How Do You Make Up for Missed Prayers?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
Can I perform qada prayers even if I don’t know the exact date? Also, do I have to pray everything in between again because I prayed without doing my qada, or is it excused?
Answer
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
The position of all four Sunni schools is that it is obligatory (fard) to make up all missed prayers, regardless of why they were missed.
The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: “Whoever forgets a prayer must perform it when they remember it.” [Bukhari; Muslim]
Prayer is the first thing we will be questioned about on the Day of Judgement, as the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) informed us in sound narrations.
Date of the Missed Prayers
It is obligatory to make up missed prayers from the past even though you have forgotten when exactly you have missed them. When making them up you simply intend to make up the earlier Zuhr prayer that is still due on you for example. By doing this for each make-up prayer your intention will be valid. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]
Repeating Other Prayers
No, you don’t have to make up prayers that you have already prayed despite having missed prayers beforehand.
There is one exception: if one has less than six prayers in one’s dues, it would be obligatory to maintain the order between them. Praying the current prayer while not making up these previous in order will render the current prayer invalid.
Thus if one has six, or more, prayers (for example Fajr, Dhuhr, ‘Asr, Maghrib, ‘Isha, and Fajr) in one’s dues, it would not be obligatory to maintain the order between them. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah; ‘Ala al-Din ‘Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-‘Ala’iyya]
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found.
Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.
He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others.
He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.
