Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
The Question: Praying in One's Own Language — 2:08
Brother Tanzil from Bangladesh emails and asks: can he pray salah in his own language?
The response to this is that if by salah you mean our daily salawat — our five prayers, Fajr and so on — then in those salawat, the arkan and the wajibat must be performed.
The Arkan and Wajibat Must Be in Arabic — 2:49
These must be done in Arabic. If somebody does not speak Arabic, they are required to learn those phrases. That is why, across the globe, every single practicing Muslim memorizes enough of the Quran to read in the prayers, and every single Muslim memorizes the basic adhkar — subhan rabbil a'la and all of the adhkar that are part and parcel of our salawat. So they must be done in Arabic. If they are done in other than Arabic, the salah is batil — it is not to be accepted.
Dua Outside of Salah — 3:30
Now, the only area where there is a bit of a gray area and a bit of leniency is with regards to dua to Allah. Can dua to Allah be done in another language?
If the dua is outside of salah — so if you are asking about duas outside of salah — then by unanimous consensus, all such duas can be done in any language. You may raise your hands up to Allah outside of salah and make dua, pray to Allah for your needs of this world and your needs of the next world, in any language that you speak. It is all permissible, no problem.
Dua Inside of Salah — 4:07
The only area where there is a controversy is making duas inside of salah. As we said, outside of salah there is no controversy. Inside of salah, once you finish — for example, in the sujood you have said subhan rabbil a'la — now you are in sajdah. Can you then say: "O Allah, grant me the good of this world. O Allah, allow me to ace my exam. O Allah, grant me a righteous spouse. O Allah, give me that job that I want." Can you make that dua in other than Arabic?
This is where you have two opinions, and the opinion that I strongly endorse is that it is of course allowed to make dua in any language. What is required in Arabic is the adhkar that are linked to the salah — the wajibat and the arkan that are linked to the salah. Those cannot be done in any other language.
Therefore, it is permissible to pray to Allah in any language at any time. You do not have to restrict it to Arabic, even within the salah, because there is no evidence to do so. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best.