The following writing is translated from Durr-ul-mukhtar:

Things that nullify namaz are called mufsids. A worship being fasid or batil is the same; it means it is broken, nullified. In muamalat these are not the same. The following are the thirty-one mufsids of namaz:

1 - To talk. Even one word nullifies namaz. It always nullifies namaz no matter whether it is said intentionally or inadvertently or by force or by forgetting. However, it does not nullify namaz to say the salam in the first sitting thinking that it is the second sitting. Yet if you say, "Assalamu," thinking that the namaz is of two rakats, or if you say it while standing, namaz becomes nullified. To respond to someone else's greeting in any manner whatsoever, nullifies namaz.

2 - Without a good excuse, coughing through the throat nullifies namaz. If it happens involuntarily, it does not nullify namaz. If you do it in order to facilitate your recitation, it is harmless.

3 - To say prayers in namaz that do not exist in ayats or hadiths nullifies namaz. It is written in Durr-ul-mukhtar: "The prayer to be said before making the salam has to be in Arabic. It is haram to pray in any other language during namaz." At this point Ibni Abidin explains: "Imam-i Abu Yusuf and Imam-i Muhammad said that namaz performed in any language other than Arabic would not be accepted. Imam-i azam's (rahmatullahi 'alaihim) ijtihad states the same."

4 - To moan or to say "Ouch!" etc. nullifies namaz.

5 - To say, "Ugh!" in order to express annoyance nullifies namaz.

6 - Crying for reasons such as a pain or sorrow nullifies namaz. If you weep silently or cry loudly because of the thought of Paradise and Hell, namaz does not become nullified. If a sick person cannot help saying "Ouch, ugh!" or crying, namaz does not become nullified.

7 - It nullifies namaz to say "Yarhamukallah" to a person who sneezes and says, "Al- hamdulillah." When not performing namaz, it is fard kifaya to say the former immediately after each of the three instances of the latter, and it is mustahab after the third time [Riyad un-nasihin].

8 - To say, "Inna lillah wa...," upon hearing bad news nullifies namaz. It is sunnat to say it while not performing namaz.

9 - To say "Jalla Jalaluh" and "Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam," upon hearing the names of Allahu ta'ala and the Prophet 'sallallahu alaihi wa sallam' nullifies namaz. Outside of namaz, saying or writing them is wajib for the first time and mustahab for those times afterwards of saying, hearing or writing their names.

10 - To say "Amin" for a prayer said by anyone but the imam nullifies namaz. [For this reason, if the imam is conducting congregational prayer with a loudspeaker, when he says, "Walad'dallin," the namaz of those who say, "Amin" may become nullified. For the sound produced by the loud-speaker is not the imam's voice. It is some other sound produced by a metal plate that vibrates because of the magnetic power caused by electricity. Such sounds, which are originally caused by the human voice, are indistinguishable from their producers' voices, but in actual fact they are not their voices, as it will be explained in detail in Chapter 24]. When the imam finishes reciting the Fatiha, it is makruh for the imam and for the jamaat to say "Amin" loudly. They must say it softly.

11 - To change your place or to make room for a newcomer with someone else's warning nullifies namaz. But your moving of your own will a little some time later does not nullify it.

12 - To correct the mistake of anyone except the imam you follow nullifies namaz.

13 - Even if a little, or by forgetting, eating or drinking by placing something in the mouth nullifies namaz. It does not nullify namaz to swallow something smaller than a chick-pea that has remained between the teeth. It does not break a fast, either. To chew something small in your mouth three times or to swallow it by melting it nullifies namaz.

14 - To say the prayers by reading and learning them from the Qur'an al-karim or from some other paper nullifies namaz. To do so would mean to learn the prayers from someone else. Imam-i Muhammad and Imam-i Abu Yusuf said that it would be makruh. If you do not think of yourself being like a disbeliever with a Holy Book, they said it would not be makruh, either.

Understanding something by looking at a piece of writing or something [i.e. picture on the wall] does not nullify namaz. If one understands a writing, it is makruh. It does not become makruh if it only meets one's eyes by chance.

[Doing the customs of disbelievers, if not with the intention of being like them, if they are not haram or evil customs, and if they are useful, is permissible. Eating and drinking like them is an example of this. It is haram if it is done in order to become like them, or if they are haram and bad customs.

