Things that nullify namâz

Question: What are the things that nullfiy namâz?
ANSWER
Things that nullify a namâz are called mufsids. A worship being fâsid or bâtil is the same; it means it is broken, nullified.
Some of them are as follows:

1- To talk. Even one word nullifies namâz. It always nullifies namâz regardless of whether it is said intentionally or inadvertently or under duress or by forgetting. However, it does not nullify namâz to say the salâm at the end of the first sitting posture, mistaking it for the second sitting. Yet if you say, “Assalâmu,” thinking that the namâz is of two rak’ats, or if you say it while standing, your namâz becomes nullified. To respond to someone else’s greeting, in any manner whatsoever, nullifies namâz.

2- Without a good excuse, coughing through the throat nullifies namâz. If it happens involuntarily, it does not nullify namâz. If you do it in order to facilitate your recitation, it is harmless.

3- To say prayers in namâz that do not exist in âyats or hadîths nullifies namâz. It is written in Durr-ul-mukhtâr: “The prayer to be said before making the salâm has to be in Arabic. It is harâm to pray in any other language during namâz.” At this point Ibni ‘Âbidîn explains: “Imâm-i Abû Yûsuf and Imâm-i Muhammad said that namâz performed in any language other than Arabic would not be accepted. Imâm-i A’zam’s later ijtihâd tallies with it.”

4- To moan or to say “Ouch!” etc. nullifies namâz.

5- To say, “Ugh!” in order to express annoyance nullifies namâz.

6- Crying for reasons such as a pain or sorrow nullifies namâz. If you weep silently, or cry loudly because of the thought of Paradise and Hell, your namâz does not become nullified. If a sick person cannot help saying “Ouch, ugh!” or crying, the namâz does not become nullified.

7- It nullifies namâz to say “Yarhamukallah” to a person who sneezes and says “Al-hamdulillah.” When not performing namâz, it is fard-i kifâya to say the former immediately after each of the three instances of the latter, and it is mustahab after the third time [Riyâd un-nâsihîn].

8- To say, “Innâ lillâh wa … ,” upon hearing bad news nullifies namâz. It is sunnat to say it while not performing namâz.

9- To say “Jalla Jalâluh” and “Sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam,” upon hearing the names of Allahu ta’âlâ and the Prophet “sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam” nullifies namâz. Outside of namâz, saying or writing them is wâjib for the first time and mustahab for those times afterwards of saying, hearing, or writing their names.

10- To say “Âmîn” for a prayer said by anyone but the imâm nullifies namâz. When the imâm finishes reciting the Fâtiha, it is makrûh for the imâm and for the jamâ’at to say “Âmîn” loudly. They must say it in a whisper.

11- To change your place or to make room for a newcomer with someone else’s warning nullifies namâz. But your moving of your own will a little some time later does not nullify it.

12- To correct an error made by anyone except the imâm you follow nullifies the namâz (of the person who makes the correction).

13- Even if a little, or by forgetting, eating or drinking by placing (after starting to perform namâz) something in the mouth nullifies namâz. It does not nullify namâz to swallow something smaller than a chick-pea that has remained between the teeth. It does not break a fast, either. To chew something small in your mouth three times or to swallow it after melting it nullifies namâz.

14- To say the prayers by reading and learning them from the Qur’ân al-kerîm or from some other paper nullifies namâz. To do so would mean to learn the prayers from someone else. Imâm-i Muhammad and Imâm-i Abû Yûsuf said that it would be makrûh. They added that it would not even be makrûh if it is not intended to imitate a disbeliever with a Heavanly Book. Looking at a piece of writing [or something or its picture on the wall] without understanding it does not nullify namâz. You would have committed an act of makrûh if you understood it (when you looked at it). It would not be makrûh if it only met your eyes by chance.

[Doing the customs of disbelievers, if not with the intention of being like them, if they are not harâm or evil customs, and if they are useful, is permissible. Eating and drinking like them is an example of this. It is harâm if it is done in order to become like them, or if they are harâm and bad customs.]

15- Extra movements that are not parts of namâz nullify namâz. Making the ruku’ or the sajdas more than the prescribed number or going out to make ablution does not nullify it. Excusable extra movements such as killing a scorpion or a snake does not nullify it, either. If a hand moves less than three times, it does not nullify namâz. It has been said (by savants) that one movement with both hands nullifies namâz. Raising the hands up to the ears for the takbîrs in namâz does not nullify namâz. Yet it is makrûh.

