If a person repents from his heedlessness, having previously neglected fasting Ramadan and establishing the prayer, how does he make up those acts of worship?

The Shaykh : All right, here a questioner says: If a person repents, and before that he was a believer in Allah but did not act in accordance with the implications of his faith... and peace.
The answer: The question contains two categories of forbidden acts. The first category relates to his transgression and disobedience to his Lord regarding His rights over His slaves, such as prayer. The other category of forbidden acts to which the questioner refers is that this person who repented was committing them. Among these forbidden acts are those that relate to the rights of people. So this Muslim...

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
...this Muslim who repented to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and turned back to Him, regarding the acts of worship and obedience that Allah obligated upon him, which he then did not perform: when looking at these acts of worship, either they are time-bound with a defined beginning and end, like the five prayers, or they are time-bound by the onset of the obligation and have no time limit other than death, like Hajj and zakah. As for the first type, like prayer which has a specific time with a defined beginning and end, and fasting which has a counted month, if this disobedient person intentionally neglected prayer and fasting, then his repentance is that he regrets the loss of prayers and fasting in Ramadan that occurred from him, and he resolves not to return to such disobedience, and he follows that with righteous deeds in general, and specifically by increasing voluntary prayers and fasting, to compensate for the reward he missed due to his squandering of what Allah obligated upon him, namely prayer and fasting.
As for making up the prayer that he performed outside its time, and likewise fasting, there is absolutely no way for him to do so, unless we imagine an impossible scenario: if this repentant person could return to the day in which he lost the prayer or prayers, then let him return to it and pray in it... or if he has an exit and expiation for recovering what he missed of prayer, on the condition that he prays it in the time that the Wise Lawgiver specified for them. He said (peace and blessings be upon him): . And he read (peace and blessings be upon him) in some narrations of the hadith, which is in "al-Sahihayn": . So his saying (may Allah bless him and grant him peace): , when he mentions it, i.e., the time he remembers it, means the time of remembering is the time for this forgotten prayer, or the one whose owner slept through it. The meaning of that is that, for example, if a person wakes up an hour after the sun has risen, he should not say: "Hey, the time for prayer has passed, so I will pray it after I go to work and return home after two o'clock." He has absolutely no way to do this; because the Messenger (peace be upon him) says: .
So you woke up an hour after the sun rose, and this is the time for this prayer that you forgot, or the time you remembered the prayer you forgot. For example, if you remember the Dhuhr prayer after the Asr prayer, or rather, I say, at sunset, you say: "Hey, the prayer has passed its time, I will pray it outside the time; especially now it is a time of dislike." The hadith tells you: ; except that you pray it in the time of remembering. The one who forgets the prayer and the one who sleeps through it, although he is excused, the Wise Lawgiver has specified for him a time to perform this prayer, which is very specific and narrow: the time of remembering. Whereas we all know that the five known times have some leeway in them. For example, the Asr prayer does not last two hours. You remember this prayer within those two hours, then you do not find in yourself a faith that drives you to hasten to perform this prayer in the time of remembering, so you do not pray until the sun sets, and then you do not pray either, and you say: "I will pray, I will pray... it is too early for us, and 'we have our own time,' and 'we are young in our time,' and similar whispers of Satan." If the excused person who missed the prayer due to the excuse of forgetting or sleeping was told: , then the one who remembers the Dhuhr prayer after Asr remembers it in its time, then does not pray it in that long time and wants to delay it to a time other than its own; this is even more so without an expiation; because he did not pray it in the time of remembering.
