until nightfall.” Likewise, his words:

“No Eid prayer is complete until the worshipper applies the water of purification to the prescribed parts”—to the end of the hadith.

And his words:

“Whatever you leave out of this, you have left out of your prayer.”

Regarding the completion of pilgrimage, fasting, and similar acts, one may say that this is an unrestricted command to complete both their obligatory and recommended elements. Where an element is obligatory, the command makes it binding; where it is recommended, the command recommends it. The word “complete” also occurs in his words:

“His bowing is complete, and that is its minimum.”

And his words:

“Straighten your rows, for straightening the row is part of completing the prayer.”

Another narration reads, “part of establishing the prayer.”

Deficiency is the opposite of completion and completeness, as in his words:

“Whoever offers a prayer without reciting the Mother of the Book in it, that prayer is deficient.”

The majority say that this means a deficiency in obligatory elements, because the word used here for “deficient” describes something lacking in its limbs and essential parts. Others say that it means falling short of recommended completeness. Indeed, deficiency frequently refers to the omission of recommended elements, as previously discussed concerning the jurists’ division of purification into that which is complete and that which is sufficient but not complete. Whatever is not complete is deficient. Likewise, his words:

“His bowing and prostration are complete, and that is their minimum.”

Whatever is not complete is deficient, even if it suffices.

Failure to fulfill what is obligatory is then of two kinds. One invalidates the act of worship, such as omitting essential elements of purification, prayer, or pilgrimage. The other does not invalidate it, such as omitting obligatory elements of pilgrimage that are not essential elements; omitting obligatory elements of prayer out of forgetfulness, according to the well-known position reported from Ahmad; and omitting obligatory elements for which Abū Hanīfa regards the person as having acted wrongly, but which do not invalidate