It is written in Uyun-ul-basair: "If a person draws a portrait of a man and prostrates in front of it in the name of Hadrat Isa or makes a statue for prostration or wears a girdle like the one which has been worn by Jews and Christians, he becomes a disbeliever. If a person wears clothings peculiar to disbelievers in order to trick them in war, he does not become a disbeliever." It is excusable if he wears them only long enough to save his life, property, and sustenance. It is disbelief to wear them any longer. As written in most of the books of Aqaid (belief) and fiqh, particularly in Durar, in its chapter preceding the subject of Nikah: "If a person, no matter whether his heart is filled with iman, says a word causing disbelief without a strong necessity, that is, willingly, he becomes a disbeliever. The iman in his heart will be of no use then. For a person's disbelief is judged from his words. When he says a word causing disbelief, he becomes a disbeliever both among the people and to Allahu ta'ala." It is written in the third chapter of the sixth section of the book Sharh-i mawaqif that the case is the same with the kufr-i hukmi (judged disbelief) caused by actions and ways of dressing].

It is disbelief to do things which disbelievers practice as worships, e.g. to play organs, to ring bells in mosques as Christians do in churches, or to use things that Shariat considers symptoms of disbelief, unless there is a darurat or compulsion; it removes iman.

15 - Extra movements that are not parts of namaz nullify namaz. Making the ruku' or the sajdas more than the prescribed number or going out to make ablution does not nullify it. Excusable extra movements such as killing a scorpion or a snake does not nullify it, either. [See the seventeenth and the twenty-sixth makruhs!] If a hand moves less than three times, it does not nullify namaz. It has been said (by savants) that one movement with both hands nullifies namaz. Raising the hands up to the ears for the takbirs in namaz does not nullify namaz. Yet it is makruh.

16 - To stand and to make the sajda at a najs place nullifies namaz. If you spread something over the najs place, namaz does not become nullified. Shoes and clothes that you have on are like parts of your skin. You cannot make the sajda by placing the skirt of your overcoat over a najs place. You must take it off and spread it on the ground. [You cannot perform a janaza namaz with shoes smeared with najasat].

17 - If your awrat parts remain open long enough for you to say "Subhan-Allah" three times in one rukn, if the amount of najasat prescribed to nullify namaz exist on your skin and clothes, if you make namaz ahead of the imam, and if you are in the same line with a woman [who has been following the same imam], your namaz becomes nullified. If you yourself do all these, your namaz will be broken immediately. [See chapter 20, The Namaz in Jamaat!]

18 - To perform namaz on something which you have spread over a najs place but which lets color, odor and moisture through nullifies namaz. If it does not let them through, namaz does not become nullified. Performing it after covering the place with plenty of earth does not nullify namaz.

19 - Turning your chest away from the qibla without a good excuse breaks namaz immediately. Turning your face or any other limb away does not nullify namaz, yet it is makruh. If you cannot help turning away, it nullifies namaz if you remain so as long as one rukn. Walking one line (one meter and half) towards the qibla, does not nullify namaz. If not in the direction of the qibla, or if you walk more than that continuously in the direction of the qibla, it nullifies namaz. For this reason, it is not permissible to perform namaz while walking.

20 - When a woman is kissed or held lustfully, her namaz becomes nullified.

21 - The namaz of a person who apostates by heart becomes nullified. [That is, if he says through his heart, "If such and such a thing happens, so and so's word proves true, and the Qur'an proves to be - may Allahu ta'ala protect us against such thoughts!- untrue," or if a girl decides to marry a disbeliever, he, or she, becomes a disbeliever immediately]. A person who intends to become a disbeliever in the future or who believes something causing disbelief becomes a disbeliever, that is, a renegade immediately.

22 - While performing namaz, it is haram to do something that will break your ablution or ghusl. If a person does any one of them before having sat as long as the tashahhud in the last rakat, his namaz immediately becomes nullified. If he does it after having sat as long as the tashahhud, his namaz will be all right. If his ablution breaks by itself, he may renew it and then continue with his namaz, but it is better to perform it again from the beginning. After having sat as long as the tashahhud, if it breaks by itself, and if he makes an ablution at once and makes the salam, which is wajib or, without making an ablution, if he does something breaking the namaz, e.g. makes the salam, his namaz will be complete.

23 - If a person omits one rukn and does not perform it during the namaz, his namaz becomes nullified.

24 - If a person begins and finishes a rukn before the imam begins it, his namaz becomes nullified. But if the imam begins the rukn later and they finish it at the same time, or if he gives up making that part of the namaz before the imam begins the rukn and then, when the imam begins the rukn, makes the rukn again together with the imam, the namaz does not become nullifed, yet it is makruh. If a person begins a rukn after the imam has finished it, his namaz will be acceptable.

25 - One who misses the first rakat of the jamaat is called a masbuk. If a masbuk, after having set as long as (to say the prayer called) the tashahhud and before the imam makes the salam, stands and makes sajda and then sees the imam making sajda-i sahw and if he, too, makes the sajda-i sahw with the imam, his namaz is nullified. Without following the imam, he makes the sajda-i sahw after completing his namaz. If he stood but did not make the sajda, it is wajib for him to sit and make the sajda-i sahw with the imam.

