How Do I Perform My Missed Prayers with Ease?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

I have years of prayers due on me when I was not a good Muslim. I add them every day with my obligatory salat. Like if I pray for fajr, I pray for 3 days of fajr with it. Same with every prayer. Recently I learned that you need to pronounce well for prayer to be valid, especially Surat al-Fatiha. I take so much time in the prayers, approx. 2-3 hours in each salat because I pray previous ones also. My whole day goes like this.

Because of this, I continuously keep praying, especially from Asr to Isha. My Asr starts at around 5:15, and I keep praying till 11 at night, with a max 10-20 min break in between, and sometimes no break. I need help I don’t know what to do, today I prayed Zuhr for almost 3 hours. Please help me.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question and for seeking an Islamic answer, and may you be rewarded with ease in your great effort to make up your past prayers.

There is another valid opinion that simply moving one’s tongue and lips is enough. This opinion is strong enough to use to avoid making up past performances. It is better to stick to the stronger opinion for current performances.

Reading Loudly and Silently

Reading loudly means with a voice that someone close to you can hear, whereas reading silently refers to reading in a voice that you can hear yourself.

One can choose whether to recite aloud or silently in loud prayers, though the former is better for men.

The minimum recitation for the Quran, invocations, etc., is the same as the minimum quiet recitation in prayer: You need to be usually able to hear yourself. [‘Ala’ al-Din Ibn ‘Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-‘Ala’iyya]

Steadily Perform your Prayers

It seems you are performing your prayers very slowly; steadily performing them should take less time than how you are performing them now. Give your Surat al-Fatiha to an Imam or a righteous brother to listen to and correct, then don’t worry thereafter. Learn from others how they perform their past makeups (qada’), and ask your local Imam and righteous friends to guide and direct you. This probably creates misgivings in you, as it can add to frustration, and Shaytan will play in your mind.

I would like you to go through the valuable answers and links below. You will receive guidance and direction in sha Allah.

Related:

• A Reader on Missed Prayers
• Prayer Reader: The Ultimate Guide To Prayer in Islam
• How Does One Make Up for a Large Number of Prayers?
• Istikhara, The Prayer of Seeking Guidance: The Ultimate Guide – A Reader
• How Does One Perform The Prayer of Need (Salat al-Haja)?

Why not begin your search for knowledge by signing up for a course on SeekersGuidance?

I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.