Praying by gestures of the eye

Question

During an eye operation (cataract couching) moving the head is not permitted. Is prayer by gestures of the eyelid of the eye that has not been operated on and has no bandage on it permissible or not? In al-Quduri it is written that it is not permissible — is this the view on which the fatwa is given or not? If [a person] stays blind for fear that his prayer will be missed, how is this in the Sacred Law?

Answer

Prayer by gestures of the eye alone is not valid; in al-Quduri it is the same, and this is the view on which the fatwa is given. The person in whose eye water (cataract) has formed, and who does not have the operation for fear that his prayer will be missed, and bears his blindness with patience — for him there is a very great reward.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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