If a person repents from his heedlessness, given that he used to neglect fasting Ramadan and establishing the prayer, how does he make up those acts of worship?

The Shaykh : Here a questioner says: If a person repents, and before that he was a believer in Allah but did not act in accordance with his faith...?
The answer is that... 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 servants, such as the 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. As for this Muslim who has repented to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and turned back to Him, regarding the acts of worship and obedience that Allah obligated upon him but he did not perform... In these acts of worship, either they are time-bound with a specific beginning and end, like the five daily prayers, or they are time-bound by the onset of the obligation but have no specific time other than death, like Hajj and zakah. As for the first type, like prayer which has a specific, limited time from beginning to end, and fasting which has a counted month, if this disobedient person intentionally left off prayer and fasting, then his repentance is that he feels remorse for having neglected the prayers and fasting in the month of Ramadan, and that he resolves not to return to such a sin, and that he follows this with righteous deeds in general, and specifically by increasing voluntary prayers and fasting, to compensate for the reward he missed due to neglecting 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 to do this, unless we imagine an impossible scenario: if this repentant person could return to the day on which he missed the prayer or prayers, then let him return and pray in it... There is no exit or expiation for recovering what he missed of prayer, except on the condition that he prays it in the time prescribed by the Wise Lawgiver. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And he (peace and blessings be upon him) recited in some narrations of the hadith, which is in the two Sahihs: So when he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: when he mentions it, meaning whenever he remembers it, the time of remembering is the time for this forgotten prayer, or the one whose owner slept through it. This means that, for example, if someone wakes up an hour after the sun has risen, he should not say, "The time for this 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) said: So if you woke up an hour after the sun rose, that is the time for this prayer that you forgot, or the prayer that you remembered, for example, if you remember the Dhuhr prayer after 'Asr, or rather, I say, at sunset, you say, "This is a prayer that missed its time; I will pray it at a different time," especially now when it is a time of dislike for speaking. It is told to you that there is no expiation for it except that, except if you pray it at the time of remembering. The one who forgets a prayer or sleeps through it, although he is excused, has had a time prescribed for him by the Wise Lawgiver to perform this prayer, a very specific and narrow time, which is the time of remembering. We all know that the five known times have a time and a margin. For example, 'Asr prayer does not last two hours; you remember this prayer within these two hours, then you do not find in yourself a faith that drives you to hasten to perform this prayer at the time of remembering, so you do not pray until the sun sets, and then you do not pray either, saying, "I will pray, I will pray..." and "We are young" and such whispers of Satan. If the one who is excused because he missed the prayer due to forgetfulness or sleep was told: then the one who remembers the Dhuhr prayer after 'Asr, remembers it in its time, then does not pray it for a long time, and then wants to pray it at a different time, is even more so without an expiation, because he did not pray it at the time of remembering. In summary, the acts of worship that our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) legislated in times with defined limits from beginning to 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 for 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 set a specific end for paying zakah, but He obligated zakah upon him by reaching the nisab and the completion of the lunar year, and the like of what is known. Unlike prayer, for which He said: So it is not permissible to equate what the Lawgiver restricted with what He left open. 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 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 narrated 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 and his family) prescribed zakat al-fitr as a purification for the fasting person and food for the poor. 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 for you, in the clearest explanation, that the act of worship for which the Lawgiver set a limited time with an end, if one does not perform this act in that same time, it exits from being that act. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) prescribed that zakat al-fitr be paid by the one who pays it before the prayer. If he does so, it is an accepted charity, meaning an obligation as Allah legislated it. If he does not do so, it is a charity among charities. Likewise, one does not pray the prayer in its time, so if he does not pray it, and then prays it after its time, because the time is a condition for it. 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 performs the prayer outside 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. His intention is good, and yet no one says this knowledge is valid, and 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 outside 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 off prayer for a 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 neglected it in its time. Rather, we say to him, "You have missed much good due to performing these prayers outside their times, so increase in voluntary acts." A sound hadith came regarding this, in which he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And in the other hadith: This voluntary worship is what should occupy the one who has been leaving off and neglecting prayer for a period of his life. He should occupy himself after his repentance by increasing in voluntary acts until he compensates for the good he missed due to neglecting the obligatory prayers. Likewise, it is said exactly the same regarding fasting, the fasting of Ramadan. If someone misses the month of Ramadan without a Shari'ah excuse, and that is nothing but illness and travel, then there is no scope for making up this fasting. He must repent with sincere repentance, as we mentioned, and increase in acts of obedience in general, and specifically in voluntary fasting, to compensate for the good he missed. If it were permissible for us to argue with what is not sound in its chain from the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), we would tell you, as you hear in the mosques and on the minbars, that the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: "Whoever breaks the fast for a day in Ramadan without an excuse, he will not make it up, even if he fasts for the rest of his life." But this hadith is weak, even though the meaning is clear from our previous words, because the fasting of Ramadan is what Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) obligated upon His believing servants. If he fasts Ramadan in Shawwal, he has not fasted the month of Ramadan, but he has fasted Shawwal, exactly like the one who performs Hajj, and in the Syrian expression: "and the people are returning." The people, by their nature, know that the one who performs Hajj while the people are returning has no Hajj. The reason is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) set times for Hajj: So if Hajj is performed outside the months of Hajj, he is not a pilgrim. And so it is exactly with prayer and fasting, were it not for the prevalence of some ideas, which resulted in habits... He leaves off prayer, but he makes it up. As for the one who misses standing at 'Arafah, for example, he does not come the next day or the third day and say, "I stood at 'Arafah," because he knows that standing at 'Arafah has a time, which is the ninth day of Dhul-Hijjah. And so it is with the people of the rites. 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 him, as He said: 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 so and repents, his repentance is sincere. But if he repents while having eaten the wealth of people by robbery and plunder, and the like of that, and he is able to pay it but does not, then his repentance is not sincere repentance, and it is not accepted by Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).