[AnneseeKels]

I had stopped praying due to feeling depressed and weak iman. I happened to need the toilet while out and the closest was the mosque, I felt I had to pray nafl and then I wanted to pray again alhamdullialah. I then prayed the next fard prayer and have felt better about myself and mostly pray on time now. My issue is what to do about the missed prayers. Do I pray for forgiveness and carry on praying or do I need to make them up? If I need to make up the prayers what is the best way to do this? Many thanks Salam

[lodsemelf]

I had stopped praying due to feeling depressed and weak iman. I happened to need the toilet while out and the closest was the mosque, I felt I had to pray nafl and then I wanted to pray again alhamdullialah. I then prayed the next fard prayer and have felt better about myself and mostly pray on time now. My issue is what to do about the missed prayers. Do I pray for forgiveness and carry on praying or do I need to make them up? If I need to make up the prayers what is the best way to do this? Many thanks Salam

the best way is to read the compesatory prayer with every salat. for example when u read zohar, read the compensatory prayer of zohar u missed after it. and when u read asar read the compensatory prayer of asar after it. do this for every salat until u have read all of them

[AnneseeKels]

the best way is to read the compesatory prayer with every salat. for example when u read zohar, read the compensatory prayer of zohar u missed after it. and when u read asar read the compensatory prayer of asar after it. do this for every salat until u have read all of them

Thankyou brother. What do you do if you cannot remember how many? Should I just keep praying and praying? ALso is there any hadith or Quranic passage to back this up? Although I have heard that you need to make it up.

Salam

[lodsemelf]

Thankyou brother. What do you do if you cannot remember how many? Should I just keep praying and praying? ALso is there any hadith or Quranic passage to back this up? Although I have heard that you need to make it up.

Salam

yes sister u do need to make it up. my parents became practicing muslims and they are still doing what i told u. u need to estimate when it was u stopped praying and make u r calculations.

[flopay]

sister,

First of all, I would say there is a very pleasant sign in all of this for you. You say you had stopped praying due to depression and weak iman, and then one day out of nowhere you happened to need the bathroom while outside, and the closest one just 'happened' to be a mosque, and you just 'happened' to go inside it to use the bathroom, ended up making nafl salat and been keeping up with your salat eversince. Does Allah swt not guide his slaves in ways which we couldn't even think of? Who would think that you would end up going into a mosque just to take care of a basic human need (bathroom) and come out of that mosque being granted the tawfeeq by Allah swt to get back into salat 5 times a day? How great is Allah?

Subhan'Allah... Allahu'Akbar!

So first and foremost, if you have not realized Allah's gift to you yet, then, Insha'Allah, please take some time to ponder upon the fact that He did you an extreme favor by putting you in that particular situation which made you get back into salat, and thank Him every single day, all the time, for blessing you in such a manner. What would've happened if that situation did not occur and you just went about your routine, right? Allah knows best. Please forgive me if I said anything wrong.

That being said, as far as making up the prayers, I myself have tried researching the same issue and I have come across both opinions from Scholars... one which says you must make up every single fardh salat you missed, and one which says to make taubah, ask Allah swt for forgiveness, and start guarding your salat from hereon out. The more popular view seems to be the first one though (to make them up). Allah knows best.

So let's say a Muslim did not pray for 1 year, or 5 years, or 10 years... then they would need to *estimate* how many missed fardh (obligatory) prayers does that entail, and figure out a routine to make them up. The most common way would be to pray 1 missed salat along with each regular daily prayer for a set amount of time. So let's say one did not pray for 5 years straight, and they would like to Insha'Allah make those prayers up; so for the next 5 years, they will pray the regular 5 daily fardh prayers, and pray a Qadha (Qaza, missed) salat along with each one. So in this manner, Insha'Allah, in a period of 5 years they would be caught up with their prayers and then they could just continue praying the regular 5 prayers daily. Of course, one can modify this to suit their needs. For example, if they want to make the prayers up quicker, then they can pray 2 with each salat, or 3, or even set time aside at night and their days off, etc (whenever they have free time) to just pray a bigger amount in a row and keep written track of it somewhere, so in this example they may end up 'catching up' within 3 years instead of 5, let's say.

I have also read a hadith that salat will be the first thing we are questioned on and accounted for on the day of judgement. If we lack in our fardh salat, then Allah swt will tell the Angels doing our 'hisaab-kittab' (accounting) to see if we have any nafl (voluntary) salats and make up the deficiency in our fardh salat using the nafl salat (hence why it is very important to pray as much nafl as possible, whenever possible, as we all lack in our fardh salat, even if we pray 5X a day, most of ours salat is nowhere near the level it should be, I know mine isn't). Then if your salat looks good after this procedure, Insha'Allah that person will be good to go going forward. If however even this person's nafl salat fails to make up for the fardh, then he/she might be in some trouble. This of course, is a paraphrasing of the hadith which I am talking about, and in no way does it represent the exact hadith or it's context. Only Allah knows what will truly happen with each and every creation of His.

The above is merely only my personal opinion. Please, please do not take it as scholarly advice and implement it into your life without consulting an actual scholar first. I am nowhere close to being a scholar or anything remotely resembling a scholar.

Lastly, my advice would be to consistently guard your 5 daily salats from this point, even as you try to find a concrete answer to the question of making up missed salats or not. Allah is most forgiving and most mercifful.

I know how it is to not pray for a period of time and then get back into it, and to feel guilty for all the ones you missed, but we need to make sure that the accursed shaytaan does not cause us to feel so guilty about it that we reach the mentality of "well i didn't pray for all this time so might as well continue to not pray, i don't even understand if i need to make up my missed prayers or not so until i find out for sure i will just hold off on praying altogether". If we fall into this mentality, then we have no one to blame but ourselves and, Allah forbid, we would be amongst the losers.

So regardless of whether you will make up the salats you missed in your life or not, please make sure you do not miss any from hereon out (like literally from this minute forward). If, for some reaosn, once in a blue moon you do miss one due to certain circumstances (none of us are perfect), then you need to make that one up immediately, the first chance you get, that same exact day, with an extreme sense of urgency, and beg for Allah swt's forgiveness for missing that salat.

Remember, in another hadith (paraphrasing), our Prophet told us that if a person misses one salat, he should feel the same sort of sorrow as if he had lost his wife & children (maybe wealth also?, don't remember exactly). Imagine if, Allah forid, one lost their wife & children, how DEVASTATED would they be? I don't think there are words to describe the devastation in that sort of situation. And here, Rasool-Allah is saying that if we missed ONE single salat, we should feel just as devastated as one who lost his family. This is not a fairy tale, he is actually telling us this, and he MEANS it. He is not joking.

How do we feel when we miss a salat? Our hearts are so hard that we feel nothing. Maybe we feel bad for a few minutes, and then a friend or family member cracks a joke, we start laughing and go about our life. May Allah swt forgive us as He is Ar-Rahman & Ar-Rahim. Ameen.

Also try to get into praying tahajjud and beg Allah for forgiveness and guidance. Insha'Allah, you will be fine.

Please keep my family and I in your dua's as well.

[AnneseeKels]

Salam Brother

Many thanks for your thoughts. I do believe that Allah led me to go to the mosque and although I had no permission to go there as I was desperate for the toilet I know that I would be forgiven surely? Especially as it led me back to my deen. I don't know what it is about the mosque I feel calm and at peace and closer to Allah. Do you understand what I mean? Away from life and its problems and close to Allah and increase of Iman. I think that I will have to make up my missed prayers and will try my best to do so. At the moment I am just trying to pray my Fard prayers on time.

Salam