the scholars. If someone performs dry ablution while travelling because water is unavailable, he need not repeat the prayer, by agreement of the imams. Likewise, a sick person who prays sitting or lying on his side need not repeat the prayer, by agreement of the scholars.

The same applies to someone without clothing—for example, a person who is shipwrecked or whose clothes are taken by highway robbers. He prays naked and need not repeat the prayer, by agreement of the scholars.

Likewise, someone who is unsure of the direction of prayer and prays, then later discovers the direction, need not repeat the prayer, by agreement of the scholars. Even if he faced the wrong direction despite his best efforts, he need not repeat the prayer according to the majority of them, including Mālik, Abū Hanīfa, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal. The well-known position in al-Shāfiʿī’s school, however, is that he must repeat it.

The scholars have differed over whether someone who performs dry ablution for fear of the cold must repeat the prayer, and whether someone who prays in a ritually impure garment because he can find no other must repeat it, as well as over other cases.

The correct view in all cases of this kind is that none of these people is required to repeat the prayer. Rather, each prays as best he can, and whatever he is unable to do is waived; he need not repeat the prayer. Neither Allah Most High nor His Messenger has ever commanded anyone to perform an obligatory prayer twice. Rather, someone who has not done what he was commanded to do must pray in a state of ablution when he remembers, by agreement of the Muslims—as in the case of someone who forgets the prayer, for the Prophet said: “