In the name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh
All praise and gratitude are due to Allah SWT. May the blessings and peace of Allah SWT be upon His Messenger PBUH.
It is important to mention at the outset the importance of Salah in our religion. Allah SWT says in His Book, “Verily, As-Salah (the prayer) is enjoined on the believers at fixed hours” (Quran 4:103). It is vital that the prayer is prayed as its time comes, as it is a compulsory act of worship which must be performed within a certain time frame.
As to the question: It has been responded to at in length by scholar Al-Sayyid Sabiq in his Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 2. This response includes an abridged version of that one.
Concerning missing a Salah intentionally, the majority of the scholars say that it is a sin, and the missed Salah must be made up for. Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Malik, and Imam ash-Shaf’i say that they 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 they can 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]. These scholars rely on the following hadith, amongst others: “Whoever forgets to pray a salah, it is obligatory upon they pray that Salah when they remember. There is no other way that this can be made up.” (Narrated in Bukhari and Muslim). While this is the majority scholarly view, the Hanbali view dissents.
Ibn Taimiyyah’s opinion is that there is no way for one who leaves a Salah intentionally to make its Qadaa’ (to pray the missed prayer in compensation for missing it). He may, however, resort to increasing his voluntary acts.
Ibn Hazm has also thoroughly discussed this question. He bases his opinion on the words of Allah, the Exalted: “Woe unto the worshippers who are heedless of their prayers,” and, “And then there succeeded them a later generation who wasted the prayers and followed their own lusts, but they will meet with destruction.” His emphatic polemic continues,
“If one who intentionally misses a Salah could make it up later, then why is it mentioned [in the above Verses] with affliction or transgression? Of course, there is no affliction or transgression on one who delays the Salah. But the case of one who procrastinates until the last portion of its permissible time expires is quite different. Allah, the Exalted, has appointed certain times for the Fardh Salah; both the beginning time and the ending time for the Salah have been established, and there is no difference between praying a Salah before its time and praying it after its proper time elapses because, in both cases the Salah is not performed within its prescribed time. Allah, the Exalted, says: “Whoever transgresses the limits set by Allah has verily wronged his own soul!”. The principle of making Qadaa’ must be established by the proper sources of Islamic law. Legislating [in shari’ah] is not permissible, save by Allah’s authority as evidenced by His Prophet.
“If making up a Salah is obligatory for one who has left a Salah, even after its time has expired, why is it that Allah and His Messenger have chosen not to mention that fact as (surely) they did not forget it: “And your Lord is not forgetful!”. Any law that is not based on the Qur’an or the Sunnah is not valid. It has been authentically reported that the Prophet said, “Whoever misses the Asr Salah, it is as if he has lost his family and his property.” It is correct to say that if one “misses” something, he cannot make it up, for if he makes it up or could make it up, the act would not be “missed.” The entire Muslim Ummah is in agreement with the statement and ruling that if the time of the Salah has elapsed, then the Salah is “over” [i.e., “qada” in Arabic], but if one can make it up, the statement that the Salah is “over” becomes false and untrue; therefore, there is no way that it could ever be made up. The people who agree with us on this include ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, his son ‘Abdullah, Sa’d ibn Abi Waqas, Salman al-Farsi, ibn Mas’ud, al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr, Budail al-‘Uqaili, Muhammad ibn Sireen, Mutraf ibn ‘Abdullah, ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdulaziz, and others. Allah has left no excuse, for anyone required to perform the Salah, to delay the Salah from its proper time for any reason whatsoever, not even during times of fighting, fear, extreme illness, or travelling. Whence has the permission been obtained that one may intentionally leave the Salah until its time is finished and who has ordered that it be performed after its time and how is it that the belated Salah would be sufficient? None of this is derived from the Qur’an, Sunnah, Qiyas (analogical reasoning), and so forth.”
In light of the above extract from Ibn Hazm’s argument, it is worth noting Ibn Taymiyyah’s caution, “The scholars who say that he should make up the prayer do not say that by making it up he is absolved of sin, rather they say that by making it up his burden of sin is reduced, but the sin of missing and delaying the prayer beyond its prescribed time is like any other sin, it needs either repentance or good deeds that will erase it or other things that will waive the punishment.”
On account of all the evidence, our advice would be to make up the missed prayers with the current Fardh prayers you pray. For example, after Asr, pray an additional Qadaa’ Asr prayer, and do so for the number of years’ worth of prayers you have missed. It is then imperative you make your prayers a priority in your daily life and strive to pray all prayers as their time comes.
And Allah Knows Best.