What Should I Do after Missing Prayers Due to a Bad Upbringing?
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
Due to my family’s non-practicing Turkish life, I was raised like that, too. I never prayed salah because
1. I didn’t know I had to, I thought you could decide if you wanted to.
2. They never taught me. And I live in Belgium, so it was filled with kaffirs and nobody to help. I had a teacher of Islam, but she was Shia, and I was told not to listen to her.
I only got to know around 2022 that Prayer is a must, so I learned it all myself and started fully praying.
I remember going to an Eid once, and I asked what to do, I got told to just say the Takbir, like, what is that?
So, do I need to make up the prayers in the past? I am 15 now and was 0-13/4 then.
Please help, Jazakallahu khayr.
Answer
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
You must make up the missed prayers since entering adulthood to settle your debt to Allah, Most High. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]
You are only 15 years old. The amount of prayers you will have to make up is very low.
A boy becomes an adult by experiencing an ejaculation or causing a pregnancy. Thus, if this has happened to you, you will have to make up your prayers from the date of this event.
If none of this has happened to you, you have become an adult after closing 15 years old in lunar years and entering your 16th lunar year. [Maydani, Lubab]
This means that you would have necessarily become an adult at the age of 15 years old, 6 months and 15 days roughly in solar years.
Who Is Excused for Ignorance?
Classically only converts to Islam, entering Islam while living in a non-Muslim country, are excused for ignoring the rulings of Islam. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]
But because of the availability of information in our time regarding the rulings of Islam, many contemporary scholars do not deem them excused also.
As for yourself, you were born in a Muslim family, with both parents clearly identifying themselves as Muslim. You are, thus, according to Islamic law, a Muslim yourself. [Maydani, Lubab]
This is a tremendous blessing for you as all your good actions performed as a child, since your birth will be rewarded. As for your sins, they are all excused until you have reached adulthood. [ Al-Nawawi, Al-Majmu’]
A woman showed her son to the Messenger of Allah (Blessings and Peace be upon Him) during the pilgrimage (Hajj) and asked, “O Allah’s Messenger! Will he be rewarded for Hajj?” The Messenger of Allah (Blessings and Peace be upon Him) replied, “Yes, and you will be rewarded as well.” [Bukhari]
Confused about the Number of Makeup
If you don’t know how many prayers you have to make up, simply act according to your best guess. [Tahtawi, Hashya ala Maraqi al-Falah]
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found. Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani. He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others. He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.
