Upon whom is prayer obligatory?

Prayer is obligatory upon every sane, adult Muslim, male or female. It is not obligatory upon a disbeliever, nor upon a non-adult (child), nor upon an insane person. The guardian of a child must command him to pray at the age of seven and strike him for it at the age of ten, to train him in it and accustom him to observing it.

As for one whose mind is gone due to something other than insanity, such as fainting, drug use, or drinking intoxicants, prayer is obligatory upon him and he must make it up when he recovers. The Hadith explicitly states that the pen is lifted only from the insane person. And because insanity can be prolonged, it would be a hardship and difficulty if making up prayers were obligatory in that case, unlike the temporary loss of consciousness due to fainting, which resembles sleep. Both the sleeper and the fainted person are required to make up their prayers.

For a woman, purity from menstruation and postpartum bleeding is a prerequisite for prayer to be obligatory. In these two states, prayer is not obligatory upon her, and she does not have to make it up once she becomes pure.