26 - If a person who forgot to make the sajda remembers it during the ruku' or during the sajda, he prostrates and makes the sajda right after the ruku, or after sitting after the regular sajda, he makes the ruku' and the sajda again. Then he makes the sajda-i sahw. Or, at the end of or during the final sitting he makes the sajda which he remembered or which he remembers during the final sitting, then he sits again and says the Tahiyyat, and then makes the sajda-i sahw. If he does not sit again, his namaz becomes nullified.

27 - If a person does not perform again the rukn that he performed while sleeping, his namaz becomes nullified.

28 - If during the takbirs in namaz a person prolongs the first hamza (A) when saying "Allahu," his namaz becomes nullified. If he prolongs it when beginning namaz, his beginning the namaz is not sahih.

29 - If saying the ayats melodiously changes the meaning, it nullifies namaz, too. To recite the Qur'an melodiously means to prolong its letters in order to tune them to musical notes. For example, it changes the meaning to prolong the letter (a) as in "Alhamd-u-lillahi rabbil." Likewise, saying "Rabbanalakalhamd," as some muazzins do, changes the meaning. For rab means stepfather; so instead of saying, "We thank our Allah," they say, "We thank our stepfather." If the meaning is not changed, namaz does not become nullified. But if you extend such vowels as Alif, Waw and Ya too long, namaz becomes nullified, even if the meaning is not changed. As seen, if saying the words melodiously does not change their meaning, if the letters are not prolonged as long as two letters, and if it is intended to beautify the voice and to embellish the recitation, it is permissible. In fact, it is mustahab to do so when performing namaz as well as when not performing namaz.

It is written in the fatwa of Abussuud Effendi: "If the imam's singing becomes 'amal-i kasir, or if he prolongs one letter as long as three letters, his namaz becomes nullified. To say something melodiously means to sing it, to repeat your voice in your larynx so as to produce various sounds."

30 - An incorrect recitation nullifies namaz. The error may happen in four different ways. The first error involves i'rab, that is, it takes place in the vocalization or absence of letters. For instance, when you don't double the letter with the shadda or when you say the prolonged ones too quickly, and vice versa.

The second kind of error takes place among the letters themselves. For example, you change the place of a letter, add or deduct a letter, or move a letter forward or backwards.

The third error involves confusion of words or sentences. And finally, the fourth error concerns the waqf-wasl; that is, when you go on where you must pause or pause where you must go on. This fourth kind of error does not nullify namaz even if the meaning is changed.

If the first three kinds of errors change the meaning or produce a meaning that causes disbelief, namaz becomes nullified. But when you change the place of a sentence, if you pause for a while, it does not become nullified. If some newly produced meaning does not cause disbelief but if it does not have a likeness in the Qur'an, namaz becomes nullified. To say 'gubar' instead of 'gurab,' to say 'Rabinas' instead of 'Rabbinnas,' to say 'zalelna' instead of 'zallelna,' to say 'emaratun' instead of 'emmaretun,' to add the word "wa kefere" by saying "amile salihan wa kafara fa lahum ajruhum," to say 'masanina' instead of 'masani', to say "assiratallazina" or "iyya kana 'budu," [that is, to divide one word and add its final part to the following word], to forget "wa" when saying "wa ma khalaqazzakara," nullifies namaz. If the word becomes meaningless and if it does not have a likeness in the Qur'an al- karim, it nullifies namaz. For instance, to say 'sarail' instead of 'sarair,' to say 'laqna,' instead of 'khalaqna', to say 'alna' instead of 'ja'alna.' If the word has a likeness in the Qur'an but if its meaning is different, namaz does not become nullified according to Imam-i Abu Yusuf's ijtihad. But it becomes nullified according to the Tarafain, i.e. Imam-i azam and Imam-i Muhammad. The fatwa agrees with the second ijtihad. If the word has no likeness but if its meaning is not changed, they judged it the other way round. The fatwa agrees with the Tarafain's. For example, when you say "ihdinelsirata" or "Rabilalamin" or "Iyake," or when you say "ya mali" instead of "ya malik," or when you say "ta'al" while saying "ta'ala yeddu Rabbina," namaz does not become nullified. [When you say "ahat" instead of "ahad" (Bazaziyya)].

Later savants said that errors in the i'rab would not nullify namaz. The first is a way of prudence, and the second is a way of permission.

Pronouncing one letter like another letter, if the two letters are quite different, nullifies namaz. For example, to pronounce the letter "Ta" instead of the letter "Sat," as in "talihat" instead of "salihat." If there is a small difference between the letters and if the meaning is changed, "namaz becomes nullified if you did it intentionally," said most savants. But if it slipped out inadvertently, "namaz does not become nullified," they said. Examples of this are to pronounce the letter "Zi" instead of "Dat," "Sat" instead of "Sin," or "Ti" instead of "Te." Though the fatwa says so, one must be cautious. So is the case with saying "zallin" instead of saying "dallin." [For more details see chapter 20, Namaz in Jamaat!]

