Is It Sinful if You Don’t Fix the Mistakes That You Made on the Previous Parahs During Taraweeh?

Answered by: Alimah Zainab Nakhuda

Question:

Is it sinful if you don’t fix the mistakes that you made on the previous parahs during Taraweeh?

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

When it comes to Qur’an recitation, it really depends on the type of mistake that the person is making. Based on this, the ruling of whether they need to repeat that portion of the Qur’an (or even repeat the 2 Rak’aat of Taraaweeh) will all depend on the type of mistake that was made. Below are some general rules and guidelines that will hopefully benefit and help in this matter:

1. If a person completely missed a verse (or multiple verses), then they must recite them and make up for them in future Rak’aat for the Qur’an to be complete (i.e. for the Khatam to be complete)

2. If the mistake is such a major mistake that alters and changes the meaning of the verse, then the Salah itself will be invalidated and has to be repeated. (Our Teacher Mufti Tosir Sahib DB has written about these mistakes in detail in the following Fatwa: Do mistakes during recitation make sajdah sahwe necessary? – Darul Ifta Birmingham)

3. Major mistakes in general, whether they alter the meaning or not, do result in sin, and must be avoided. And if one does end up making a major mistake, they should rectify it (Whether this was in recitation in Salah or even in regular recitation outside of Salah). We shouldn’t leave major mistakes uncorrected whilst we are aware that we have made the mistake. Just like our Deen teaches us to correct any wrong we have done, we will correct this wrong as well and then continue on.

4. The Major mistakes are:
   1. Adding or deleting a letter from the Quran.
   2. Changing a letter in the Quran into another letter.
   3. Changing a Harakah (vowel) in the Quran.
   4. Changing a Sukoon into a Harakah or a Harakah into a Sukoon. Similarly, adding or deleting a Shaddah from the Quraan.¹

5. Making a mistake in the order of the verses will not necessitate Sajdah Sahw ².

Only Allah knows best.

Written by Alimah Zainab Nakhuda

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham

References:

¹ Fataawaa Darul Iftaa Al-Misriyyah, page 472, volume 7, Maktabah Shamelah

لحن جلى واضح إذا كان فيه إبدال، حرف بحرف أو حركة بحركة بحيث يكون هناك إخلال بالمعنى، كالذى ينطق التاء فى (يقنت) طاء (يقنط) وكالذى يضم تاء أنعمت عليهم

² Fataawaa Uthmaani, page 488, Volume 1, Maktabah Ma’aariful Qur’aan

“Question: Will Sajdah Sahw be necessary if sequence/order is not established in the recitation in Salaah?

Answer: Sajdah Sahw will not be necessary for the scenario in the question.”