I prayed in 1404 and then left off the prayer, and now I have returned to it. Do I have to make up the missed prayers, and do I have to pay an expiation for leaving off the prayer?
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The questioner : I prayed in 1404 AH and then left off the prayer, and now I have returned to it. I would like to know: Do I have to make up the missed prayers, and do I have to pay an expiation for leaving off the prayer? Please inform me of this, may Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : The prayers you left off in the past, making them up now will not benefit you. This is because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) established a specific time for the prayer, and He said, the Exalted:[An-Nisa 4:103]. The times for prayer are limited by a beginning and an end. Just as a person’s prayer is not valid if he prays before the time enters, so too, if he prays after the time has entered without a valid legal excuse, his prayer is not valid and is not accepted from him. If a person repents for leaving off the prayer and returns to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and turns to Him, that is sufficient for him, because sincere repentance wipes out what came before it. Let this man, who left off the prayer in the year before last, which was 1404 AH, repent to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) for what he did. Let him increase in righteous deeds and seeking forgiveness, so that perhaps Allah will forgive him.
The questioner : May Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : The prayers you left off in the past, making them up now will not benefit you. This is because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) established a specific time for the prayer, and He said, the Exalted:
But when you become secure, re-establish [regular] prayer. Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times.
فَإِذَا اطْمَأْنَنتُمْ فَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلاةَ إِنَّ الصَّلاةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَابًا مَوْقُوتًاThe questioner : May Allah reward you.