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Does our prayer become invalid if we take Lyrica pills, which do not cause loss of consciousness, or should we stop praying because of their use, and what should we do?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

We find your question, "Should I abandon prayer because I take pills?", surprising. If matters conflict for you, how can you prioritize abandoning prayer over abandoning the pills?

If a person who consumes intoxicants prays and is not overcome in his mind, his prayer is valid as long as he comprehends what he says and does; because he is not drunk. Al-Qurtubi said: "If he is in a state where he knows what he is saying, and he performs the prayer, then his ruling is that of a sober person."

And Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said regarding the verse: "O you who have believed, do not approach prayer while you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying" [Quran 4:43]. He made the cessation of the ruling of intoxication dependent on knowing what one is saying. So, if he knows what he is saying, he is outside of its ruling. This is the definition of a drunk person according to the majority of scholars.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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