Chapter: The Disapproval of Turning One’s Face in Prayer without Excuse

1755 – ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about turning one’s face during the prayer, and he replied, “It is a snatching that Satan snatches from a servant’s prayer.” Reported by al-Bukhārī.

1756 – Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me, “Beware of turning in the prayer, for turning in the prayer is ruin. If you must do so, then let it be in a voluntary prayer, not in the obligatory one.” Reported by al-Tirmidhī, who said, “A ḥadīth that is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ (good and sound).”

[Commentary]

The author, may Allah have mercy on him, writes in his Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn: This chapter concerns the reprehensibility of turning in the prayer without need. When a person stands to pray he is standing before Allah, and therefore he should not turn—neither with his heart nor with his face—toward anything other than Allah. Turning of the heart occurs when the worshipper thinks about matters unrelated to the prayer, the intrusive thoughts that assail many worshippers. This inner turning is a more serious breach than bodily turning, for it diminishes the reward of the prayer; a person may receive credit for only a tenth of his prayer, or even less, in proportion to the presence of his heart.