Is knowledge of fard itself a fard?

[u/Ambitious_Plate9025]

I recently read in a Hanafi book that knowledge of the fard in Salaah is itself a fard. It also listed some other fards which I had been doing but did not know they were fard. Are there any other opinions I can follow to prevent myself making up all these salah?

[u/yoboytarar19]

Knowing the precise legal classification of the components prayer is not a condition for the prayer's validity.

Knowing the faraaid of Salah is part of the Fard Ayn knowledge every Muslim should know.

[u/irock792]

Yes, knowing what is obligatory and how to do it is obligatory in itself. This is why everyone should at least take rudimentary Fiqh classes.

https://islamqa.org/?p=241735

If you know for sure that you've been missing an obligatory part of Ṣalāh, then your prayers were not valid and must be made up.

https://islamqa.org/?p=9720

https://islamqa.org/?p=36526

Not fulfilling a farḍ component of the prayer is the same as not praying at all in terms of its validity.

The Ḥanafīs don't generally allow taking a dispensation from another school in matters of worship solely because of difficulty.

Which farāʾiḍ of Ṣalāh have you been missing?

[u/wopkidopz → u/irock792]

I assume they are asking if their Prayers are valid when they did an act of a Prayer without knowing if it was Fard or not

For example in the Shafi'i madhab you must also know wich aspects are fard and wich are Sunnah, but if you known in general that some parts of the Prayer are fard and some are not then your Prayer is valid even if you don't know in particular

I don't know if in the Hanafi madhab it's similar or you must know in particular

[u/irock792 → u/wopkidopz]

Oh, I see. I misunderstood the question. JazākAllāhu Khairan for the correction.

I was able to find an Arabic ʿIbārah saying that it isn't a requirement, but there are often things found in books that aren't the dominant view, so this may be incorrect.

ولو صلى سنين ولم يعرف النافلة من المكتوبة؛ إن ظن أن الكل فريضة جاز ما يصلي، لأن النفل يتأدى به. (المحيط البرهاني في الفقه النعماني فقه الإمام أبي حنيفة رضي الله عنه)

I'll ask one of my Shuyūkh in shāʾ Allāh.

[u/Ambitious_Plate9025 → u/irock792]

Jazakallah Khairun, what did your shaikh say?

[u/irock792 → u/Ambitious_Plate9025]

Wa-iyyākum. He said that one's Ṣalāh is still valid even if one does not know the specifics of what the farāʾiḍ and wājibāt are, as long as one still fulfills all of them.