A young man who did not pray, then repented, and praise be to Allah; does he have to make up the missed prayers?

The questioner : A young man who was not praying and has now... meaning he has repented and is now praying, naturally praying at their times. The period during which he was not praying, is it permissible for him to make them up by estimation? For example, if he did not pray for six years, does he make up a previous time with each current time? Is this permissible or not?

The Shaykh : A prayer like this cannot be made up, and this is one of the illusions that many repentant young people live with. Our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, as every Muslim knows, said in the Noble Qur'an meaning at a fixed time, i.e., a temporary time, the first and the last. The times of the five prayers are known to the majority of Muslims. So the one who prays a prayer after its time intentionally, deliberately, is like the one who prays it before its time, and there is absolutely no difference, because in both cases he prayed the prayer at a time other than its time, whether he brought it forward before the time or delayed it after the time. Just as that Turk said, "Go, father" ... absolutely not. The difference came from a mistake by some of the scholars of old, who found a difference between performing the prayer before its time and performing the prayer after its time. They found a difference in some cases and analogized other cases to them. This is the group about whom the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke in the hadith narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim in their Sahihs, from the hadith of Abu Qatadah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, Whoever forgets a prayer

The questioner : or is negligent about the Fajr prayer

The Shaykh : As we said in the hadith, , for this sleeper the pen is lifted, so the legal ruling is established for him accordingly, and it is the same for the one who forgets, exactly. This principle is the basis for that error. This principle means that there is an additional time for the original time. He slept, the time of the prayer passed; he forgot, the time of the prayer passed. The Lawgiver did not say to him, "No, you do not have to pray," but He said to him, "Pray it when you remember it." Some of them previously, and today the majority of people, scholars and those below them, said: If the one with an excuse is commanded to make up the prayer, then the one without an excuse is all the more commanded to make up the prayer. This is a mistake... The one with an excuse is commanded to make up the prayer out of mercy for him, because he did not intend to disobey his Lord. As for the one who was busy with his trade, his play, his games, etc., he does not deserve this mercy. So how can it be said? Can the deliberate be analogized to the mistaken? For example, the intentional killer and the accidental killer, is this analogized to that? Allah is the Greatest, there is a vast difference between them. Nevertheless, this hadith contains a phrase that blocks the path for those who interpret it with a wrong interpretation. If a person, like our brother asked earlier, did not wake up for the Fajr prayer until after the sun rose, what did he say? "This prayer has passed, and now I want to go to work, I want to catch the official work hours, I will pray it later." It is fine for him, why? Because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is saying, What does "when" mean? Time. That is, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, out of mercy for this sleeper or the one who forgets, extended the known time for them to the time of waking up and the time of remembering. But He said to them, "Be careful, if you do not pray in this additional time, Therefore, we say that any Muslim who is afflicted for a period of time with wasting the prayers at their prescribed times, not due to an excuse of sleep or forgetfulness, but due to playing with the world and neglecting the obedience of Allah, first of all, he must repent to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, with a sincere repentance. Sincere repentance is regret for what has passed, the resolve not to return to it, and increasing in acts of obedience. Therefore, we say to this one who has missed those prayers for himself, whether few or many, that he has deprived himself of a very great reward. To compensate for this reward, he does not repeat the prayer; it is gone. If this one who left the prayer could repeat the days in which he wasted those prayers, let him do so, and this is called tying to the impossible. So since he cannot, he must now pray a prescribed prayer. What are the prescribed prayers? Maintaining, above all, the regular voluntary prayers (rawatib) with the obligatory ones: two rak'ahs before Fajr, two rak'ahs before Dhuhr, two rak'ahs after Dhuhr, four rak'ahs before 'Asr, two rak'ahs before Maghrib, two rak'ahs after Maghrib, four rak'ahs of voluntary prayer before 'Isha' or two rak'ahs and two rak'ahs after 'Isha', and then you have the Witr, from one rak'ah to eleven rak'ahs. Maintaining these regular voluntary prayers (rawatib) above all, and then if Allah blesses him with time and gives him strength, health, and energy, he increases in voluntary prayers other than these. And this is the meaning of His saying (peace and blessings be upon him), and with this hadith we conclude the session, in a narration, This completion includes completion in quantity and completion in quality. Completion in quantity: he wasted prayers, so he is compensated with these prayers that we can call "reserve" reserve, or in quality, the obligatory prayers he performed at their times have a deficiency, meaning he does not get the full reward, as indicated (peace and blessings be upon him) in the well-known hadith, by much, half of it. Where is the other half? In a report, it was

The questioner : The voluntary prayers complete it

The Shaykh : Yes, the voluntary prayers complete the deficiency found in the quality or that deficiency in the quantity. This is our advice to everyone who is afflicted with leaving the prayers intentionally and deliberately.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.
Another questioner: ...

The Shaykh : Give him... let him record it

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : how