Ruling on Hesitation in Interrupting the Prayer

7-8-2022 | IslamWeb

Question:

Does intention to break the salah, or wavering on whether to break the salah, break the salah? Specifically in the Maliki and Hanafi schools. For example, if I decide to end salah prematurely, is my salah automatically nullified, even if I did not take any actions? What if during prayer, I think about whether to break the salah, and then decide against breaking it, is my prayer nullified anyway?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

The Malikis agrees that the intention to stop the prayer during it invalidates the prayer. As for the Hanafis, what we understood from their words is that the mere intention alone does not interrupt the prayer. As for the hesitation in interrupting the prayer, we have not seen the sayings of the Malikis about it, but some scholars have stated that it does not invalidate the prayer. And this is what appears to us.

Allah knows best.