the one who is altogether unable to stand. Others maintained that it is anyone for whom standing entails undue hardship because of illness, and this is Mālik’s position.

The root of their disagreement lies in whether the obligation to stand falls away merely on account of hardship, or only when standing becomes impossible; there is no explicit text to settle the question.

With respect to the manner of sitting, some jurists said that he should sit cross-legged—that is, the sitting that takes the place of standing. Ibn Masʿūd disliked the cross-legged posture. Those who allow it see no difference between it and the sitting of the tashahhud, whereas those who disapprove argue that it is not one of the recognized postures of prayer.

As for the prayer of a person who can neither stand nor sit, some said he should pray lying on his side; others said he may pray in whatever way is easiest; still others said he should lie on his back with his feet directed toward the Kaʿbah. A further opinion held that if he cannot pray on his side he should lie on his back with his feet toward the qiblah, doing whatever he can—this is the view preferred by Ibn al-Mundhir.

Fourth Section: On making up the prayer and compensating for any deficiency that occurs therein

This section concerns acts related to the prayer that are not part of its immediate performance. They are of three kinds: repeating the prayer (iʿādah), making it up (qaḍāʾ), and compensating for additions or omissions by means of the prostrations of forgetfulness. Accordingly, the section comprises three chapters:

Chapter One: Repetition
Chapter Two: Make-up prayers
Chapter Three: Compensation effected through prostration

Chapter One: Repetition. This chapter discusses the causes that require a prayer to be repeated—namely, the things that invalidate it. The scholars agree that anyone who prays without purification must repeat the prayer, whether he did so deliberately or out of forgetfulness, and likewise one who prays while not facing the qiblah, whether knowingly or inadvertently.

In sum, whoever neglects any condition for the validity of the prayer must repeat it; their disagreements stem only from their divergent views on what those validating conditions are.

There are, moreover, issues connected to this chapter—outside the obligatory elements already mentioned—over which they also disagreed. Among them is the point on which they all concur, that a state of minor ritual impurity (ḥadath) breaks the prayer; yet they differ over whether one must start the prayer anew when one or two rakʿahs had already been completed before the ḥadath occurred, or whether he may resume and build upon what he had already performed. Accordingly