Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
Translated by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad
If one is ill and has pain in his legs such that he is able to stand while praying, but he is not able to stand back up from prostration unless he deviates from the direction of the prayer, should he pray like that? Is he excused for deviating from the direction of the prayer (qibla) ?
Or should he pray sitting in all of his prayers so that he does not deviate? Is it permissible for him to pray sitting on a chair and prostrate from there and not on the ground?
The more important between the two issues of not standing and facing the direction of the prayer is the latter as the imams have said. It is obligatory for the above mentioned ill person in the question to pray sitting down and not to stand because standing causes him to turn away from the direction of prayer.
[Editor’s note: This applies to all rak`as but the first. As for the first rak`ah, it is obligatory for him to start off by praying standing because he can do so without turning away from the direction of prayer. Once he sits down in the first rak`ah, he cannot stand up without turning away from the direction of prayer so he give precedence to facing the direction of prayer over standing during prayer and completes his prayer while sitting down.]
As for his sitting on the chair and not going down to prostrate on the ground, this is not valid because he is able to prostrate on the ground, so he must do so. In this case, he should pray sitting on the ground, not on a chair because he needs to go down to prostrate.
كذلكويعذر في النحراف عن القبلة أم يصلي قاعداً في جميع صلاته لئلا ينحرف عن القبلة ، وهل يجوز له أن يصلي قاعداً على كرسي ويأتي بالسجود عليه لا على الأرض؟
الجواب: المقدم عند تعارض القيام واستقبال القبلة هو الاستقبال كما صرحوا به فالواجب على المريض المذكور في السؤال أن يصلي قاعداً ولا يقوم إذا كان القيام
سيؤدي إلى الانحراف عن القبلة .
أما الصلاة على الكرسي من غير أن ينزل ليؤدي السجود على الأرض فلا يصحُّ لأنه قادر على إتمام السجود فيلزمه ذلك فعليه حينئذ أن يصلي قاعداً على الأرض لا على
الكرسي لأن يلزمه النزول للسجود فإذا أراد القيام انحرف عن القبلة وهو لا يجوز كما تقدم .