In summary: The acts of worship that our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) legislated in times with a defined beginning and end; the statement and command to make them up outside their time is a legislation for which Allah has not sent down any authority, and on the other hand, it is a cancellation of the timing that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) legislated in this prayer. That is, the one who does not pay zakah in the year of obligation, and pays it after two or three years, is completely different from the one who does not pray the prayer in its time; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) did not specify a particular time for paying zakah, but He obligated zakah upon you by the reaching of the nisab and the completion of the lunar year, and the like of what is known. Unlike prayer; He said: . So it is not permissible to equate what the Lawgiver restricted with what He made general. We gave an example earlier: annual zakah must be paid and one must hasten to pay it. If he does not do so, then every time thereafter is a scope and time for paying it; because the Wise Lawgiver did not say that its time ends with the end of the year, for example. Unlike—this example clarifies the matter for you—unlike zakat al-fitr. It was reported in "Sunan Abu Dawud" with a sound chain from Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) who said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) obligated zakat al-fitr as a purification for the fasting person and food for the poor. So whoever pays it before the festival prayer, it is an accepted charity, and whoever pays it after the prayer, it is a charity among charities." This clarifies to you with the clearest explanation that the act of worship for which the Lawgiver specified a limited time with an end, if one does not perform this act of worship in that same time, it exits from being that act of worship. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) obligated that the one who pays zakat al-fitr should pay it before the prayer. If he does so, it is an accepted charity; meaning an obligatory duty as Allah legislated it. If he does not do so, it is a charity among charities.
Likewise, the one who does not pray the prayer in its time, if he does not pray it, and then prays it after its time; because it is conditioned by the condition of time. Do you not see that if a person hastens to perform the obligatory prayer before its time, it is not accepted from him, even though there is a great difference between him and the one who intentionally takes the prayer out of its time? This person hastens to perform the prayer before its time for fear of being occupied with it, for fear of dying before it, and so on. That is, his intention is good, and yet no one says this act is valid. There is no answer except that he performed the act of worship outside its time. There is no difference in performing the act of worship in its time, whether this time is before the time or after the time. Therefore, we do not say to the one who is afflicted with leaving prayer on a certain day: "Make up what you owe of prayers"; because there is absolutely no scope in the Shari'ah for making up this prayer; because it was time-bound, and he lost it in its time. Rather, we say to him: "You have missed much good due to taking these prayers out of their times, so increase in voluntary prayers." A sound hadith has come regarding this, where he said (peace and blessings be upon him): , and in another hadith: . This voluntary worship is what should occupy the one who was leaving and squandering prayer for a period of his life. He should occupy himself after his repentance by increasing in voluntary prayers until he compensates for the good he missed due to his squandering of the obligatory prayers.
The same applies in full to fasting, specifically the fasting of Ramadan. If a person misses the month of Ramadan without a valid legal excuse—and the only valid excuses are illness and travel—then there is no way to make up this fast. He must offer sincere repentance, as we mentioned, and increase his acts of obedience in general, and voluntary fasting in particular, to compensate for the good he missed. If it were permissible for us to cite a hadith whose chain of narration is not authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), we would tell you, as you hear in the mosques and on the pulpits, that the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: . But this is a weak hadith, even though the meaning is clear from our previous discussion. This is because the fasting of Ramadan is what Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) made obligatory upon His believing servants. If one fasts Ramadan in Shawwal, he has not fasted the month of Ramadan; rather, he has fasted Shawwal. It is exactly like the one who performs Hajj. In the Syrian expression: "And the people are returning!" People by their nature know that one who performs Hajj while the people are returning has no valid Hajj. The reason is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) established specific times for Hajj: . If one performs Hajj outside the months of Hajj, he is not a pilgrim. And so it is, in full, with prayer and fasting, were it not for the prevalence of certain ideas that resulted in the custom that the one who leaves prayer makes it up, whereas the one who misses standing at 'Arafah—for example—does not come to stand on the second or third day and say: "I stood at 'Arafah," because he knows that standing at 'Arafah has a specific time, which is the ninth day of Dhul-Hijjah, and so it is with the rest of the rites of Hajj.
In summary: if the acts of worship that he neglected, in which he opposed his Lord (Mighty and Majestic), are of the type of the rights of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is Forgiving and Merciful. He accepts the repentance of those who repent among His believing servants, forgives their sin, and commands them, as He said: "" except for those who repent, believe, and do righteous deeds, then find guidance. "" But if they are the rights of people, then he must return them to their owners as long as he is able to do so. If he does this and repents, his repentance is sincere. But if he repents while having consumed the wealth of people by plunder, theft, or the like, and he is capable of returning it but does not, then his repentance is not sincere, and it is not accepted by Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
Please proceed.