Question: I am a 16 year old boy. Alhamdulillah, I have
been praying five times a day since about three or four years
ago.Before that I would mostly pray four times a day.
Now I know proper rulings of wudu and ghusl but
before I did not. I am not sure how many of my prayers have been invalid due to
incorrect wudu. As for ghusl, I did not know about
ghusl until six or seven months after my first ejaculation. So I assume that
for six or seven months, my prayers were invalid. In addition, at the age of
ten I did start praying but not very regular at first. In fact until age of
thirteen I did not pray Fajr at all,
except very rarely. So in this case, how do I make up past salah? Should I pray lots of nafl
or what? Especially because I don’t know the number of salah I missed. Answer: بِسْمِ
اللهِ
الرَّحْمنِ
الرَّحِيْم In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most
Merciful. Masha'allah your concern for your akhirat is
commendable. The answer to your questions is as follows: - Salat (namaz) becomes compulsory on a person from the time he
reaches the age of puberty. For a boy, this can happen between the ages of 12
and 15 lunar years (a lunar year has approx. 11 less days than a solar year). - It is compulsory to make up (offer qada) of any salat one missed
from the time he reached the age of puberty. - If one cannot remember exactly how many salats he missed since reaching age of puberty, he should
estimate to the best of his ability and thereafter he should offer qada accordingly. - If one is certain or believes most probably
that he did not offer the faraid (compulsory acts) of
wudu or ghusl properly before offering some salats, he must repeat those salats
(i.e. he must offer qada). Mere doubts, however, are
not considered in the Shariah, i.e. if one has mere doubts, he must ignore
them. - By offering nafl,
one's qada salat is not
fulfilled, i.e. nafl salat
is not a substitute for qada salat. - It is compulsory to do qada
of fard and witr salats, but not sunnah
salats. - If one has missed a lot of salats then the way to offer qada
for them is as follows: - To do qada
of Fajr salat he should
make the intention that from all the Fajr salats that I have to do qada of,
I intend to do qada of the first one (or last one) of
them. Then he should offer two rak'ats salat. - To do qada
of Zuhr salat he should
make the intention that from all the Zuhr salats that I have to do qada of,
I intend to do qada of the first one (or last one) of
them. Then he should offer four rak'ats salat. - To do qada
of Asr salat he should make
the intention that from all the Asr salats that I have to do qada of,
I intend to do qada of the first one (or last one) of
them. Then he should offer four rak'ats salat. - To do qada
of Maghrib salat he should
make the intention that from all the Maghrib salats that I have to do qada of,
I intend to do qada of the first one (or last one) of
them. Then he should offer three rak'ats salat. - To do qada
of Isha salat he should
make the intention that from all the Isha salats that I have to do qada of,
I intend to do qada of the first one (or last one) of
them. Then he should offer four rak'ats salat. - To do qada
of Witr salat he should
make the intention that from all the Witr salats that I have to do qada of,
I intend to do qada of the first one (or last one) of
them. Then he should offer three rak'ats salat like the three rakats of witr (i.e. he should read dua qunoot and do takbeer before it). - One should continue to offer qada salah until he feels
confident that he has offered all the qada salats. And
Allah Ta'ala knows best Mufti Faizal Riza Darul Ifta
Australia |