so no benefit is gained from it; carrying it out without any textual warrant would therefore be futile. The situation differs from that of the one who forgot or overslept, for the Lawgiver has expressly commanded both of them to make up the prayer and made it clear that nothing expiates their lapse except the make-up itself. End quote.
As for the hadith invoked by those who obligate a make-up—“The debt owed to Allah is more deserving of being repaid”—he offered absolutely no reply to it. For that reason he classified the question among the “tight spots” and reproved anyone who claimed that the whole topic of making up missed acts of worship rests on no Qur’anic verse or prophetic report, accusing him of negligence because he could not answer the hadith just cited. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr had already preceded him in drawing on this narration.
Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, refuted that inference in his treatise on Prayer, leaving no room whatsoever for doubt that the hadith does not prove what they claim. In essence, he shows that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—uttered the statement only about people who have a legitimate excuse, not about those who are negligent. A debt of that kind, he argues, can indeed be repaid. Moreover, the words in question concern an open-ended vow that has no fixed timeframe, and the pilgrimage, whose season does not expire except with the end of one’s life. See pp. 109–110 of the treatise, where he sets out the dispute in exhaustive detail, presenting and critiquing the proofs of both sides more thoroughly than any other work; cf. pp. 85–122.
- If a person forgets two prayers or more, he should perform them in their proper sequence and then pray the current prayer. This is exactly what the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—did during the Battle of the Trench, when the fighting kept him from his prayers.