Does one who intentionally abandoned prayer make it up if he repents?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: A person used to not pray out of laziness and open sinfulness, and this continued for several years. He repented and started praying. Does he have to make up the prayers for those years, or is it sufficient for him to perform the recommended prayers?
Answer:
It is correct that he does not have to make up those years, because during the period in which he intentionally abandoned prayer, he was not a Muslim; he was a disbeliever who left Islam by abandoning prayer intentionally. So when he repented, he returned to Islam and entered Islam anew. He prays in the future after repentance. As for what has passed, he does not make it up. Yes.
The questioner says: A person used to not pray out of laziness and open sinfulness, and this continued for several years. He repented and started praying. Does he have to make up the prayers for those years, or is it sufficient for him to perform the recommended prayers?
Answer:
It is correct that he does not have to make up those years, because during the period in which he intentionally abandoned prayer, he was not a Muslim; he was a disbeliever who left Islam by abandoning prayer intentionally. So when he repented, he returned to Islam and entered Islam anew. He prays in the future after repentance. As for what has passed, he does not make it up. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، هل يقضي الصلاة من تركها عمدا إذا تاب؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.