If a Fard or Wajib prayer could not be offered at the prescribed time due to some reason, it is said to have been rendered Qada or missed, and has to be offered later in the prescribed way.

Injunctions Concerning Missed Prayers

1. It is imperative to offer a missed Fard prayer, and obligatory to offer a missed Wajib (e.g. Witr) prayer.

2. It is essential to offer a prayer that one had vowed to offer, but has missed it.

3. A Nafl prayer after it has been begun, becomes obligatory and must be completed. If due to some reason, it becomes void or is abandoned, it has to be offered later as a missed prayer.

4. The missed Sunnat (compulsory) or Nafl prayer need not be offered later. The Sunnat rak’ahs of Fajr, however, in view of their great importance and stress laid on them by the Prophet (Pbuh), have to be offered later, on the same day, after the sun has risen and before it begins to decline, along with or without the Fard prayer, if missed. If this is not done before the sun begins to decline, only the Fard rak’ahs will be offered later.

5. If the four Sunnat rak’ahs of the Zuhr prayer are not offered before the Fard prayer due to some reason, they may be offered after the Fard prayer, or even after the two Sunnat rak’ahs. However, if they are not offered within the prescribed limit of the Zuhr prayer, they need not be offered later.

Regulations Concerning Missed Prayers

1. It is a great sin to miss a prayer without a genuine reason or real necessity and Hadiths contains grim warnings for it. If a person misses a prayer due to carelessness or forgetfulness, he should repent for it sincerely and pledge before Allah not to let this happen in future.

2. If due to a genuine reason or necessity, a prayer is missed, one should try to offer it as soon as possible, and sooner the better, and avoid delaying it unnecessarily. This is a debt which one must pay off at the first available opportunity, for one does not know when suddenly one will have to pass away into Allah’s presence and present before Him one’s life account.

3. If a group of people together miss a prayer due, for instance, in a collective journey when they could not offer it duly in time, or an accident taking place in a locality, or their being over-powered by sleep, they should offer the missed prayer in congregation, with audible or inaudible recitation, as the case may be. (Once during a journey, the holy Prophet’s (Pbuh) caravan continued traveling throughout the night and halted at the break of dawn. The travellers were so over-powered by sleep that they all missed the Fajr prayer. The people got up when the sun shone on them, the Prophet commanded the Azan to be pronounced and led the prayer in congregation.

4. If an individual misses a prayer, he should offer it secretly in the house, for it is sinful to miss a prayer on account of carelessness or negligence and then offer it publicly. One may, however, offer a missed prayer in the mosque as well, but should do so quietly.

5. There is no fixed time for offering a missed prayer. One may offer it in one’s own time, but sooner the better, avoiding, however, the forbidden times.

6. If a person has missed more than one prayer, he should offer them at the first available opportunity, if possible all together one after the other, for it is not necessary to offer a missed Zuhr prayer at the Zuhr time and a missed ‘Asr prayer at the ‘Asr time only.

7. If a negligent person has not offered his prayers for a long time and has missed them over months and years and then repents before Allah, he will have to offer all the prayers missed by him, because Allah might forgive him the sin of negligence, but not the prayers which he has to offer as missed prayers in any case.

8. If a person has missed prayers over months and years, he should determine their number, and then should start offering them accordingly, naming the prayer missed and its number, in the intention, till he observes all the missed prayers.

9. The prayers missed during a journey have to be shortened, as prescribed, if offered during the stay at a place, and the prayers missed during a stay have to be offered in full, if offered during a journey- for instance, the Zuhr, ‘Asr and Isha prayers, if missed during a stay, have to be offered in full (four rakahs each), if offered during a journey.

10. If only the Witr prayer has been missed, it has to be offered before the Fajr prayer next morning. If a person has offered the Fajr prayer, without first offering the missed Witr prayer, he will have to offer the Witr prayer and then repeat the Fajr prayer.

11. If a patient who could offer his prayers by making symbolic signs during the illness, has missed some of them, he should make a will to the effect that after his death his heirs should pay off compensation for the missed prayers out of one-third of his property, the compensation for one missed prayer being one and a quarter seers of wheat, or two and a half seers of barley, or the price. (‘Ilm al-Fiqh, Vol. II, p. 126)

12. If a sick person is too weak to offer his prayers even by making symbolic signs, or remains unconscious for a period in which six consecutive prayers can be offered, he does not have to offer the missed prayers. However, if he regains conciousness after missing five prayers and is in full consciousness at the time of the sixth prayer, he has to offer the five missed prayers.

13. The person who due to negligence has missed prayers over a long period of his life, and is granted a sense of his religious obligations by Allah, later in life; should first of all attend to making up for the loss of the missed prayers. An easy way is this: Instead of offering the Sunnat and Nafl prayers at the prescribed times, he should offer the missed Fard prayers and continue doing so till he becomes sure that he has offered all the missed prayers. It is unwise to offer the Sunnat and Nafl prayers regularly, besides the Fard prayers, at the prescribed times, but remain wholly unmindful of so many missed prayers. Indeed, this is a debt which one must pay off without showing the least negligence. However, if a person is able to offer full prayers at the prescribed times, including the Sunnat and Nafl prayers, and offers the missed prayers as well, he may have the hope that Allah Almighty will reward him for his devotion and sincerity.

14. The Friday prayer, if missed, cannot be offered later. One may, however, offer four rak’ahs of the Zuhr prayer later instead of the Friday prayer which one has missed.

15. If a person joins an Id congregation to offer the Id prayer, but then due to some reason, his prayer becomes void, he cannot offer it later as a missed prayer, nor can he offer it alone within the time limit, for the Id prayer is conditioned upon congregation.

(Source: Everyday Fiqh: Hanafi Viewpoint: By Mohammad Yusuf Islahi)