Missing Prayers

You'd think that with (at the very least) about an hour and a half to do it, you wouldn't be able to miss any prayers. 10 minute wuduu, 7 minute prayer (I take it slow and steady, sue me :P) that leaves you with, what?, nearly an hour and 15 minutes to a) find a sink, and b) find a place to pray, how hard can that be?


But, thanks to our good (HAH!) man (HAH!) Satan, the inevitable happens and we find ourselves missing our prayers. What does this mean? What do we do? Well, let's find out.


There are a few ways to find yourself with a missed prayer:


1) You slept through the prayer.


This is easy to deal with. You simply pray when you wake up:


In Fiqh Us-Sunna, Supererogatory Prayer, pg 99, we find the author quoting a hadith that says:


"There is no negligence while one is asleep but forgetfulness occurs when one is awake. If one of you forgets the prayer or sleeps through its time, then he should perform the salah when he recalls it." 


In a nutshell: sleep through the prayer? Pray it when you wake up.
Now you have to make an effort of course, it doesn't make much sense to say: go to bed without planning to wake up and pray, then just pray when you wake up. That's the same as intentionally missing a prayer because you are intending to sleep through it. 


2) You've forgotten the salah


You're still in the clear, it was an accident, accidents happen. The ruling is the same as for sleeping through it, just do the prayer when you remember.


Here's one issue though, you've lost your prayer by sleeping through it, or forgetting it, and it's now time for the next prayer. What do you do? Do you do the prayer you missed, or the current prayer?


On pages 100 to 101 of the Supererogatory Prayer book of Fiqh Us Sunnah, there's a great big messy rationalization that some guy (Ibn Hamza) went through to try and explain the sin of intentionally missing a prayer. Near the beginning, however, he says:


"Abu Hanifah, Malik, and Ash-Shafi'i say that he can make up the prayer after its time has expired, and Malik and Abu Hanifah even say that if a person intentionally misses a prayer or a few prayers, then he is to make up those prayers before he prays the present salah, even if he has missed all five prayers and should, while making them up, miss the present salah. They say that if he missed more than five prayers, he is to begin by praying the salah whose time is present (and then he is to make up the prayers he missed)."


Also, take a look at this link: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Islamonline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503546664


this guy had the same question, and the Imam gave the same answer.

3) You fell unconscious and missed the prayer

This one's even EASIER. You don't even have to make it up! (Don't even think about it: INTENDING to make yourself fall unconscious to get out of prayer counts as intending to miss the prayer). This refers to the good old fashioned pass-out, due to hunger, heat, illness, whatever. One second your awake enjoying a good chat, next thing you know you're waking up with everyone standing over you with concerned faces. 

From Fiqh Us Sunnah, Supererogatory Prayer, page 99:

If one falls unconscious, then he need not repeat the salah, unless he regains his consciousness with enough time to purify himself and perform the salah within it's proper time.

Abdurrazzaq relates from Nafi' that Ibn Umar once fell sick and become unconscious and missed the prayer. When he regained his consciousness, he did not make up the missed prayer.

4) You delayed the prayer


The way I see it, there are only 2 prayers you can TRULY lose; Asr and Isha. You see, we are actually allowed to combine duhur with Asr, and Maghrib with Isha (according to Fiqh Us-Sunnah "Due to some pressing need"). If you're going to miss duhur, you can combine it with Asr, and if you're going to miss Mugharib, you can combine it with Isha, but if you're going to miss Asr or Isha, there's nothing to save you. 


Page 118 of Fiqh Us-Sunnah, Supererogatory Prayer:


Imam Muslim has said "The Messenger of Allah (SWT) combined the Zuhr and Asr and then the Maghrib and Isha in Madinah without there being any danger or rain." Ibn Abbas was asked: "What did he desire by that action?" He replied: "He did not want any hardship for his ummah."


There, now you don't  have any excuse!


Although every time I do this, I can't help but feel a LITTLE cheap....:S
But what happens if you do miss it. You've left your prayer, and now it's gone. Never coming back, and you can almost hear the devil cackling as he runs away. Well buddy, you're pretty much hooped: the majority of the scholars believe that it is a sin and the missed salah must be made up. MADE up, not repeated:


"By law, there is no way for one who leaves a salah intentionally to make its qadah. He may, however, resort to increasing his voluntary and supererogatory acts."- Ibn Taimiyyah


Ibn Hamza then says "Concerning one who leaves a salah intentionally until its time expires, he will never be able to make up for that salah. Such a person should turn to Allah and ask His forgiveness and increase his good deeds and nawafil in order to increase his weight (of good) on the Day of Resurrection." 


Then there's the quote I mentioned earlier about re-praying the lost prayers in order. But Ibn Hamza quotes the Quran saying "Woe unto the worshippers who are heedless of their prayers," (Quran 107:5) and "And then there succeeded them a later generation who wasted the prayers and followed their own lusts, but they will meet with destruction."(Quran 19:59). And said that if you can intentionally miss it and make it up, why will is it mentioned with affliction and transgression? And then it gets all complicated. SO......


My recommendation to you is to:
a) do the prayer you left (it can't hurt)
b) ask for God's Forgiveness
c) do good deeds to try and outweigh the sin
d) DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.