Has Making up My Fajr Prayer after Praying My Zuhr Prayer Rendered My Zuhr Prayer Invalid?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalamu alaykum,

I have sometimes missed the Fajr prayer and made it up AFTER praying Zuhr while I was supposed to pray it before Zuhr.I prayed this way approximately 30 times in the last years.

Are all my 30 Zhur prayers invalid?

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I pray that you are in the best of health and faith, insha’Allah.

All of your prayers would retrospectively be considered valid, and you do not need to make any of them up. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah/Imdad al-Fattah]

When should the order of the missed prayers be respected?

The basis is that a small number of missed prayers need to be made up in the correct order, as we learn from the sunna of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) when four prayers were missed at Khandaq. [See: Tirmidhi & others]

When not following the order of the missed prayers is excused?

But having “many” prayers in your dues is considered to be an excuse and a form of hardship– “many” being six prayers, or more than one day’s worth of prayers.

Hence, when you reached the sixth prayer time, excluding the invalid prayer [i.e. Zuhr], and without correcting any of the previous prayers, they are all retrospectively considered to be valid, and it is as if there was no order binding upon you to begin with.

Please see also: Do You Have to Pray Make Up Prayers in Order? and: Making Up Missed Prayers In Order?

And Allah alone gives success.

wassalam,

Tabraze Azam

Checked & Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani