[Silence]

Okay now he says and in another narration the prophet s. wasam made t meaning he finished and concluded prayer in one of the two afternoon prayers there are two late Day prayers there is afternoon which is and then there is evening which is both of these prayers are called because this is the time the time of it is meaning end of day right says it was either he is alluding here to a difference amongst the and the the the narrators of Hadith as to which one it was some mention it was some mention it was right but IMI chose that it was in the narration of Abu Hur and it is widely known amongst the scholars of and the scholars of Hadith ASI which is kind of a kind of an interesting name to the Hadith there are certain names there are certain Hadith which are known by certain names because of their uniqueness just if I sayak right is a the only chapter in the Quran in which the story of the cow of B is is mentioned so it's referred to asak well there are narrations this as well where the only narration that mentions this particular story or this particular person or this particular event or this particular ruling it starts to have a name amongst the scholars of Hadith and this particular narration that I'm referring to is known as it is the narration of the man or the one of two hands I mean it kind of gets Lost in Translation a little bit what does that mean there was a man that was a companion of the Prophet Sall wasallam who is known by a nickname as and this man was known as the hands man or the guy with the long hands because he actually had abnormally long arms or long hands right and so he would that this is the only time we find in the Sunnah the popular Sunnah that is mentioned and he plays role in this narration and that is that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam as according to the narration of alkari made and after he made he made from two instead of four he forgot two Abu narrates that the prophet sallallah alai wasam finished prayer turned around and faced The Companions and leaned up against some wood that was in the Masid and and he was you could see in his face as if he was upset about something now he wasn't upset but he felt spiritually he had left something out of pray prayer but he had forgotten wasallam so asked did prayer change or did you forget meaning he said I didn't forget nor was anything changed in prayer and he said he said no you you only prayed two ra and so he asked others of the companions they all confirmed yes you he only prayed two ra and so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam stood up everyone stood up with him they prayed two more ra right allahar prayed two more and then he made then he made suud then he made taslim again okay what happened so let's go over it again the has it that he was leading the companions in either way it's the same thing so he is leading the companions in the companions are praying behind him he made the first ra he made the second ra he thought that the second was actually the fourth when actually it was only the second how many are supposed to be in four obviously he just made two so he made he made Salah upon himself s what we known as after this he made then he turned around and faced the companions as he would customarily do the companions then informed him that he forgot to upon which he stood up he said allahar and they said allahar with him and he prayed two more then he made then he made two right one two then he made T again this is how he did it now when we look collectively now we said we have one narration of him making the before that mentioned and we have another one that mentions where he made after this narration here and we said is three types forgetfulness in prayer so we have forgetfulness and adding accidentally something to prayer or leaving something out of prayer or completely becoming confused and forgetting right the scholars all agree that is valid before or after T it doesn't matter if you make it before Tas or if you make it after it is fine okay what they differ on is what is better is it better to make it before t or after T it's valid either way but what is better when we look at all of the body of the sun of the Prophet sallallahu alaih wasallam we look at all of the different things that occurred and and collectively we notice a pattern what is the pattern that if a person leaves something out of prayer they make before meaning in prayer and if a person adds something to prayer then what they do is they make after okay so now let's look at this in the first example gives us he says that the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam left out the first he left out the first.

[Silence]

So we have the first example where he forgot something from prayer which was the first and he made those two prostrations in prayer before.

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So we see in the second example that he Sall alaih wasallam left off two from when he was informed he stood up he made he made those extra two and then he made outside of prayer after now a person may say well hang on didn't we just say that if a person leaves something out of prayer that they should make they should make the in inside of prayer we say yes but the prophet sallallahu alaih wasallam added something to this.

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Prayer for.

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So we see here that the prophet sallai wasall actually added something to prayer how so when he made the two and then he made and then he was informed of the two missing ra he stood up and made them and then he made T again is actually a pillar of Prayer so when he did this he actually added another pillar which was a tasim again so really the forgetfulness was adding that second T therefore he made after if I mean this is not extremely complicated stuff it's not it's not very complicated it's it's actually rather simple rather easy it just takes a little bit of patience for a person to try to understand and often times what we do is we.

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Say a person may say well you know I don't really have to understand this that much because this is kind of complicated or intricate a little bit anyways if anything happens to me I'll just ask theik well that sounds nice but that's in reality that's not how it is you may be a place where there is no person to ask or you may be somewhere where the person to ask is doesn't know what he's talking about or doesn't have an answer for you it's your responsibility to learn what it is Allah has asked of you individually.

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Was.

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And here in another instance the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam made Salah and then he made tasim and he left the Masjid on his way out one of the companions said you forgot one ra you actually prayed one ra short we don't know what it is whether it was the fourth of a four or the third of a three told him you you forgot one so he went back in the Masid told to make again and why did he tell B to make well instead of announcing.

[Silence]

Saying instead of making an announcement oh we'd to tell everybody we forgot one ra please come back so we could pray look he just told B make the again when people hear the in the time of the prophet sallallah am they know to come and pray and so they prayed behind him an additional and so he completed that prayer sallai wasam this has been collected by IM Ahmed.

[Silence]

He says and he also made as five once right supposed to be four he actually he accidentally made five thinking that it was four and the companions informed him that you made five and so he made two the prostrations of forgetfulness after right also he had made as three he made three instead of four and so he went got up and he went into his home and the people reminded him you made three instead of four actually and so he went back out into the Masjid and he prayed a fourth time and then he made and then he made and then he made for the same reason that we mention in theith of he says this is all what has been narrated from the prophet sallallahu alam's forgetfulness in prayer and it's only five instances so if you imagine 23 years of prayer and he forgets five times that's a pretty good record right that is extremely extremely extremely rare now now just as a kind of.

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Recap when Subhan Allah Subhan Allah Subhan Allah.

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Huh for.

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IM.

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Fore for.

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And so if the Imam were to make a mistake and add a ra and a person is sure that the Imam is adding a raak that they would not add one with him they would remaining in the sitting position and wait for the Imam to finish and likewise if the IM forgets a and they are positive that the IM forgot a then they would stand up for the final and they would pray it alone just as somebody who was mistakenly who had come in late and this is a difference that a lot of people don't understand with regards to the difference between the Salah of the IM and the.

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Sub.

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For to toim.

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For.

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For for.

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Next week inshallah we will continue.