Do I Have to Make Up All My Missed Prayers or Just Repent?

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Do I Have to Make Up All My Missed Prayers or Just Repent?

Question
Do I have to make up every single prayer I have missed? For example, I’ve been tracking the ones I have missed since November — it is 805. I used to always make up the missed prayer that same day. I don’t know why I stopped, but I still continue to try to pray every prayer. So do I have to make up every single one, or can I just repent sincerely and start praying?

Answer
Alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmain.

1) Allah’s Mercy and the Door of Return

The greatest blessing is that you are praying again and turning back to Allah. No matter how many prayers were missed, sincere tawbah (repentance) wipes away sins. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“The one who repents from sin is like the one who never sinned.” (Ibn Majah)

So do not despair of Allah’s mercy. What matters most is moving forward with consistency and sincerity.

2) The Gravity of Abandoning Prayer

At the same time, we cannot minimize the seriousness of abandoning prayer. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“The covenant that separates us from them is the prayer; whoever abandons it has disbelieved.” (Ahmad, Tirmidhi)

Scholars explained this hadith to emphasize how grave it is to miss prayer, though many held that the person remains Muslim if he repents and resumes prayer. This shows that while repentance is always accepted, prayers should never be taken lightly.

3) Making Up the Missed Prayers

The safest opinion according to the four mathahab is that missed prayers should be made up, since they remain a debt to Allah. But you do not have to overwhelm yourself. There are two valid ways to approach this:

  1. Individual Qada: For each day, add a missed prayer after your current prayer. Example: after praying today’s Dhuhr, pray one extra Dhuhr from the past. Over time, this reduces the backlog.
  2. Through Sunnah Prayers: Another way is to increase and be consistent with your sunnah prayers (rawatib). For example:
    • Before Dhuhr: 4 sunnah
    • After Dhuhr: 2 sunnah
    • After Maghrib: 2 sunnah
    • After Isha: 2 sunnah
    • Before Fajr: 2 sunnah
      These voluntary prayers can stand in place for missed prayers, based on the hadith:
    “If the servant’s obligatory prayers are deficient, Allah will say: ‘See if My servant has voluntary prayers,’ and they will complete what is missing from the obligatory.” (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi).

By keeping up with these sunnah prayers, along with sincere repentance, you cover your past deficiencies without being overwhelmed.

Final Ruling

You do not need to make up every prayer one by one in a burdensome way. Repent sincerely, never miss prayers again, and strengthen your worship with consistent sunnah prayers, which make up for past shortcomings. If you wish, you can also make up missed prayers gradually, but the essential matter is repentance, consistency, and building your salah with sunnahs from now on.

And Allah knows best.