Not all mental diseases exempt one from performing prayer

23-12-2008 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalammualaykum.. I have a mental disease(schizophrenia) and lately I have been trying my best to perform the 5 daily prayers, dzikr and read the Quran to heal and calm myself. However, I have the understanding that you need to be sane to perform Friday prayers. Are people suffering from mental illness like myself are exempted from Friday prayers and even congreation prayers for that matter? and what does 'sane' means in regards to this?. If a mental patient suffers from hallucinations/extreme anxiety/depression/extreme paranoia, are they exempted from the Friday prayers?. Thank you in advance.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

 

First of all, we ask Allaah to cure you from all these kinds of diseases.

As regards whether or not a person in your situation is exempted from the Friday prayer and the congregational prayer, then the answer is no. Since you are able to write such a question, then you are conscious –Allaah willing. Not every mental disease renders a person exempted from religious obligations as we clarified in Fatwa 88725.

Hence, we advise you to perform Ruqyah and recite the daily legislated mention of Allaah that is reported in the Sunnah, as well as observing the religious obligations like the five daily prayers, being kind and dutiful to the parents and keeping ties with kinship. If you do so, you will be cured, Allaah willing.

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 82355.

Allaah Knows best.