Voluntary prayer while lying down

Abu Buraydah reported, and al-Bukhari with him as well as others, that Imran ibn Husayn, whose face was beaming, narrated to him: I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about the prayer of a man sitting, and he said:

If he prays standing, that is better; whoever prays sitting has half the reward of the one standing; and whoever prays lying down, that is, reclining on his side, has half the reward of the one sitting.

Narrated by al-Bukhari and others

We have said previously that the scholars agree on permitting a man to pray sitting despite his ability to stand; but here they do not hold it permitted. Al-Kamal Ibn al-Humam (may Allah have mercy on him) said: we do not know of prayer lying down being permitted except in the obligatory prayer when one is unable to sit; and I do not know of its being permitted in the nafl in our school (Sharh Fath al-Qadir, 1/460; Durr al-Hukkam, 2/31). Ibn Nujaym related in al-Bahr, from Sharh al-Mashariq, the denial of its validity lying down: it occurs in some of its narrations: "and whoever prays lying down, that is, reclining on his side, has half the reward of the one sitting"; it cannot be understood of the nafl while able, since prayer is not valid lying down, unless this isolated narration is judged anomalous (al-Bahr al-Ra'iq, 2/67; Hashiyat al-Tahtawi, 1/265).

Al-Tahawi said in Sharh al-Mushkil: we pondered his saying: "Whoever prays lying down has half the reward of the one who prays sitting"; and we found that as for the one praying sitting who is unable to bow and prostrate in his sitting, it is not for him to pray lying on his side; we thereby understood that this hadith does not refer to one who prays lying down while he is able to pray sitting, bowing and prostrating in it. Rather it is the one who prays sitting among those who can only prostrate by gesture: he may pray on his side, gesturing for the bowing and prostration. We thereby understood that the "one praying lying down" credited with half the reward of the one sitting is the one who was able to pray sitting, gesturing in his sitting for the bowing and prostration, and who prayed lying down gesturing, by his own choice, preferring that to praying sitting gesturing; he thus deserves half the reward of the one sitting, and not more of its reward; and success is what we ask of Allah (Sharh Mushkil al-Athar, 4/398).

Ibn Abidin (may Allah have mercy on him) said: prayer lying down is not valid in our school without an excuse (Ibn Abidin, 2/36, 37). Ibn Abd al-Barr (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the majority of the people of knowledge do not permit the nafl reclining (al-Tamhid, 1/134). Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the prayer of the reclining one at half the prayer of the one sitting refers to the excused, as in the hadith: he came out while they were afflicted with fever and praying sitting, and he said that; none of the early generations permitted voluntary prayer reclining without an excuse, and no one among the early generations is known to have done it.

Its permissibility is a view in the madhhab of al-Shafi'i and Ahmad, and no sound predecessor is known for its holders; and this matter is among those which spread widely as a trial: were it permitted for every Muslim to pray voluntarily on his side while healthy, with no illness, as it is permitted to pray voluntarily sitting or on a mount, this would have been among what the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) clarified to his ummah, and the companions would have known it; and given the strength of the motivation toward good, some of them would inevitably have done it; so when none of them did it, that indicates it was not legislated among them (Majmu' al-Fatawa, 7/36, 37; see al-Insaf, 2/119).

He said elsewhere: voluntary prayer reclining is not permitted without an excuse, and this is the view of the majority of scholars. And he said: a group of Ahmad's companions and others did follow this, permitting voluntary prayer reclining for one who is healthy; it is a novel opinion, an innovation (Majmu' al-Fatawa, 4/428; Mukhtasar al-Fatawa al-Misriyyah, 1/58; Sharh al-Zarkashi, 1/230). Al-Khattabi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I do not recall any of the people of knowledge granting a concession for voluntary prayer lying down as they did for praying sitting; if this wording is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and was not inserted into the hadith by some narrators, either by analogy with the prayer of the one sitting or in consideration of the prayer of the sick man reclining, then he said: I do not know of the word "lying down" heard anywhere but in this hadith (Ma'alim al-Sunan, 1/225; see al-Nihayah of Ibn al-Athir, 5/129; Fath al-Bari, 2/585; Nayl al-Awtar, 3/100).

Ibn Battal (may Allah have mercy on him) said: as for his saying "whoever prays lying down has half the reward of the one sitting", its meaning is not accepted by the scholars, for they agree that the nafl is not prayed by gesture by one who is able to stand (Sharh Ibn Battal, 3/102). Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "Whoever prays lying down has half the reward of the one sitting": this applies only to the excused; otherwise, the one not excused has no reward at all if the prayer is obligatory, and if it is a nafl, voluntary prayer on the side is not permitted to him: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) never did it on a single day, nor any of the companions at all, despite the strength of their zeal for all forms of worship and the doing of every good.

That is why the majority of the ummah forbids it, and prayer on the side is permitted only to one who cannot sit, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to Imran: "Pray standing; if you cannot, sitting; if you cannot, on your side"; and Imran ibn Husayn is the narrator of the 2 hadiths, and he is the one who asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about them (The Prayer and the Ruling on the One Who Abandons It, 1/160).

He said in Bada'i' al-Fawa'id: his saying "and whoever prays lying down" indicates the permissibility of voluntary prayer for the one reclining, contrary to the view of the 4 imams, even though it is a view in the madhhab of Ahmad and al-Shafi'i (Bada'i' al-Fawa'id, 4/1012). He also said: Ibn Abd al-Barr said that they agreed it is not permitted to offer the nafl reclining. I say: in the Tirmidhi there is its permissibility from al-Hasan al-Basri, and al-Tirmidhi related through his chain from al-Hasan that he said: "If he wishes, he may pray the voluntary prayer sitting, standing and reclining"; and Allah knows best (Bada'i' al-Fawa'id, 4/1013; see Sunan al-Tirmidhi, 2/209).

As for the 2 views found in the madhhab of al-Shafi'i and Ahmad, al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said in Sharh Muslim: the most correct position with us is that the nafl reclining is permitted to one able to stand and sit, because of the sahih hadith in al-Bukhari: "and whoever prays lying down has half the reward of the one sitting"; and when he prays reclining, it is on his right side; if on his left, it is permitted, though contrary to what is preferable; if he lies flat on his back while able to recline on his side, it is not valid. It was said: what is preferable is that he be lying flat on his back, and that if he reclines on his side it is not valid. The first is correct, and Allah knows best (Sharh Muslim, 6/14).

He said in al-Majmu': what is meant by "lying down" is reclining on the side; if he offers a voluntary prayer reclining, gesturing with his head while able to stand and sit, there are 2 views. The first: his prayer is not valid, for he removes its form without an excuse, and this is the stronger of the 2 with the Imam of the Two Sanctuaries (al-Juwayni). The second, which is the correct position: it is valid, because of the hadith of Imran (al-Majmu', 3/231).

Al-Ayni said: our shaykh Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi said: as for the denial, by al-Khattabi and Ibn Battal, of any disagreement, as mentioned previously, over the validity of voluntary prayer reclining for one who is able, it is rejected; in our school there are 2 views, and the more correct of them is validity. Among the Malikis there are 3 views, related by Qadi Iyad in al-Ikmal. The first: permissibility absolutely, in necessity and by choice, for the healthy and the sick, on the apparent meaning of the hadith; this is the one with which the qadi began his discussion. The second: prohibition absolutely for both, for neither is in the form of prayer.

The third: permissibility due to the weakness of the sick person only. Al-Tirmidhi related through his chain from al-Hasan al-Basri its permissibility, saying: "If the man wishes, he may pray the voluntary prayer..."