Do the Mistakes in Recitation Invalidate Prayer?
Do the mistakes in recitation invalidate prayer?
Scholars of Islamic jurisprudence introduced some criteria on whether the qiraat mistakes (dhallatu’l-qari) made in prayer invalidate prayer or not. These may be summarized as follows:
Prayer is invalidated if the Qur’an is recited wrong deliberately in a way that its meaning changes. In the event that it is recited wrong by mistake or by forgetfulness:
- a) If the mistake is in the harakat (vowels) of letters, prayer is not invalidated even if there is a change in meaning.
- b) If the mistake is on the places of pause, which means a person continues when he is supposed stop or stops when he is supposed to continue, prayer is not invalidated irregardless of the change in the meaning.
c) In a mistake occurring by pronouncing another letter instead of a letter, it depends on whether the meaning changes or not. Accordingly, if a letter changes but the meaning of the word does not change after this mistake and if a similar word takes place in the Qur’an, then prayer is not invalidated. If the meaning of the word does not change after the mistake in a letter but a similar word does not take place in the Qur’an, Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Muhammad say that prayer is invalidated although Imam Abu Yusuf says that it is not invalidated. If the meaning changes by the mistake in the letter and there is not a similar word in the Qur’an, the prayer is invalidated. The prayer is not invalidated by skipping a few or many verses during the prayer. The prayer of a person who performs qiraat so mistakeful that it invalidates his prayer but corrects his mistake by going back, then his prayer becomes valid (al-Fatawa al-Hindiyyah, I, 87 ff.; Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar, II, 393-396).
Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWAS