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Difficulty In Offering Salah Because Of An Internal Factor (Nafs) Like Sleep Etc
Sometimes, you’re not in significant trouble; it’s your inner self that hinders you from praying. For instance, you may struggle to wake up for Fajr, your eyes are open, but you lack the motivation to perform ablution, or perhaps you’re not in the mood for ritual bathing after experiencing nightfall. In such situations, what should one do?
Conventional wisdom suggests getting up and praying, but for the sake of this question, let’s assume getting up isn’t feasible; maybe you feel cold (not extremely, but it’s perceived, perhaps as an excuse).
As Ghamidi sahab suggests, even praying while on a journey should be opted for. But in our example the situation poses no external difficulty, the mind makes it seem challenging. Should we let it become Qaza prayer or pray in that state?
For instance, one could develop a habit of praying without ablution, but if someone is not having habit of praying or is not disciplined in praying, starting this way may be acceptable. From a psychological perspective, waiting for perfection where we’ll only pray in perfect situation can hinder progress.
Some people say they’ll start after performing Hajj, some might become punctual after some other significant event. Hence, it seems better to pray as is, allowing the heart to gradually motivate towards proper ablution.
So the question is, while there’s no significant external obstacle, but it’s challenging for the heart in such situations, like imagine you’re with friends, prayer time has arrived, you’re not prepared with ablution, and so on. What should people do in these circumstances? -
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Difficulty In Offering Salah Because Of An Internal Factor (Nafs) Like Sleep Etc
updated 10 months ago
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From an epistemological perspestive, one need not forget that the real test is to fight this “Nafs” when it suggests something which either goes against morality or clear directives of God. If we start giving in to such demands which we know are not fully justifiable, then there is no end to it and the same attitude will start extending to other matters of sharia as well. On one hand we have emotions, Nafs, feelings, biases, prejudice, mood etc. and on the other hand the inner conscience which is telling us where to draw the line. While fighting with such emotions, if one falters, then hopefully God will forgive but giving a blanket statement to give in to such whims is equivalent to rendering the whole concept of “Bandagi” futile.
From an legal perspestive, ibadah and all the related to rituals are divinely guided with all their pre-requisites, methods and relaxations, some in detail and some described in a principle form. Therefore, in order to avail any relaxation, a Muslim has to go through the divinely guided rules and practice relaxation accordingly. Hardship factors have been given due regard in Sharia the ones which cause undue hardship in performance of a ritual like Salah. Undue hardship at the end needs to be determined by the individual with honesty and when so determined, there is a way to practice the relaxations as well. We cannot invent a relaxation on our own like offering Salah without ablution, rather we should follow the same divinely guided way to practice relaxation as well. It is not about external factors only, sometimes internal factors may also fall under the same principle for relaxation, for example, while sleeping (https://sunnah.com/bukhari:595, https://sunnah.com/bukhari:597, https://sunnah.com/muslim:684c) or while feeling too drowsy to concentrate on Salah (https://sunnah.com/bukhari:212, https://sunnah.com/nasai:162) but one must excercise this discretion with extreme caution and with utmost honesty because one would have to be answerable for any dishonest decision in this regard because Salah has been made obligatory on its time.
Please also see:
Following thread deals with these principles in detail:
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