How am I supposed to pray when I'm having terrible headaches?

Question

From the Verse (4:103) and some ahadith -like

(Sahih al-Bukhari 1117) Narrated `Imran bin Husain:

I had piles, so I asked the Prophet (ﷺ) about the prayer. He said, "Pray while standing and if you can't, pray while sitting and if you cannot do even that, then pray Lying on your side."

scholars have deduced that it is allowed to pray while standing, sitting, or [lying] on our sides under some circumstances! With differences between farz and sunnah/nafl prayers!

But some scholars say that it is only allowed to pray in an other position than the "normal" (while standing) if one cannot stay, if one for example prays while sitting but is physically absolutely able to stand his prayer is considered void (See for example this fatwa in Arabic).

Now I'd like to know how could I pray for example when I'm having strong headaches once I perform sujud or ruku' due to a sinusitis? This means I'm able to stand but once my head goes down I get terrible headaches or feel dizzy.

Should I start the prayer standing and continue sitting without performing the sujud and ruku', or should i start it sitting?

I assume that I'm allowed not to perform sujud and ruku' due to the headaches!

As I'd like to have a practical answer telling me what should I do, here are some possible scenarios, how a raka' could look like:

1. Recite the Surah and Fatiha (while standing) then sit down for ruku' performing a minor movement (head down instead of ruku') and stand up for saying Sami' Allah liman hamidah etc. than again sit down for sujud (sujud: head down -slightly- instead of a real sujud) and sitting between the sajdas and 2nd sujud. And so on...
2. Recite Surah and Fatiha (while standing) then sit down perform ruku' as described in 1. but don't stand up again until the raka' ends. Sujud etc. as described in 1.
3. Never stand up again after the first standing for Surah and Fatiha in the first raka'.

Which of these scenarios may be the closest to how it should be?

Answer 1

All perfect praise be to Allah

Brother as a rule of thumb there is only one thing which i need to tell you and it is, that whatever position you are facing severe issues in, you must avoid that position.

Now it's on your intention, Allah knows all of your intentions, he knows whether or not you were able to do that and whether or not you did it willingly or because of a valid reason.

As an example, a friend of mine cannot breathe in sujjud, he get some kind of flu if he do so, so what he do is he delay a bit when going to sujjud and he keeps his breath stopped in sujjud. And he is perfectly fine in doing so, sometimes when imam makes long sujjud he face difficulties, and he manages it. Our local imam knows him and he does not do long sujjud because of him.

The purpose of quoting his example was to tell you that you can think of any comfortable and most closest way to complete your salaah, and if the issue is severe and unavoidable you can leave JUST THAT PART.

Which leads us to the conclusion that no scenario you have described is best, you must start slaah normally, than for ruku just lean as much as you are comfortable, than back to normal, and for sujjud sit down and lean as much as possible, because in it you are closest to the actual prayer.

Allah says in quran:

“Allaah burdens not a person beyond his scope” [al-Baqarah 2:286]

and in hadees

Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “If I command you to do a thing, then do as much of it as you can.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 7288; Muslim, 1337.

For details of a related question see She is pregnant and cannot bow or prostrate

In this fatwa it is quoted same:

Shaykh Ibn Baaz said:

Whoever is able to stand but is unable to bow or prostrate is not relieved of the obligation to stand, rather he should pray standing up, then lean forward for rukoo’ (i.e., whilst standing) then sit and lean forward for sujood… and he should make leaning for sujood deeper than that for rukoo’. If he is only unable to prostrate then he should do rukoo’ and then lean forward for sujood.

If during the prayer the sick person becomes able to do something that he was unable to do, such as standing, sitting, bowing or prostrating, he should start to do that and continue from whatever he has already completed of his prayer.

From his essay Ahkaam Salaat al-Mareed wa Tahaaratihi.

I pray to Allah that he grant you full health and bless you so you can properly pray.

Allah knows best