Hay'a (the recommended forms of prayer, and the dignified offenders)

هَيْئة

Hay'a in the lexical sense is the outward state a thing is in, sensed or understood. ^{1 2} In prayer the Shafi'is divide its acts into pillars (arkan), sunan that sahw prostration repairs, and hay'at that it does not repair and to which the worshipper does not return; they liken the prayer to a person, the pillar to the head, the condition to life, the sunan to the limbs and the hay'at to the hair. ^{2 3} By the Shafi'i count there are more than fifteen hay'at, including raising the hands at the opening takbir, at bowing and at rising from it, placing the right palm on the left, seeking refuge before recitation, saying amin, the glorification in bowing and prostration, and the postures of sitting. ^{3 4 5} The Hanbalis list hay'at as matters of manner: the fingers, the placing of the right hand over the left below the navel, the gaze at the place of prostration, and measured recitation. ^{6 7} In discipline, most jurists lighten the punishment for the dignified, the people of religion and piety, relying on the saying 'pardon the lapses of the dignified except in the hadd punishments'. ^{7 8} The jurists differ: some admonish but do not discipline a first lapse; Ibn Abd al-Salam holds the dignified are not punished at all, and al-Adhra'i disputes him. ^{8 9}