How Should I Make up Prayers?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalam alaykum

1 – From what age is one accountable for missing prayer and must make them up ?

2 – For a period I stopped believing. Must I make up only the prayers I missed when I was a believer?

3 – When I first began praying I did my prayers in English. Do I have to make them up?

4 – For a long time I didn’t know about witr prayer. Do I have to make up those missed witr prayers?

5 – Say for example I have to make up 3 months of missed prayers. How do I go about doing this and how do I make the intention?

6 – Can I make up all 5 prayers at one time one after the other at night before sleeping?

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

1. You are responsible for your prayers from puberty. Puberty is minimally nine lunar years for women, and twelve lunar years for men.

2. Technically, somebody who leaves the faith entirely, by rejecting belief in Allah Most High or the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), and then returns to the faith would not need to make up the prayers during his period of disbelief. But merely not caring, not being religious enough, or not knowing about the obligation is normally insufficient; and similarly, misgivings don’t take a person outside of the faith. Thus, you should confirm what exactly the issue was and if this ruling is applicable.

3. Yes, you need to make these prayers up if you were able to recite a single verse in Arabic.

4. Yes, you need to make up the Witr prayer as it is operationally obligatory.

5&6. Please see: A Reader on Missed Prayers and: A Reader on Tawba (Repentance)

[Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah; Halabi, Multaqa al-Abhur]

And Allah Most High alone knows best.

[Ustadh] Tabraze Azam

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Tabraze Azam holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Leicester, where he also served as the President of the Islamic Society. He memorised the entire Qur’an in his hometown of Ipswich at the tender age of sixteen, and has since studied the Islamic Sciences in traditional settings in the UK, Jordan and Turkey. He is currently pursuing advanced studies in Jordan, where he is presently based with his family.