It is not permissible to postpone a prayer beyond its prescribed time. Allah the Exalted says, “Indeed, the prayer is enjoined on the believers at fixed times” (Qur’an 4:103). In other words, it is obligatory at specific intervals that may not be transgressed—except for someone who intends to combine it with the following prayer in a legitimate form of delayed combination, provided the two prayers are among those that may be combined and the concession applies to him. By contrast, delaying a night prayer until daytime, a daytime prayer until night, or the dawn prayer until after sunrise is never lawful under any circumstance—whether because of janabah (major ritual impurity), impurity on one’s clothes, or any other reason. Rather, one must pray on time in whatever state he finds himself.

Some uninformed people, while undergoing treatment in hospital, may be confined to a bed they can still descend from; or they might be unable to change garments that are impure; or they may lack earth with which to perform tayammum (dry ablution) and have no one to bring it to them. They therefore delay the prayer, saying, “I will perform it later when the excuse is removed.” This is a grave error and a neglect of the prayer, rooted in ignorance and in failing to seek guidance. Such a person is required to pray on time in whatever manner he can, and his prayer is valid in that condition—even if he performs it without tayammum or in soiled clothes. Allah the Most High says, “So fear Allah as much as you are able” (Qur’an 64:16). Even if he must pray facing a direction other than the qiblah because he cannot turn toward it, his prayer remains sound.