Is It Sinful to Make Up Less than One Day Worth of Makeup Prayers?

Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi

Question

Is it sinful in the Hanafi Madhab to pray less than one day’s worth of Qada prayer per day?

Answer

In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,

I pray this finds you in the best of states.

It depends on the number of prayers you have to make up.

Here is what Shaykh Adib Kallas said on this issue from a previous answer at SeekersGuidance:

“Shaykh Adib also emphasized that if one repents from one’s non-performance or invalid performance and then has a strong resolve, and a systematic, consistent makeup schedule one sticks to, then even if one dies, Allah will forgive one for any remaining makeups. (This is different from one who does not resolve to do this, or does not consistently make up their prayers.) There is a difference between the rights of Allah and the rights of His creation, for Allah is free of all need, while the latter are needy. As such, Allah has promised to forgive truly repentant slave, whereas we have no such assurances about that which is due to others.”

From the above, we can understand that making up one prayer a day when you are sixty years old and owe forty years of prayers is not a realistic and consistent makeup schedule that will entail Allah’s forgiveness.

But if you are thirty years old and owe two years of prayers, then making up one prayer a day is a good makeup schedule, and you can assume that you will be forgiven even if you die at 31 years old before finishing making up these prayers.

Thus, you will have to follow your judgment on this matter and common sense. Just try to establish a realistic schedule for your makeup prayers that will enable you to finish it before you are too old. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “It is not befitting for the prayer to contain the speech of people.” [Muslim]

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.