Important Masaa-il (Rulings) That Pertain To Qadhaa Salaah
Missing a Salāh is a major sin in Islam. A person who misses a Salāh must make up for it and seek forgiveness from Allāh. This Qadhaā must be done immediately.
Life gets faster, and time loses barakah. Your biggest challenge nowadays as a busy Muslim is to hold onto your fards. There is no excuse for being “too busy” or “too stressed” or “too tired” to miss our fards. But we’re human, so we do, even though at times with good reason.
There is no way around it; our fards need to be repaid in the form of qada before our death. Qada (قُضِي) is the Arabic word for fulfilling the duties (usually your fard obligations) that you’ve missed due to some reason. With this in mind, we need to set time aside in our busy lives to make up our qada before we meet our Lord. Sometimes, we don’t know how to do this.
Making Up Missed Prayers
♦ Think back to the age you reached puberty and mentally brainstorm your missed fard prayers.
♦ Calculate how many salah you’ve missed since then. You simply need to make an educated guess.
♦ Resolve to make them up consistently until complete.
For example, if you are 38 years old and hit puberty at 13 years of age, you will have 25 years of prayers that you had to perform. Now decide how many prayers you think you’ve missed during those 25 years. You make a reasonable guess, even if you cannot remember exactly.
You will need to estimate each prayer separately by writing how many fajr, dhur, asr, maghrib, and isha salah you’ve missed. Usually, the prayer you found the toughest during your life will have the highest number. For example, as a teen, you found waking up for fajr difficult, so your fajr qada would be the highest number.
What is Qadhaā done for?
*The Fard and Wājib Salāhs (Witr)
*If the Fajr prayer was missed and is performed before Zawāl (midday), then one should pray the two Sunnahs too. With the exception of the two Sunnahs of Fajr, if any other Sunnah is missed then there is no Qadā for it.
The following are a few important masaa-il (rulings) that pertain to people who have many qadhaa salaah to perform.
1. If a person is unable to determine the exact number of salaah that he has missed, he should estimate a number that he is confident will cover the salaah that he has missed.
2. When performing qadhaa salaah, it is necessary for one to specify which qadhaa he is performing. If it is difficult for one to determine the date of the specific salaah (e.g. The Zuhr missed yesterday or the day before) then one may make the following intention, “I am performing qadhaa of the last Zuhr Salaah I missed,” or “I am performing qadhaa of the first Zuhr Salaah from all the Zuhr Salaahs that I have missed.”
However, if a person merely makes the intention, “I am performing qadhaa of Zuhr Salaah” without any further specification of which qadhaa of Zuhr he is performing, the intention will be insufficient and the qadhaa will not be fulfilled. Rather, the salaah will be performed as nafl.
3. To make qadhaa for a Zuhr, ‘Asr or ‘Esha salaah that was missed while on safar (shar‘ee travelling), one will perform two rakaats (even if one is not on safar when performing the qadhaa). Similarly, to make qadhaa of a Zuhr, ‘Asr or ‘Esha salaah that was missed when not on safar, one will perform four rakaats (even if one is performing the qadhaa while on safar).
4. There is no qadhaa for the sunnah and nafl salaahs. However, it is necessary to make qadhaa for the Witr salaah. Hence, for each day, a person will have to perform six qadhaa salaah (Fajr, Zuhr, ‘Asr, Maghrib, ‘Esha and Witr). However, if a person missed the Fajr Salaah and is performing the qadhaa on the same day, then he should perform the sunnah as well as the fardh if it is before zawwaal. If zawwaal has already passed, he will not perform the sunnah. Rather, he will only perform the fardh.
Below is a qadhaa salaah chart that will assist one in completing one’s qadhaa salaahs
