Question:
During salat, if someone pulls up his pants with both his hands, will his salat break? What actions, when done in salat, break the salat?
Answer:
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Yes, by pulling up one’s pants during salat, one’s salat will break. This is because the action of pulling up one’s pants falls under the definition of excessive movement (amal katheer). Excessive movement in salat breaks one’s salat.
The definition of excessive movement is as follows:
a) During salat, if someone does an action that is not part of salat and is such that an onlooker who does not know that he (the one doing the action) is in salat sees him doing that action, he (the onlooker) will think that definitely or most probably he (the one doing the action) is not in salat; then that action is “excessive movement”.
b) Any action that is normally done with two hands also falls under excessive movement, even if someone does that thing with one hand. This is because this action is such that if an onlooker sees one doing it, he (the onlooker) will think that he (the one doing it) is not in salat.
c) Similarly, making three consecutive movements falls under excessive movement. This is also because this action is such that if an onlooker sees one doing it, he (the onlooker) will think that he (the one doing it) is not in salat.
The details of excessive movement can be found in the books of Fiqh.[i]
And Allah Ta’ala knows best
Mufti Faizal Riza
1/4/2013
Darul Ifta Australia
www.fatwa.org.au
