How Is Prayer Established By Symbolic Moves? May One Establish Prayer By Just Moving His Her Eyes?

How is prayer established by symbolic moves? May one establish prayer by just moving his/her eyes?

Responsibilities are determined according to the power of a servant in our religion. The principle of facilitating is introduced for conditions that are beyond a servant’s power. Disease is one of the causes of providing facilities. In this respect, the Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, “Establish prayer on your feet, if you cannot, establish it by sitting, if you cannot do this too, then establish it by leaning on your side.” (Bukhari, Taqsir as-salat, 19).

A person who is unable to perform ruku or sajdah establishes his prayer by doing symbolic moves. It means moving head instead of going down to complete ruku and sajdah. A person who establishes prayer by symbolic moves bows his head a bit for ruku, and a bit more than ruku for the sajdah. It is not permissible for a person who is unable to prostrate on the ground to raise something up to put his forehead on it. If a person is able to stand on his feet but cannot perform ruku and prostration, then he may perform them by symbolic moves on his feet or by sitting; however, it is more appropriate to do it by sitting (Marghinani, al-Hidayah, II, 83-87). A person who is unable to sit on the ground even by extending his legs by sides or to the direction of qiblah due to his sickness may establish his prayer on his feet or by sitting on places such as a stool, sofa, etc. and doing symbolic moves. A person who is unable to sit may do moves by lying on his back or leaning on his side.

According to Hanafis, symbolic moves must be performed with head. A person who cannot do it by his head establishes qada prayer later; he cannot establish prayer by just doing moves with his eyes, eyebrows, or by heart (Marghinani, al-Hidayah, II, 83-85; Mawsili, al-Ikhtiyar, I, 260).

According to Zufar from Hanafis and to Shafi’i school, a person who is unable to move his head establishes his prayer by doing symbolic signs with his eyes. If he is not able to do it even with his eyes, he does it from the heart only. That is to say, he imagines himself in prayer by heart and recites the required duas. Afterwards, he does not need to establish qada prayers for the ones he established in this way. However, if he recovers enough to establish prayers by standing on his feet, it will be mustahab for him to re-establish the prayers he established by heart and eyes (Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut, I, 217; Mawsili, al-Ikhtiyar, I, 260; Ramli, Nihayat al-Muhtaj, I, 468-470).

However, if a person who is able to perform prayer with heart or eyes only wants to establish prayer in order not to break his connection with Allah, he may act according to this last opinion.

Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWA