Teaching the Rulings Regarding Prayer- Muwālāh (close succession)

 

A worshipper must perform the acts of prayer with close succession, i.e. he or she must not delay between the acts of prayer such as rukū', sajdah and tashahhud to the extent that it breaks up the form of the prayer.

This is called muwālāh, which is a non-rukn obligatory component of prayer. If the muwālāh of prayer is broken, it becomes invalid, whether intentionally of inadvertently.

However, muwālāh does not mean that prayer should not be prolonged. In fact, prolonging rukū', sajdahs, qunūt as well as reciting lengthy surahs in qirā'ah do not break muwālāh, but rather they would offer even more rewards.

Even repeating the verses of Surah al-Hamd and the other surah or the dhikrs of rukū', sajdahs and tasbihāt for the sake of obtaining rewards or precaution is permitted, but on the condition that it is not due to obsessiveness.

But making excessively long pauses between the letters and words of prayer is problematic, and if a delay occurs between the letters or words of qirā'ah inadvertently to the extent that it breaks up the form of the recitation of words but the form of the prayer has not still been broken up, the worshipper must recite that dhikr or verse correctly one more time. But if this occurs inadvertently and the worshipper has started performing the rukn after it, he or she does not need to return and the prayer is valid.