Speech defect (lukna), fiqh rulings

Lukna, in lexicon, is hesitation and heaviness of the tongue; the man is alkan and the woman lakna, one who cannot speak clear Arabic. The jurists take the sense from their definition of the alkan, one who cannot produce some letters from their places, either not uttering them, changing them, adding to them or repeating them; the Malikis use the word most ¹.

The Shafi'is in the new view, most Hanbalis and the Hanafis in their school hold that the prayer of one who omits or replaces a letter of the opening chapter is not valid for those who follow him. If he can correct his speech and refuses, his own prayer is void; if he cannot, his prayer is valid, and it is valid for one in the same state to follow him ². The Shafi'is hold a slight defect that does not spoil the place of the letter is no obstacle ². The Malikis in their school, some Hanafis, Abu Thawr, Ata and Qatada allow following him, and al-Muzani restricted it to the case where the tongue does not obey or no time to learn has passed ³.

The Shafi'is and Hanbalis say the stammerer and the one who repeats letters should not lead, though their prayer is valid behind them, since they give the letters in full while adding repetition; the Malikis allow a defective speaker to lead one who is sound and one like himself ⁴.