Whoever only recites Al-Fatihah in the prayer or misses Al-Fatihah out of forgetfulness
10-7-2017 | IslamWeb
Question:
What is the religious ruling on only reciting Al-Fatihah in a Sunnah prayer, such as the morning prayer for example, without reciting another soorah (chapter) after it? Is this permissible? Should such a worshipper perform sujood as-sahw (prostration of neglectfulness) before the tasleem in case he forgets to recite Al-Fatihah?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Reciting a soorah from the Quran after Al-Fatihah (i.e. the opening chapter of the Quran) is an act of the Sunnah and not an obligation. Abu Hurayrah 
reported that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, used to recite Al-Kafiroon (chapter no. 109) in the first rak‘ah (unit of prayer) of the Sunnah of the morning prayer and Al-Ikhlas (chapter no. 112) in the second. [Muslim]
It was also reported that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, used to recite these two soorahs in the Sunnah of the Maghrib prayer as well. However, if a worshipper only recited Al-Fatihah in the supererogatory prayers, then it will be enough for him. In fact, it is recommended to recite only Al-Fatihah in the Sunnah of the morning prayer according to the famous opinion in the Maliki school of Fiqh. The Maliki scholar, An-Nafrawi 
said, “It is recommended to recite only Al-Fatihah in the two rak‘ahs of the Sunnah of the morning prayer.” The Maliki scholar, Khaleel said that the recommendation to recite only Al-Fatihah, silently, in the two rak‘ahs of the Sunnah of the morning prayer is based on what was cited in Al-Muwatta’ on the authority of ‘Aishah 
. She said, “The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, used to perform the two-rak‘ah Sunnah prayer before the morning prayer in such a light manner that I would wonder whether he recited Al-Fatihah (or not).”
As for missing the recitation of Al-Fatihah in any rak‘ah out of forgetfulness, a worshipper is obliged to make up for these rak‘ahs in such a case. Imam An-Nawawi said in his book, Al-Majmoo’:
As for a worshipper who does not recite Al-Fatihah in any of the rak‘ahs out of forgetfulness and then performed the tasleem or rukoo’ (i.e. bowing in the prayer) afterwards, there are two famous opinions in this regard. The most correct of these two opinions according to the consensus of the Shafi’i scholars, and this is according to the later Shafi‘i school of Fiqh, is that such a worshipper is not exempted from observing the obligation of reciting Al-Fatihah. If he remembers it while performing the rukoo’ or after it, before standing up to perform the following rak‘ah, then he is obliged to stand up again and recite Al-Fatihah. If he remembers after standing up to perform the following rak‘ah, then the previous rak‘ah is invalidated and this rak‘ah will be considered the first. If the worshipper remembered after the tasleem and the time interval was short and insignificant, then he is obliged to stand up and perform another rak‘ah and then perform sujood as-sahw.
In case the time interval is long and significant, the worshipper is obliged to perform the entire prayer over again.
In the last case, sujood as-sahw will not suffice in redressing the omission of the recitation of Al-Fatihah since this is a due pillar of the prayer. Forgetting the performance of the pillars of the prayer does not exempt one from re-performing them and sujood as-sahw is not enough to redress the mistake in such a case.
Allah knows best.