Raising the eyes during prayer contradicts the etiquette and station of the prayer itself. The worshipper is confiding in Allah while facing Him toward the qiblah; for him to look upward and let his gaze wander away from the One he perceives with his heart is bad manners, revealing that he does not feel he is worshipping a Lord who sees him and is closer to him than his jugular vein.

Our jurists say that shutting one’s eyes is disliked because it was a Jewish practice and because it can lead to drowsiness—unless a need necessitates it, in which case the dislike is lifted. Ibn al-Qayyim noted that the Prophet did not customarily close his eyes in prayer, and then added: “The sound position is this: if leaving the eyes open does not undermine devotional humility, that is preferable. If leaving them open prevents humility—owing to decorations or embellishments in front of the worshipper, or anything else that distracts the heart—then closing them is definitely not disliked. In fact, considering it recommended in that situation accords more closely with the principles and aims of the Law than labeling it disliked.”

The hadith of ʿĀʾishah points to the dislike of praying while struggling against al-akhbathān (urine and feces). Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah held that a person restraining urine or feces should relieve himself first, even if he then lacks water, and pray after performing tayammum (dry ablution). He argues that praying with tayammum, a lawful purification, is superior to praying with water while one’s mind is unsettled.

The same ruling applies to anything else that preoccupies the mind: retained gas, extreme heat or cold, excessive hunger or thirst, and the like—anything that strips away khushūʿ and presence of heart. Presence of heart is the essence of prayer; without it the act becomes mere motions that satisfy the legal requirement but do not raise the performer to the rank of those believers who “are humbly submissive in their prayers.”

There is a scholarly disagreement about the validity of praying while resisting the two impurities. The majority deem the prayer valid yet imperfect, interpreting the hadith as meaning “no complete prayer.” The Ẓāhirī school, however, rule it invalid according to the hadith’s literal sense. The view of the majority is the correct one, Allah willing.