is not valid without it. Do you not see that He called prayer “faith,” since prayer is not valid without faith? Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said:
“Allah would never let your faith go to waste.” [al-Baqarah: 143]
This means your prayers towards Jerusalem, according to the Quran commentators.
Section
According to Mālik—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—all his companions, and most scholars, the particular recitation required of the imam and anyone praying alone is al-Fātihah. One view holds that it is obligatory in the prayer as a whole, as evidenced by the Prophet’s ﷺ words:
“Whoever performs a prayer without reciting al-Fātihah in it, his prayer is deficient—deficient, incomplete.”
Further evidence is his ﷺ statement:
“The prayer of one who does not recite al-Fātihah is not valid.”
Another view holds that it is obligatory in every rak‘ah, as evidenced by the report that he ﷺ said:
“No rak‘ah is complete without the recitation of al-Fātihah.”
Further evidence is the statement of Jābir ibn ‘Abd Allāh: “Whoever performs a rak‘ah without reciting al-Fātihah in it has not prayed, unless he is praying behind an imam.”
According to the view that its recitation is obligatory in the prayer as a whole, someone who omits it entirely must repeat the prayer. If he omits it in a single rak‘ah, whatever the prayer, the prostrations of forgetfulness suffice. According to the view that it is obligatory in every rak‘ah, if he omits it in one, two, or three rak‘ahs, he must disregard those rak‘ahs and build his prayer upon the rak‘ah in which he recited it. The same ruling applies as for someone who omits a prostration or one rak‘ah out of two or three: he rectifies his prayer by disregarding the invalid rak‘ahs and performing the prostrations of forgetfulness after the closing salutation—or before it if his forgetfulness involved both an addition and an omission—as will be explained in their discussions of these issues.
Mālik—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—distinguished between omitting al-Fātihah in a single rak‘ah and omitting it in two or more. He held that someone who omits it in two or more rak‘ahs must repeat the prayer, and his position on this did not vary. Regarding its omission in a single rak‘ah, however, he expressed three views. The first is that the person should perform the prostrations of forgetfulness before the closing salutation, and his prayer is valid. The second is that he should disregard that rak‘ah. The third is that he should perform the prostrations of forgetfulness before the closing salutation and repeat the prayer. It has been said: whether it be