are many groups who do not know that prayer is obligatory for them. According to the correct view, they are not required to make up their missed prayers, whether they are considered to have been unbelievers or to have been excused on account of ignorance.

Likewise, if someone is a hypocrite who secretly disbelieves—outwardly professing Islam while inwardly holding the opposite—and does not pray, sometimes prays without ablution, or does not believe that prayer is obligatory, then, if he repents of his hypocrisy and begins to pray, he is not required to make up his missed prayers according to the majority of scholars.

An apostate who believed that prayer was obligatory, then abandoned Islam and subsequently returned, is likewise not required to make up the prayers he omitted during his apostasy according to the majority of scholars, including Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, and Ahmad according to the apparent position of his school. Those who apostatized during the Prophet’s lifetime, peace and blessings be upon him, such as ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sa‘d ibn Abī Sarh and others, remained in unbelief for a time and then embraced Islam, yet he did not command any of them to make up what they had omitted. Likewise, those who apostatized during Abū Bakr’s time were not commanded to make up prayers or other missed obligations.

As for someone who knew that prayer was obligatory but omitted it, without relying on an interpretation, until its prescribed time had elapsed, he must make it up according to the four imams. A group of scholars, including Ibn Hazm and others, held that a prayer performed after its time by such people is not valid. They held the same view concerning someone who deliberately omitted fasting. And Allah, glorified and exalted is He, knows best.