Question 70:  Assalamualaykum Sheikhs – I have one question regarding prayer. If someone able to do ruku’ but not able to do Sujud. So he prays with a stool for example. when he wants to do ruku’, should he do a proper ruku’ (Like how we normally do) or he sits on the stool and do his ruku’ while sitting?

Some people pointed out to me that if he do proper ruku’ and then he sits to do the sujud, his sujud position will be higher than his ruku’ position.

What is from the sunnah if someone have to pray while sitting. He able to do his ruku’ but not able to do proper sujud. I hope this Question makes sense Jazakmullahukhairan

Answer :  Walaikumussalam Br Falihin Amran and Everyone,

If someone can do Ruku standing on two legs bowing down properly but cannot do sujud properly going down on the knees and forehead etc, such as some women in late stages of pregnancy, then so long as it is not possible to do sujud in a safe way, then the person ought to pray what they can properly and only excused to do a compromised posture for that which they cannot do properly, even if it means ruku properly and sujud sitting on stool/chair.

If it does end up that the sujud in a compromised state and posture is higher than ruku in a normal state and posture then it does not matter because one is for exceptional compromised state and the other is not.

What is wrong is if a person was doing both ruku and sujud in an exceptional compromised posture, then the ruku should be with a lesser descent and sujud with a greater descent and lower down than ruku.

We also learn this from the Prophet (s a w) that in his later life during the optional late night individual prayer, sometimes the Prophet (s a.w) would pray the ‘Qiyam’ standing part with fatihah and surah sitting down on the floor instead of standing up, then a little while prior to Ruku he would stand up and then go to Ruku than sujud in a normal non-Compromised state posture. So notice that most of the qiyam part of the prayer was lower than the Ruku part. But this does not matter because the seated recitation was for a valid excuse and special / exceptional circumstance whereas the rest was normal. Once again we realise that within normal parts indeed the qiyam is higher up, ruku is lower and sujud even lower. And within a compromised state, all postures done in compromised state or posture should be likewise qiyam higher, ruku lower and sujud even lower.

So to sum up after so much repetition for clarifying, main thing is compromised state sujud posture should be lower than compromised state ruku posture. But a compromised state chaired sujud posture maybe higher than normal state ruku posture provided that during the chair seated sujud the person’s mind should be picturing and feeling doing a real low on the ground sujud.

This is quite likely, as mentioned before, for a pregnant woman in late stage of pregnancy. If instead the sujud was done standing up but in ruku position, then the lower body has not bent lower as it would in a stool/chair seated sujud. Thus it is more important to sit and bend as much as possible in sujud than to stand and only lower the upper body.

I hope this was clear to understand, inshallah.