Praying seated because of severe obesity

A question about praying seated because of severe obesity, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that someone who suffers severe, unbearable hardship or fears harm because of obesity, or loses humility (khushu') by standing, may pray on a chair or on the floor, while performing whatever pillars he is able to. ¹

Someone who finds prayer hard because of severe obesity, especially rising from the floor after prostration, asked about praying seated. ¹

The Department answered that standing, when one is able, is a pillar of prayer; someone who suffers severe, unbearable hardship, fears harm to himself or a limb because of obesity, or loses his humility in prayer by standing, may pray on a chair or on the floor, gesturing for bowing and prostration with the prostration lower than the bowing. ¹ It said that whoever is able at any point to perform one of these pillars must perform it fully, since leaving it is a concession limited to inability, citing a hadith narrated by al-Bukhari whose meaning is that one should do as much of a command as one can, and the jurists' maxim that what is possible is not dropped because of what is impossible; it noted that al-Juwayni chose as the criterion of inability a hardship that takes away the worshipper's humility. ¹ It added that voluntary prayer may be performed seated even by someone able to stand, but bowing and prostration must be performed by whoever is able to. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 4515, dated 21 September 2026. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.