['Aalim Network QR] Lapsed Prayers

[abbas@dircon.co.uk (Abbas Jaffer)]

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|       In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the All-Merciful       |\
|  Greeting of Allah be upon Muhammad and the pure members of his House |\
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Salamun Alaykum,

The question below was kindly answered by Br. Hamid Mavani.

Regards

Abbas Jaffer
Moderator - ABDG-A

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Question:

I embraced Islam 12 years ago, but haven't always been as serious about
namaz as I should have.  Particularly at times when I was under a lot of
pressure, like after my children were born, I let several prayers slide for
a long time.  Now that I am regular in my namaz, I want to make up all the
prayers I missed, but my problem is that there is no way to calculate how
many there are.  I know I am supposed to make them up in the order they were
missed, and in the form they were missed ( for example, shortened prayers of
the traveller ), but I can't even guess at that.

Now, clearly, I want to make them up as quickly as possible, but it just
isn't going to be possible for me to set aside great parts of the day to do
this.  I have two small children and a very demanding husband, and I am
under a lot of pressure all the time.  However, when I get up for Fajr, I
can usually count on some time alone, so I should be able to set up a
routine where I make up some of the prayers every day.

Also, I don't want to rush through them, meaninglessly, so I want to know
how I can pray in the most minimal way possible.  Just how much can I leave
out and still have the namaz be valid?  I wouldn't ask that if I only had a
few to make up; I'm really not trying to be lazy.

I follow the taqlid of Ayatullah Seestani.

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Answer:

Make the best estimation possible on your lapsed prayers and
then discharge this obligation.  It is noble of you to acknowledge
your past error and a commitment not to repeat the same.  Indeed,
Allah (s.w.t.) is most Forgiving and Merciful: "Say: O my servants!
who have acted extravagantly against their own souls, do not despair
of the mercy of Allah; surely Allah forgives the faults altogether;
surely He is the Forgiving, the Merciful." (Qur'an, 39:53)

The obligatory recitation parts of the prayer are as follows:

The first takbir (Allahu Akbar), two suras (you can recite the
shortest surah from the Qur'an [Kawthar] after surah al-hamd), in the
ruku say "subhan-al-laah" three times, in prostration the same. The
tashahud is obligatory, however, only one out of the last two salaams
is mandatory.  Qunut is not obligatory.  For the third and fourth
rakat, the tasbihat-ul-arba'ah needs to be recited three times.  The
other recitations that we normally recite are not compulsory.

wa bi-l-laahi-t-tawfiq,

Hamid Mavani