Zakir Naik – Having Missed Salaah for Years Should We Make Up for Them All

Hello, Mr. Zakir Naik, it's Iman from Afghanistan.

I'm 15 years old and I'm a Muslim.

I have two questions.

When does Salah become Fard for a person?

Is it the age of puberty or age

of 10?

Number two, what should we do about missed

prayers?

I unfortunately missed prayers for years.

Should we just repent or cover it?

And if I must cover it, how many

years should I cover?

Because I became adult in 14 and now

I'm 15.

Should I cover just one year or five

years?

The question posed by Iman from Afghanistan is

that at what age does it become Fard

for a person to offer Salah?

Is it the age of puberty or the

age of 10?

First, the name Iman is also of a

girl, also of a boy.

So I don't know whether the question posed

by the questioner, is it a male or

is it a female?

Is it a girl or is it a

boy?

We know that you are 15 years old,

but we don't know whether you are a

girl or a boy because Iman is a

name used for a boy as well as

for a girl.

But irrespect to what it is, the correct

age at which the Salah becomes Fard is

at the age of puberty.

And the age of puberty differs between different

people, between different *, whether it's male or

female, whether you're coming from a cold country

or a hot country, whether you're living in

India or Afghanistan or USA, it differs.

If you're a girl, the right age is

at puberty when you start having menstrual cycle.

A girl can start having menstrual cycle even

normally, it's between the age of 13-14.

Sometime it can be even 12, it can

even be 10.

I being a doctor, I'm aware that girls

even at the age of 9, they start

their menstrual cycle.

So the day a girl starts having menstrual

cycle is the day she reaches puberty and

from that time it becomes Fard on her

to offer Salah.

And for a boy also.

So the average age may be 13-14,

sometime it can relate to the age of

15.

And since you said that you reach puberty

at the age of 14, so that from

that time Salah becomes Fard for you.

If you're a boy, but naturally from the

time you start having pubic hair and the

signs of puberty comes, that's the time when

Salah becomes Fard.

And for a boy also it's similar.

It may be the age of 14, it

can be 15, it can be 13.

It varies between individuals.

So as far as you're concerned, since you

said that you reach the age of puberty

at the age of 14, then your Salah

becomes Fard from the age of 14.

And you said that now you're age of

15.

So you missed your Fard Salah for one

year, not five years.

Regarding the question that should you cover up

or should you catch up or should you

make up for the Fard Salah that you

have missed for the past one year or

should you just repent?

There are two opinions for this.

There's one opinion which says that you should

make up for it and as many times

as you offer your Fard or Zohar or

Asr or Maghrib or Isha, at the same

time you keep on offering an additional for

the time that you have missed.

This is one opinion, but the more correct

opinion is that if you have missed the

Salah intentionally and purposefully, there is no expiation.

Our beloved Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,

mentioned in Hadith of Sayyid Bukhari and Sayyid

Muslim that if a person forgets to offer

Salah, there's no expiation and the moment he

remembers, he should offer it.

Another narration says that if a person sleeps

and doesn't offer Salah, the moment he wakes

up, the moment he remembers, he should offer.

There is no expiation for that.

The moment he wakes up, he should offer

Salah.

So based on these and various Sayyid Hadith,

the Prophet was very emphatic and clear that

if you forget, if you miss your Salah

because of forgetfulness or because you're sleeping like

Fajr Salah, you oversleep, so there's no expiation

for it and the moment you remember it,

you should pray it immediately, you should not

wait till your next Salah is there, immediately

and Allah will not hold responsible, there's no

sin on that.

So the second opinion, which is the correct

opinion of the scholars, is that if you

miss it intentionally out of laziness or saying,

okay, I'll read after, then the Salah time

is over or you know it is far,

then you may only offer once in a

day or you may not offer at all

for many years.

According to the second opinion, which is the

more correct opinion, there is no expiation for

the Salah that you have intentionally missed.

It is a major sin.

It is a major sin.

So if you intentionally miss any Salah, it's

a major sin.

And the only remedy for this is that

you repent to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

You ask for forgiveness to Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala and you repent and inshallah Allah

will forgive you and to compensate for that

which you have missed, there is no expiation,

but the scholars say that you can increase

your Nawafil Salah, the Sunnah Muqada, the Sunnah

Ghair Muqada, you increase that and do more

good deeds.

For example, give more charity, give more of

donation, so do more good deeds which will

compensate for the sins you have done.

But you don't have to repeat the Salah

you have missed and this is the more

correct and the authentic opinion which was even

followed by the second Caliph of Islam, that

is Umar bin Al-Khattab.

May Allah be pleased with him, including his

son, Abdullah bin Umar and various Sahabas.

So there are various Hadith that reaffirms that

for this it's a sin and there is

no compensation, like don't have to repeat your

Salah, it's a sin, you have to ask

for forgiveness and this was the view which

was also there by Ibn Hazm, may Allah

have mercy on him, even by Sheikh of

Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, even by Ibn Qayyim, even

by Shawqani, all these scholars, even by contemporary

scholars, whether it be Sheikh Bin Baz, Sheikh

Uthaymeen, Sheikh Nasir Dalmani, all of them say

that if you miss your Salah intentionally, then

you don't have to repeat it, you have

to ask for forgiveness and do more good

deeds, whether charity, more of Nawafil Salah, more

of the Sunnah Salah and this is the

correct opinion, even those people who say that

you have to read, they don't say that

once you read, it is like if you

have forgotten and if you offer your Salah

immediately and remember there is no sin, they

don't say that if you have missed and

if you offer Salah there is no sin,

they say that it is a major sin

but if you read then your sin becomes

less but the more correct opinion is what

I gave earlier that you don't have to

repeat it because imagine, suppose you realize at

the age of 50 that I should offer

Salah and the time that you had to

offer Salah was when you became an adult,

when you reached puberty, maybe at the age

of 14, so now you say for 36

years I did not offer Salah, now if

I have to read for all the 36

years, will I live that long?

so maybe you will say ok, since I

did not read Salah for 36 years, I

will not read for the rest of my

life so logically also, it doesn't make sense,

you have to ask for forgiveness, Inshallah I

will forgive you, you can read as many

more Sunnah Salah, Salah, Sunnah, Sunnah, Tahajjud Salah

and do other good deeds like extra fasting

and giving more charity so this opinion which

is more authentic opinion so for you also,

you missed your Salah for one year because

you reached puberty at the age of 14

but you don't have to repeat those Salah

which you missed for one year just see

to it that you increase your Nawafil, you

offer your Sunnah Muqada, Ghair Muqada, offer your

Tahajjud, offer in the last one third of

night, fast more, give more charity, Inshallah may

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive you and

may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala increase in

your blessings.

Hope that's the question.