بســـم اللــه الرحــمــن الـرحـــيــم
◾Can you pray with your eyes closed?◾
Our Shaykh Abu Bilaal Al-Hadhramy- may Allah preserve him- was asked the following question on 16th Rajab1441( 11th March 2020):
📝🔹Question:
The Questioner says: What is the ruling of someone praying with their eyes closed?
📩🔸Answer:
Speech upon this has already preceded, which is that:
▪ The Prophet ﷺ outpaced an approaching sheep with a brisk walk whilst praying. [1]
▪ Strangled the Shaytaan (during his prayer). [2]
▪ Said:
["اذْهَبُوا بِخَمِيصَتِي هَذِهِ إِلَى أَبِي جَهْمٍ وَائْتُونِي بِأَنْبِجَانِيَّةِ أَبِي جَهْمٍ]
[
Take this garment of mine to Abou Jahm and bring me the blanket of Abou Jahm] [3]
So he did not close his eyes, rather, he looked and as a result:
["أَلْهَتْنِي عَنْ صَلاَتِي"]
It distracted me from my prayerSo he got rid of it, sent it away and came with another one. All of the aforementioned show that he did not close his eyes, on the contrary, he looked.
Having said that; from the scholars are those that view closing the eyes to be OK if there is something to be gained from doing so, such as if there are decorations in front of him that may distract him if he looks at them.
There is nothing wrong with this view as there may be some ocassions where one may laugh, were he to look at the antics of children during the prayer. So if closes his eyes in order to prevent that then it is an entirely different matter.
As for closing the eyes with nothing to be gained, rather he wants to achieve khushoo (submissive concentration and humility) and so overexerts himself in order to so; this is inapproriate. The Prophet ﷺ did not close his eyes yet had the most khushoo, which he attained without closing his eyes.
______________________________________[1] Repprted by ibn Khumaizah (١/٩٥/١
And Tabaraani(٣/١٤٠/٣)
[2] Narrated by Abu Hurriera (may Allah be pleased with him) in AlBukhari (1210)
[3] Narrated by Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) in AlBukhari, (373) and Muslim (556). This is the wording of AlBukhari.
______________________________________Translated by: Abu Sufyaan
Saami ibn Daniel Al-Ghaani
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