Answered by Shaykh Abdurragmaan Khan
Question: Assalam alaykum,
I am 13 years old, and I pray five prayers a day. During my prayers, I tend to fidget and move my arms and legs around. I also get bored and turn my head around. Often, if my sister gets near me while I’m praying, I punch her or push her. Today, I threw a marble across the room while.
My parents told me that I have to redo these prayers. Is it true?
Answer: Wa alaykum salam
May Allah grant that our prayers resemble that of the pious.
The prayer is a special occasion where the slave can connect to his Creator and Master. Accordingly, it has been narrated that the prayer is the ascension of the believer. Salah is also what ultimately distinguishes the believer from the disbeliever. The Prophet sallaLlahu alayhi wasallam said, “The difference between us and the disbelievers is prayer.”
In short, the essence of our prayer lies in being present with and humbling ourselves before Allah. This is something that requires practice. When explaining what being present with Allah is, some of our teachers made an example of an employer watching over the factory workers from his office. The factory workers continue working as if they feel the presence of the employer watching over them.
Whenever you loose concentration in prayer, remind yourself that Allah is watching over me. The pious reached levels of concentration and stages of being present with Allah, that cannot be expressed with words. They would enter in prayer and be completely disconnected from everything and anything besides Allah. Some companions were so absorbed in their prayer, that when shot with arrows, they would not budge. Another companion was so engrossed in prayer that he was unaware of a wall that collapsed in his home, that nearly injured his child. With practice and devotion, you and I could attain a similar state, Amin.
Either way, the absence of concentration and presence with Allah does invalidate your prayer. With regards to the examples you made in your question, consider the following. There are two areas of concern:
1. Excessive movement. Three consecutive movements would invalidate one’s prayer. Small movements with one’s fingers are not counted as movements per say.
2. Turning ones chest away from the direction of the Qiblah would also invalidate prayer.
You would have to determine whether you were guilty of one of the above invalidators in your previously performed prayers. If you know for certain, that you did either of the two, that prayer will be invalid; if you doubt whether your movements were excessive in a particular prayer or not, then the that prayer will be considered valid.
And Allah knows best
Wassalam
[Shaykh] Abdurragmaan Khan
Shaykh Abdurragmaan received ijazah ’ammah from various luminaries, including but not restricted to: Habib Umar ibn Hafiz—a personality who affected him greatly and who has changed his relationship with Allah, Maulana Yusuf Karaan—the former Mufti of Cape Town; Habib ‘Ali al-Mashhur—the current Mufti of Tarim; Habib ‘Umar al-Jaylani—the Shafi‘i Mufti of Makkah; Sayyid Ahmad bin Abi Bakr al-Hibshi; Habib Kadhim as-Saqqaf; Shaykh Mahmud Sa’id Mamduh; Maulana Abdul Hafiz al-Makki; Shaykh Ala ad-Din al-Afghani; Maulana Fazlur Rahman al-Azami and Shaykh Yahya al-Gawthani amongst others.