they were left due to an excuse or without one. That is, even one who deliberately allows the prayer to pass beyond its prescribed time is told: “You have sinned, and you must make it up.” This is the position of the four imams and the majority of scholars. (1) …

The second view on the matter is that if a time-bound act of worship is missed due to an excuse, it must be made up; but if it is missed without an excuse, it is not to be made up. (2) This is not by way of leniency toward the one who delayed it, but as a punitive measure against him and an expression of condemnation for his deed. There is a difference between leniency and punitive condemnation. Thus, we say to the one who deliberately abandoned it: “Do not make it up, for even if you were to make it up a thousand times, Allah would not accept it from you—even if you repent. But if you repent, then do righteous deeds.”

The evidence of those who hold that he must make it up even if he had no excuse is as follows:

First: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it, let him pray it when he remembers it.” (3) If the one excused by sleep or forgetfulness is required to make it up, then the one without an excuse is even more deserving of that requirement.

Second: They also said that when he leaves the prayer until its time has expired, it becomes a debt he owes, and a debt has no prescribed time limit. A person must discharge it immediately, even after its due time has passed. Consider: if you had a transaction with someone in which the debt fell due on the first night of the month of Rabi al-Awwal, and then the night passed without your having paid it, would it be waived?