What Should We Do When We Hesitate About The Number Of Rakats We Have Established In The Prayer?

What should we do when we hesitate about the number of rakats we have established in the prayer?

Worships and deeds need to be free from any kind of doubt. A person who doubts about the number of the rakats that he established should re-establish that prayer if this is happening for the first time. Because the Prophet Muhammad (saw) stated, “If one of you doubts about the number of the rakats he established, let him establish it again.” (Ibn Abi Shaybah, al-Musannaf, II, 421; see. Zaylai, Nasbu’r-raya, II, 173)

A person who doubts in prayer from time to time and cannot decide precisely about the number of rakats that he has established continues his prayer considering the minimum number of rakats about which he is sure to have established. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, “If one of you is not sure about his prayer, let him forget about what he is unsure of and complete his prayer on the basis of what he is sure of. When he is sure that he has completed it, let him prostrate twice while he is sitting.” (Nasa’i, Sahw, 24; Ibn Majah, Iqamat al-Salat, 132).

Accordingly, if a person who starts to a four-rakat prayer gets confused and cannot tell if he is in the first or second rakat, he is deemed to have established one rakat and sits at the end of every rakat and recites al-Tahiyyat as the rakat accepted as the first one may be the second one and the third one accepted as the second one may be the fourth one. So, he performs four sittings and completes his prayer by performing sajdah al-sahw at the end of it (Kasani, Bada’i, I, 165, 166).

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