Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Assalaamu ‘alaykum warahamtullah wabarakaatuh.
Until I find out what is meant to be included in prayer (I will be on Sunnipath’s Essentials of Worship (Hanafi: Purification and Prayer Part 1) from 24th Sept in shaa Allah), is it permissible to perform the Sajda Sahu after every salaat just in case?
Or should I try and estimate how many prayer may have been invalid as I find out, and make them up?
Thing is, I have been muslim for 6 years, and praying for all but the first 5ish months of it, but I’ve recently found out that many of my fards are invalid due to e.g. holding a book, not praying Sajda Sahu when I should have etc.
How should I make amends for these, given I have no idea at all how many they might be?
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
I pray that this finds you well, and in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you all good and success in this life and the next.
It would be prohibitively disliked, sinful, and a reprehensible innovation to perform the forgetfulness prostrations for every prayer without need.
Forgetfulness prostrations are only required when one forgetfully leaves a necessary (wajib) action in prayer. It is not required nor permitted for any other action. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]
You should find out what the necessary (wajib) actions of prayer are. Any reliable manual of Hanafi fiqh–whether The Absolute Essentials or Taleemul Haq or another text–lists these.
The basic assumption, too, is that your actions are valid and sound until proven otherwise.
Note that there is a difference between leaving an obligatory (fard) action in prayer and leaving a necessary (wajib) action–the former invalidates prayer; the latter renders it deficient (though valid). Please search the SunniPath QA (http://qa.sunnipath.com) for: leaving a wajib action in prayer.
Past prayers in which wajib actions were omitted do not have to be repeated.
It is obligatory to make up prayers in which obligatory actions–conditions or integrals–of the prayer were omitted. For individual matters, confirm before deeming your prayer invalid–often, there are less-strong (but valid) positions one can follow to avoid making up hundreds of prayers.
Once you’ve reliably determined how many prayers you have to make up, you should set a consistent and sustainable schedule of making up the prayers. There are many answers in the SunniPath QA (http://qa.sunnipath.com) about how to go about doing so.
And Allah alone gives success.
Faraz Rabbani