Many people wonder why President Muhammadu Buhari was sitting on a chair inside the mosque during Friday Jumat service.

It was noted that this will be the first time Buhari was seen sitting on a chair to observe prayers during the recent Eid-il-Fitri prayer with his family in the Aso Villa in Abuja.

It was never in his character, the President was never found in such manner, sitting on the chair to observe any form of Solat, be it obligatory or ceremonial. Even after he came back to the country from a medical tourism then, he attended the Jumat services praying on the mat like other worshippers as nobody is above Allah.

The question is, what has been the bizarre? Does sitting on a chair inside the mosque permitted?

As we are ageing, the body also changes. Our health is also affected and that may mean different things in different parts of the body to different individuals.

No medicine for not growing old but to maintains one’s body perfectly so that our strengths maybe renewed as eagle, As we’re aging, legs are affected. Some, their eyes.

Therefore, Performing prayer while sitting on a chair is not allowed for people who have the ability to perform the prayer in a proper order.

Meanwhile, anybody who has the strength to perform the prayer, by paying due regard to all the postures of prayer like qiyam, ruku`, sujud, etc should do so without any excuse.

In Islam, it is only the sick and travelers that are allowed to pray in the sitting position, lowering their heads a little bit for ruku` and more for sujud.

In fact, sick people people are allowed to pray in whatever position they deem convenient, even while lying down.

For those who are not sick, it is forbidden to pray sitting down on a chair, whether they are praying in private places or public. In Islam, all the postures of prayer must be observed.

A Saudi Islamic lecturer and author, Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid says “Standing is an essential part of prayer, if a person fails to stand during the prayer, from the initial Takbeer to the final salam, with no valid excuse for that, his prayer is invalid.”

According to Al-Baqarah: 238, Allah says: “And stand before Allah with obedience”.

For obligatory prayers, if a person sits down to pray when he is able to stand, his prayer will be invalid before Allah. Truly, such prayer will not get any reward. More so, this is actually counted as a sin.

As a result, it is important to tell those who perform prayers sitting on the chairs during the obligatory prayers that it is not allowed for them to do so if they have strength to do so.

This is permitted, unless they find it extremely difficult to stand.

Get it right, somebody must find it extremely difficult to stand or to observe all postures. A slight difficulty is not an excuse.

It is nothing to do with being grandiose or bigger than God. It is a matter of the condition of the body.

Many people commenting on this issue have no idea what it means to observe prayers sitting on a chair.

Abioye Tosin Lawrence