The ruling on prayer during an eye operation

Question

During an eye operation (cataract couching) no movement of the head or the like is permitted; one has to urinate in bed, and sometimes the body and clothes become soiled with urine. Is it permissible in this case to leave the prayer for qada' (make-up) or not? Or how should one perform the prayer, wudu and tayammum, when one cannot move even the head, and a bandage is wrapped over half the face, so that even a complete tayammum of the face is not possible? Kindly grant an answer with references to reliable books.

Answer

If a pious, expert physician forbids even moving the head and making gestures, and states that in such a condition this is harmful to the eye, then it is permissible to leave the prayer for qada'; one should not pray by gestures of the eyebrows, the eye or the heart.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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