If a Muslim repents with a sincere repentance, does he have to make up the prayers and fasts he missed?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: If a Muslim repents to Allah with sincere repentance and makes a sincere covenant with his Lord to be steadfast and to maintain the prayer at its appointed times and to fast, does he have to make up the prayers, even if they were, for example, five years ago? Please inform us, may Allah reward you.
Answer:
The one who abandons the prayer is in one of two states. The first state is that he denies its obligation, believing that it is not obligatory and that it is a social custom or something similar to the expressions used by those who are ignorant in the moment and those who are frivolous, who say that the prayer is a social custom. This is disbelief by the consensus of the Muslims, because whoever says this statement and denies the obligation of the prayer is lying to Allah and His Messenger, and to the consensus of the Muslims and what is known of the religion by necessity. As for if he acknowledges its obligation and acknowledges that it is a pillar of Islam, but he abandons it out of laziness, then this is a matter of disagreement among the scholars.
Repentance is obligatory upon him in all cases, and hastening to repent is obligatory upon him by consensus. However, the question remains: does he repeat the prayers he abandoned or not? Some scholars held that he repeats them, based on the view that he did not exit Islam by abandoning the prayer out of laziness, but rather he commits a minor disbelief. Therefore, he repeats the prayers he abandoned because the foundation of Islam remains with him. The second opinion is that he does not repeat the prayers he abandoned, because the one who abandons the prayer out of laziness disbelieves just like the one who abandons it intentionally. This is evidenced by the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Sunan Ibn Majah 1078Sahih (Darussalam) The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Sunan Ibn Majah 1079Sahih (Darussalam) in many proofs. And this is the correct view: that he commits major disbelief, even if he abandoned it out of laziness. Based on this, he does not make up the prayers he abandoned intentionally, but rather he is sincere in his repentance, maintains his prayers in the future, and increases in acts of obedience and voluntary deeds. And Allah accepts the repentance of whoever repents. Yes. May Allah reward you.
He says: If a Muslim repents to Allah with sincere repentance and makes a sincere covenant with his Lord to be steadfast and to maintain the prayer at its appointed times and to fast, does he have to make up the prayers, even if they were, for example, five years ago? Please inform us, may Allah reward you.
Answer:
The one who abandons the prayer is in one of two states. The first state is that he denies its obligation, believing that it is not obligatory and that it is a social custom or something similar to the expressions used by those who are ignorant in the moment and those who are frivolous, who say that the prayer is a social custom. This is disbelief by the consensus of the Muslims, because whoever says this statement and denies the obligation of the prayer is lying to Allah and His Messenger, and to the consensus of the Muslims and what is known of the religion by necessity. As for if he acknowledges its obligation and acknowledges that it is a pillar of Islam, but he abandons it out of laziness, then this is a matter of disagreement among the scholars.
Repentance is obligatory upon him in all cases, and hastening to repent is obligatory upon him by consensus. However, the question remains: does he repeat the prayers he abandoned or not? Some scholars held that he repeats them, based on the view that he did not exit Islam by abandoning the prayer out of laziness, but rather he commits a minor disbelief. Therefore, he repeats the prayers he abandoned because the foundation of Islam remains with him. The second opinion is that he does not repeat the prayers he abandoned, because the one who abandons the prayer out of laziness disbelieves just like the one who abandons it intentionally. This is evidenced by the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Between a person and Kufr (disbelief) is abandoning the prayer.
بين العبد وبين الكفر ترك الصلاة،The covenant that distinguishes between us and them is prayer; so whoever leaves it, he has committed Kufr.
الْعَهْدُ الَّذِي بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَهُمُ الصَّلاَةُ فَمَنْ تَرَكَهَا فَقَدْ كَفَرَ،
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، إذا تاب المسلم توبة نصوحة فهل يقضي ما فاته من صلاة وصيام؟ الشيخ صالح بن فوزان الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.