UNDESIRABLES OF SALAT

UNDESIRABLES OF SALAT

Q.   What acts are undesirable (Makruh) in Salat?

  These are the following:

1. Sadl which means leaving the clothes loose and hanging from the body, such as leaving the two sides of a sheet of cloth hanging from the head or putting the coat etc., on the shoulders without putting the hands into its sleeves;
2. Helping oneself with one’s clothes to keep them from soil or mud;
3. Sporting with one’s body or clothes;
4. Going to offer Salat with shabby clothes on such as one much not like to wear in a social gathering;
5. Putting in one’s mouth some coin, etc., although it does not completely block one’s mouth in recitation; (if, however, the mouth gets blocked, the Salat will not be acceptable at all);
6. Offering Salat without the cap on the head out of sheer carelessness and indolence;
7. Offering Salat while one is feeling an urgent call of nature;
8. Gathering the hair and forming a pig-tail of it on the head;
9. Removing the pebbles from under the feet; (but if one finds it difficult even to lay the forehead on the ground for prostration, they may be removed in one effort);
10. Struggling with one’s fingers or intercrossing the fingers of the two hands;
11. Placing the hand on the back on either side of the body or on the hips;
12. Scanning this side or that with or without turning the face from Qiblah;
13. Sitting like a dog i.e., sitting with thighs upwards and touching the belly, while the knees kiss the chest and the hands rest on the ground;
14. A male worshipper’s placing the two wrists on the ground in prostration;
15. Facing in prayer a person who is sitting with his face turned towards the worshipper;
16. Acknowledging greetings by a nod of the head or the waving of the hand;
17. Sitting with legs crossed without any excuse or compulsion;
18. Deliberate yawing or not controlling the yawn when is in a position to do so;
19. Closing the eyes (but it is permissible if it is for purposes of concentration in prayer);
20. For the head of the prayer to stand under the arch (but there would be nothing wrong if the feet are outside the arch);
21. For the head of prayer alone to stand on a raised (one arm-high) place (but it is permissible if some of the following him in prayer also share that raised platform;
22. Standing alone in a back row although room in the front row is not yet exhausted;
23. Saying prayers wearing clothes that bear the image of some animate object;
24. Offering prayer at a place which has pictures or pictures on one or more sides of it or over the head of the worshipper;
25. Counting on fingers the verses or chapters of the Qur-an or the formula recited during the prayer;
26. Offering prayer with a shawl or piece of cloth wrapped in such a way that the movement of the hands of the worshipper is hampered;
27. Stretching the hands or twisting the body in order to fight indolence in prayer;
28. Laying the forehead and nose in Sijdah on the rolls of the turban;

Doing things against the precept of the Prophet (peace be on him) in the prayer;