Break Salaah

Lesson Ten

FACTORS THAT BREAK THE NAMAZ

1) Any human speech (speaking in any way), even if forced to- This includes answering a salaam, or saying alhamdulillah whilst sneezing, or ‘ laa hawla wala quwwata illa billahil aliyyil azeem’ after yawning- all of this will break your namaz.

2) Moaning from pain or from worldly distress breaks the namaz, like someone making an ‘ooh’, ‘oof’ sound. If the sound came out involuntarily from an ill/old person, then this will not break the namaz.

3) Eating/ drinking from outside the mouth (if swallowed something small already in the mouth between the teeth, which was the size of a chickpea or smaller, this does not break the prayer, but it’s disliked nevertheless).

4) If blood comes out from the teeth and was swallowed-so the person can feel/taste the blood being swallowed in their throat, then the namaz is broken.

5) If you perform amal-e-katheer (significant movement/action) in namaz that an onlooker would be certain that you are not in the state of namaz, this would break the namaz.

6) To scratch oneself three times in one rukn (one act) in namaz, breaks the namaz. Meaning the hand was raised for scratching once, then twice, then the third time it is raised- namaz will break. If you raise your hand once and scratch many times-this would be regarded as scratching just once and therefore namaz will not break.

7) If the pre-condition is left out deliberately – namaz hasn’t even started (like time, purification not acted upon).

8) Wrongly pronouncing the Takbeer-e-tahreema (so instead of Allah and Akbar, one says Aallaa or Aakbar).

9) If the pre-conditions are accidentally broken, unless fixed within the time length of 3 tasbeehs:

• if a part was uncovered a quarter or more and stayed uncovered for more than one ‘rukn’ – meaning the time one could say Subhanallah 3 times, then the namaz will break and will have to be repeated.

• contact with najasat (filth).

• chest turns away from Qibla.

Note: crossing and walking past a person praying namaz does not break the namaz of the person praying, but the person walking past will have committed a big sin. However, if the person crosses a person in a big field/ area etc and leaves a space of three feet distance ( from where a person praying will do his sajdah), then there is no harm, but one cannot do this in the local masjid or house. (The masjids of the harams in Makkah Mukarramah / Madinah Munawwara are an exception).