16- To stand and to make the sajda at a najs place nullifies namâz. If you spread something over the najs place, your namâz will not become nullified. Shoes and clothes that you are wearing are like parts of your skin. You cannot make the sajda by placing the skirt of your overcoat over a najs place. You must take it off and spread it on the ground. [You cannot perform a janâza [funeral] namâz if the shoes you are wearing are smeared with najâsat.]

17- If your awrat parts remain open long enough for you to say “Subhânallah” three times in one rukn, if the amount of najâsat prescribed to nullify namâz exist on your skin or clothes, if you perform the namâz ahead of the imâm, and if you are in the same line with a woman [who has been following the same imâm], your namâz becomes nullified. If you yourself do all these, your namâz will be broken immediately.

18- To perform namâz on something which you have spread over a najs place but which lets colour, odor, and moisture through nullifies namâz. If it does not let them through, namâz does not become nullified. Performing it after covering the place with plenty of earth does not nullify namâz.

19- Turning your chest away from the qibla without a good excuse breaks namâz immediately. Turning your face or any other limb away does not nullify namâz, yet it is makrûh. If you cannot help turning away, it nullifies namâz if you remain so as long as one rukn. Walking one line (one metre and half) towards the qibla does not nullify namâz. If not in the direction of the qibla, or if you walk more than that continuously in the direction of the qibla, it nullifies namâz. Hence, it is not permissible to perform namâz walking.

20- When a woman is kissed or held lustfully, her namâz becomes nullified.

21- The namâz of people who apostate by heart becomes nullified. [That is, if they say through their heart, “If such and such a thing happens, so and so’s word proves true, and the Qur’ân al-karîm proves to be – may Allahu ta’âlâ protect us against such thoughts!– untrue,” or if a girl decides to marry a disbeliever, they (in the first example), or she (in the second example) becomes a disbeliever immediately]. A person who intends to become a disbeliever in the future or who believes something causing disbelief becomes a disbeliever, that is, a renegade immediately.

22- While performing namâz, it is harâm to do something that will break your ablution or ghusl. If you do any one of them before having sat as long as the tashahhud in the last rak’at, your namâz immediately becomes nullified. If you do it after having sat as long as the tashahhud, your namâz will be all right. If your ablution breaks by itself, you may renew it and then continue with your namâz, but it is better to perform it again from the beginning. After you have sat as long as the tashahhud, if it breaks by itself, and if upon this you make an ablution at once and make the salâm, which is wâjib, or without making an ablution, if you yourself do something breaking the namâz, e.g. make the salâm, your namâz will remain unimpaired.

23- If you omit one rukn and do not perform it during the (same) namâz, your namâz becomes nullified.

24- If he begins and finishes a rukn before the imâm begins it, his namâz becomes nullified. But if the imâm begins the rukn later and they finish it at the same time, or if he withdraws before the imâm begins the rukn and then, when the imâm begins the rukn, makes the rukn again together with the imâm, his namâz will not become nullifed, yet it is makrûh. If a person begins a rukn after the imâm has finished it, his namâz will be acceptable.

25- One who misses the first rak’at of the jamâ’at is called a masbûk. If a masbûk, after having sat as long as (to say the prayer called) the tashahhud and before the imâm having made the salâm, stands up and, after making the sajda of the rak’at he has missed, sees the imâm making sajda-i sahw and he, too, makes the sajda-i sahw with the imâm, his namâz will be nullified. Instead of resuming following the imâm (upon seeing the imâm making the sajda-i sahw), he should have completed his namâz and the sajda-i sahw on his own. If he stood up but did not make sajda, in that case it would be wâjib for him to sit back and make the sajda-i sahw together with the imâm.

26- If people who forgot to make the sajda remember it during the ruku’, they prostrate themselves outright from the position of ruku’ and make the sajda, and (if they remember it) during the (following) sajda, they make the sajda (that they forgot) after sitting after the regular sajda (wherein they remembered about the forgotten sajda); then, (in both cases) they reperform the ruku’ and the sajda that they have performed. Then they make the sajda-i sahw. Or, at the end of or during the final sitting they make the sajda which they remembered or which they remember during the final sitting, then they sit again and say the the prayer Tahiyyât, and then make the sajda-i sahw. If they do not sit again, their namâz become nullified.

27- If you do not perform again the rukn that you performed while sleeping, your namâz becomes nullified.

28- If during the takbîrs in namâz you prolong the first “A” when saying “Allahu,” your namâz becomes nullified. If you prolong it when beginning namâz, your beginning the namâz is not valid.

29- If saying the âyats melodiously defiles the meaning, it defiles your namâz, too.