When you add a word, if the meaning does not change and if the word exists in the Qur'an al-karim, namaz does not become nullified. For example, to say "wa bilwalideyni ihsanan wa berren." Namaz does not become nullified even if that word does not exist in the Qur'an al-karim. Another example is to say, "wa nahlun wa tuffahun wa rum'man." But Abu Yusuf (rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih) said that it would be nullified.

When a word is forgotten, if the meaning is not changed namaz does not become nullified. For instance, while saying "wa jazau seyyiatin seyyiatun misluha," if you omit "seyyiatun" it does not become nullified. If the meaning is changed, namaz becomes nullified. For example, when saying "la yu'minun," if you omit "la," it becomes nullified.

When you change a letter itself or its place, if the meaning is not changed and if the new word has a likeness in the Qur'an, namaz does not become nullified. For instance, if you say "Innelmuslimuna" instead of "innelmuslimina," it does not become nullified. If it does not have a likeness in the Qur'an "namaz does not become nullified" according to the two imams. For example, when you say "kayyamine" instead of "kawwamine," it does not become nullified. If the meaning is changed, "it becomes nullified," said the two imams. Imam-i Abu Yusuf said that namaz would become nullified if the word had no likeness in the Qur'an. It becomes nullified if you say "as-habashshair" instead of "es-habassair." He (Abu Yusuf) said that it would not be nullified if you said "inferejet" instead of "infejeret" or "eyyab" instead of "awwab."

When you repeat a word, namaz becomes nullified if the meaning is changed. It becomes nullified when you say "Rabbi Rabbil'alamin, maliki maliki yawmiddin." But if you do not know that the meaning is changed or if you let the word out inadvertently or if you repeat the word in order to pronounce a letter more correctly, it does not become nullified.

If changing a word changes the meaning, too, namaz becomes nullified even if the new word has a likeness in the Qur'an. It does not become nullified if the meaning is not changed.

The following is a poem written by Ahmad Ibni Kamal Pasha (rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih) on the sejawands (marks of subdivision) in the Qur'an:

Jim: Permissible to pass by it, and proper too, better stop when you see it, though.

Za: You are free to stop, and so have they done. But they have deemed it better to read on.

Ti: It is an absolute sign of stop; wherever you see it be sure to stop!

Sat: "Stopping is permissible," they have said; so they have allowed you to take a breath.

Mim: Absolutely necessary to stop for it; fear of disbelief is in passing by it!

La: "No pause!" is its meaning, everywhere; never stop! Nor breathe, anywhere! Now perfect your reading with this recipe, and gift its thawab to Muslims before thee!

[The letter "'ayn" means ruku'. It means that when conducting namaz in jamaat, Hadrat 'Umar Faruq used to stop reciting the Qur'an while standing and bow for the ruku'. This sign, 'ayn, always comes at the end of ayats. If you stop at the place where the sign la is, you must begin reading with the previous word. When you stop at the end of an ayat (verse), you do not have to repeat the previous word.]

31 - If a person who has omitted less than five prayers of namaz remembers that he did not perform the previous prayer, his namaz becomes nullified. [For detailed information see the beginning of the twenty-third chapter!].

Whether outdoors or at any place within a big or small mosque, if a woman or a man or a dog passes close by or far in front of a person who is performing namaz, his namaz never becomes nullified. He who passes between the worshipper's feet and the place of sajda outdoors or in a big mosque, or between his feet and the wall of the qibla in a room or small mosque, becomes sinful. Any mosque between whose qibla wall and back wall is less than twenty meters is called a small mosque. He who passes in front of a person who is performing namaz on something higher than level, such as a bank or a sofa, becomes sinful if his head is above the worshipper's feet.

When performing namaz at places where others may pass in front, it is sunnat for the imam or for the individual worshipper to erect a stick longer than half a meter before himself in line with his left eyebrow. If he cannot set the stick upright he may lay it on the ground towards the qibla or just draw a line. It is permissible to prevent a person from passing in front of you by signaling or by raising your voice; yet, it is better not to.

It is written in Halabi al-Kabir: "Swallowing blood oozing out from between the teeth does not nullify namaz unless it equals a mouthful." One's ablution is not broken even if one swallows mouthfully.

Existence of women among the jamaat is written in chapter 20. "It is fard to perform again a fard namaz that was fasid. It is wajib to perform again any prayers in which tahrimi makruhs took place and also those sunnats and supererogatory prayers that have become fasid. Please see the two hundred and fifty-sixth page of the Turkish version!